Treatment For My Opening Sequence

Narrative

Our story line will be in an Restricted order as we will see everything from the main protagonists view and no one else's view, we will also be using non digetic sounds as we will use what we hear when filming,we will also be using digetic music in the beginning of the opening sequence we will be using an original piece of music that is composed by an ordinary person.  

 Our story line is based on specific students lives as some people actually do get pressured a lot at home with there parents and also get compared to there high achieving siblings which will make them feel bad about them self.

Our opening sequence will revolve around Brandon who is the main protagonist we see in the opening sequence we see his struggles we start the opening sequence by having Brandon walking up the stairs of a bridge and we see him walking closer to the edge of the bridge, just when he reaches the edge of the bridge he shuts his eyes and opens them and we see what he is seeing, we then fade to black and go into a montage where we see flashes of his life from him getting told off by his parents to his teachers at school comparing him to his siblings.

In the flash back we see the relationship he shared with his siblings and his parents we see his mum always being the one who tries to bring the best out oh his family except him and we see his dad always making him feel small and just like they are not worth it. 
We do a scene where he is in school and a teacher is telling him off as he got bad results in his test and we see her just comparing him to his high achieving family.

We also have a scene where he is by himself in his room isolated where we see that he is attempting to cut his wrist as he is trying to find a route of escape, but then we see him try and result into other things such as running away and just keep on moving on but he cant, we also see him alone in school with no friends and we see how he gets picked on because he is different from his perfect high achieving family. In the film we see him try and seek help by going counselling but as we see that it does not help him it just makes him hate his life a lot more we see how he does try and talk to his mum but because she is too focused on her other kids and making them become higher and we see how she ignores him. 

We then see how he goes and talks to his dad which turns out to be a big mistake as we see his father resulting to the bottle which causes him to lash out at the son for no reason and we also see how he is not home a lot and the lack of a man in the house really starts to get to the son, we then see the scene where we see the son walking towards the bridge and we see him getting closer and closer to the edge and as we see him on the edge trying to jump off and we see that as he does jump off people on the street quickly get an ambulance to get him in but even as he gets to the hospital we see that only his mum comes but even as she is there she's having a go at him for doing something which she thinks is silly and was pointless we see that she does not even ask him as to why he did it, we see social care workers get involved and end up taking Brandon away to a foster home as we see he becomes more happier there because he gets the love and attention from the care workers that he never got from his 'perfect family' at the end we see that the only thing that has changed is that he is no longer part of the family and is with social workers who care for him.

Brief Synopsis: 

A perfect family, with perfect lives, except for the outcast. Pressured, stressed and an emotional wreck, constantly compared to his high achieving siblings, he just wants out. He tries everything but he cant work it out, he just cant escape from the pressure, so what's next; escape from... life?

The main focus of our film is our protagonist, a teenage boy who is trying to fit into society but all his parents want is for him to strive academically, even though that is a major downfall for him. Constantly being compared to his smarter siblings, all he wants to do is shut everything out and focus on the things he is good at. He cant escape from the pressure he is constantly being put under, so he has thoughts about escaping in another way, ending his life completely, but he cant decide if it is the right decision or not. 

Opening Sequence:
In the opening sequence, we are going to set it in a non-linear order. The first thing the audience will see is a montage of his memories, him getting shouted at by his teachers, arguing with his parents, studying then failing a test and so on. It will then focus on him walking somewhere, towards a rooftop, where the video has no sound, but it is a voice-over of his thoughts, and we will see this from his point of view, as if its his eyes. We will then have a scenery shot of London, where the protagonist is about to make his final decision, then it cuts to black and our sequence ends where the movie would start.

Title:
Our title for our project is called Isolated we chose this title because it relates to our main character and denoted how he isolates himself from everyone because society and his family isolated him away from everyone.The title follows the conventions of a British social realism's by having the title be short and simple as most British social realism  have a one worded title it normally hints what the film may be about. Our title will appeal to our target audience as it is short simple and catchy and is something that some people can relate to because some people sometimes feel isolated.

Target Audience
Age - 15-25 year old's 
Gender - Male and female 
Interest - School, culture, mental illnesses
Location - United Kingdom-Kent 
Ethnicity - All 
Class - Working class 

Our target audience is aged towards 15-25 year old's because they are more likely to relate to it and also our main character will be in the same age range. Also, its really only 15-25 year old's that are under pressure by their parents, and this is an age where we see a lot of teens struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts. We think that our movie will relate to both genders because male and female teenagers have the same problems. In interests, school is a main one as this is one of the main things that is actually making the students parents pressure him and actually drive him into trying to take his life. Mental illnesses come into it when we see he is suffering from depression, which is a common problem in many teenagers and young adults and is still brought on my school. Location is Britain, as it is a British social realism. Ethnicity is also all as its not just Asian students that get pressured, but all, but I think its more emphasized among Asian students. We said working class because its just about peoples everyday life, and in everyday life most people are working class. Also, our target audience is in the peak of the amount of media they use, as teenagers are always on their phones or watching television. 

Outskirts Kent

Houses-settings

Bridge-Kent

Representation
Characters and types
The protagonist in our British social realism is also the lost boy, which is an archetype specifically designed for the BSR genre. We see all his struggles and downfalls, and at first we see everything through his eyes as well, which is a restricted point of view. We see the mother come off as the female with a conscience, as she is strong and supportive to the rest of the family yet still singles out the lost boy. The father then comes across as the weak but aggressive man, as we see him trying to control his family, but really it is the mother the one that takes control in the family, so it is a reverse gender role.Our film will show Asian family embracing the stereotypical view given to them by general society, by seeing them put pressure on their kids to become doctors or surgeons or lawyers, and achieve the top of the top and be above everyone else.
In our project we will also be using another three students who will be the siblings of the lost boy and we also get the background information about them and how they are more successful than our lost boy and we also see his parents favor the siblings more than the lost boy, which also makes the lost boy feel even more lower about themselves.   

Brandon-Main character(lost boy)

Technology
In our production, our main focuses of using technology will be our post-production stage, which is editing and putting together all the footage to make an actual opening sequence.We will use either iMovie or Final Cut Pro, and we will be using them on an iMac. We will have to change the colour of our clips to match our colour pallet, our chosen colour pallet is blue/grey to give the audience the vibe that its cold and it also denotes the realism a lot more.We will do this in the settings of these software's.
Camera shots we will be using will be varied, we would use close ups to show the facial expressions and an extreme close up to show the focusing point on our character, we will also be using mid shots this is to show the audience the body language of the characters , we will also be using long shots and establishing shot this allows the audience to see the location of where we film, it also allows the audience to relate to the location as it could be in there area. We will be using a camera that the school provides us with, but it will be high definition and at 23.98fps. We do have some limitations, as we would like some better filming equipment but its all extremely expensive as its all professional equipment. 

Conventions
Our film will be following most of the BSR conventions. We will be using realistic settings, as we will be filming in the suburbs of Kent, which is also where our suicide scene will take place. Some places of Kent are still very dark and gloomy, as they are full of council estates and big blocks of flats. Another convention we are following is realistic situations and events that take place are teenage troubles, suicide, mental illness, these are a lot of situations people can relate too. Our project is going to be one genre it will have no hints of any hybrids as it takes away from the realism of a BSR. 


Style & Iconography

When filming or opening sequence we will be using a camera and we will start off with seeing what our protagonist sees our scene starts off with our protagonist walking up a few steps walking towards a bridge and we see everything or character sees we will start it off with seeing the scenery of where they are and we will then do a flash back montage where we see specific parts of our protagonists life and see how they are treated and what it was that has led them to do what they are doing now, this will catch the audiences attention immediately because they would want to know what's going and what's lead them to this situation so immediately they would want to know what happens next. Our story line will be in an Restricted order as we will see everything from the main protagonists view and no one else's view as we will see everything he goes through and how he coped with it.

I would use long shots to where we see the bridge this gives the audience time to get a grasp on what's going on and we will do a track where every step they walk the camera follows them also once we reach the bridge we do the shot as though the camera is the person by closing there eyes and opening them to see the view of them looking down from the bridge.

We will be using cuts because its an easier transition to use when going to one scene to another,in our scene where our protagonist is on the bridge we do a fade to black this is to build up tension to see what happens next this will make the audience want to know what happened and they would want to know if the protagonist makes it or not.
We will use normal everyday clothing to show that they are normal everyday people the audience will feel like they could relate more to the characters, also using a school location will make it more relatable towards them.

Costume for lost boy

With the music it will be an original piece of music created by someone who is not famous we will make sure that our music is not copy righted,we will also make sure that the music suits our piece work this will make the audience feel the right atmosphere when they hear it, we will also be using non digetic sounds as we will use what we hear when filming,we will also be using digetic music in the beginning of the opening sequence we will be using an original piece of music that is composed by an ordinary person.
In our project we will be using super imposed graphics to get the audiences attention we would make sure that the typography we use is mysterious to suit the theme we are trying to put across.

Institution
Film4 is well known for there British social realism film such as the imposter and the selfish giant and because they are well known for there BSR we are required to make a BSR that follows all the conventions of one.If I was to distribute the film it would be in a bigger cinema where everyone will be able to watch and see it and its more accessible where as if we did independent it could ruin the marketing as if the film does not make it to its potential and falls through it would fail and ruin the marketing whereas being more wildly distributed more people are more likely to see and watch it.

We would like to exhibit the film in big cinemas such as odeon , cinieworld and we would also like to make the film available through downloading it on laptops and phones therefore making it more available for everyone also nearly everyone owns a mobile phone and laptop and computer people are able to download as it is easier for everyone.