Planning Session 3

Here is the final draft of the script for our final production.

Script

The film opens with our main character, Scott, walking down a street. Scott is wearing smart but casual clothing, and should be wearing a backpack with a few items inside. The opening titles play over the top, with text appearing in a green, computerised font (similar to http://www.dafont.com/ds-digital.font), before the title of the film appears over the top of the footage.

Scott eventually comes to stop at a bench, and begins to remove items from his backpack; a newspaper, a cluster of papers (CVs) and a laptop/netbook of some sort. He opens the newspaper and studies the front page for a second - “Hackers Access Local Police Security Database”.

Scott: Again?

Scherbius: *suddenly appearing beside Scott* Nasty things, hackers.

Scott: Uh, yeah, I guess- sorry, who are you?

Scherbius: They have no direction, no cause and no effect. It’s amazing they get as far as they do. *slight pause* And then there are those who do have direction, those with a moral to what they do.

Scott: You mean like... white hats?

Scherbius: *smirking* Something like that. *pauses* You know, I used to have this idea - it’s kinda silly, really - what if people could hack in real life? Twist reality to their whim? Y’know, like, just a press of a button and all their problems are gone *laughing slightly, then pauses* I guess it’s just another impossible dream of mine.

Scott: *sighs* Yeah... That sounds great and all but I don’t see-

Camera changes angle, shows Scott from the side. Scherbius is suddenly sitting on the other side of Scott.

Scherbius: Who says people can’t? *Scott jumps*

Scott: How did you-? *Scott starts quickly putting things back into his bag, leaving the CVs, and begins to walk away. Scherbius follows* I need to go, something...weird is going on here.

*Scherbius begins to fall behind Scott, who hurries away. Suddenly, Scherbius comes round the corner in front of him. Scott stops*

Scott: *startled* Okay, I don’t know how you’re doing that, but you need to stop. I don’t know what you want from me-

Scherbius: What I want, Scott, is your co-operation.

Scott: Look... whoever you are? I-

Scherbius: Please call me Scherbius. I represent a group of, you could say, hackers known as the Phantoms-

Scott: *slightly angry* -and you want me for what, exactly?

Scherbius: We want you to come work for us. *pause* As you may have gathered, we’re not any ordinary group of hackers, but with your background-

Scott: Scherbius... I think you have the wrong guy, I don’t know anything about hackers-

Scherbius: But what about your papers? *holds out CV*

Scott: What papers- How did you-?

Scherbius: Experience with computers, Graduate of the top percent, made your first breakthrough at sixteen with the Police-

Scott: Yeah, and look how that worked out *sigh* I don’t want your job.

Scherbius: Shame, I thought you had potential and we have so much to offer you.

Scott: Oh really? What can you “Phantoms” do?

Scherbius: Time manipulation.

Scott: Yeah right *Scherbius snaps his fingers* Oh really? What can... *stops, looks confused*

Scherbius: Time manipulation. Deja vu?

*They pause. Scott sighs*

Scott: So what happens if I say no?

Scherbius: Not much - You walk away, you never see me again and you never find out what happens next.

Scott: And if I say yes?

Scherbius: Your training begins tomorrow, but know this - there are those who will work against you - and there is no turning back.

Scott: *sighs, pauses* Alright, sign me up, I guess.

Scherbius: Perfect, I will meet you tomorrow morning. Until then, you may prepare yourself for the upcoming hardships.

Scott: *turning* But what if- *sees Scherbius is gone*

*Scott pauses, before turning and walking back the way he came. Suddenly, his phone buzzes. He pulls it out to see a single text, reading “S: I’ll be in touch” cuts to black*

END

Here is also are character profiles for the two characters featured in our production.

Characters

Scott Chase - The main protagonist. A young adult (late teens), dressed in smart but casual wear. A trainee computer technician, Scott is looking for work when he is confronted by Scherbius.

Scherbius (subject to change)- The head of the “Phantoms” group. A mysterious figure - not a lot is actually given about his character, apart from his role as the leader of the Phantoms and his distaste for street magicians.

Planning Session 2

In today's session we have managed to finally agree on a finalized plot line and have begun writing the script. 

Here is the plot below:

Plot [draft]

The film opens with Scott Chase walking down the street - he should be rushing a bit, and his expression should look quite down. While this is happening, the opening theme should play, with titles appearing on top of the footage as if it is being typed in over the text. Scott eventually comes to a stop at a bench, and begins to read a newspaper article about hackers. Suddenly, Scherbius appears sitting beside the main character and starts talking about hackers, joking about the subject about “hacking reality”. The camera changes angle to show that suddenly Scherbius is sitting on the other side of Scott, as if he suddenly teleported, and talking about it as if it’s a real thing. As Scott tries to walk away, Scherbius follows him, telling him about a league of people who can hack real life, known as “Phantoms”, and starts demonstrating different abilities, which Scott shrugs off as “street magic”. Finally, Scott confronts Scherbius about his intentions, who then reveals he is looking to recruit Scott as a Phantom. Scott, slightly reluctant at first, eventually agrees to join Scherbius. Scherbius welcomes Scott, before the scene cuts back to Scott sitting on the bench, as he was earlier in the film.

Planning Session 1

• The genre of our short movie is a psychological thriller with sci-fi themes.
• Our themes will be exploring technology, like computers and the internet. We will also be exploring the people known as hackers and themes of insanity, conspiracy and secret organizations.
• Our main protagonist will be someone you can empathize with but also has flaws of his own. He will have a dead-end career/education and will most likely have a interest or occupation in technology.
• The hacker character, who will be a sort of g-man, will be a mysterious character who will be offering a job for our main protagonist which won't be clearly outlined but will become more apparent as the plot develops.
• The costume of our main character will be casual wear to make him more appealing and relatable to our audience.
• The costume of our hacker character needs to be unsuspecting in a crowd but also has to have a iconic look so that people recognize him within the context of the movie.
• A load of our props will consist of technological advances like computers, laptops and smart phones. 

Horror/Thriller Research

The crime-thriller pulp fiction is the 3rd highest rated movie of all time on IMDB. This leads me to believe that the average movie-goer  to see a engaging thriller with a unique feature, in Pulp Fiction's case is non-chronological plot-line  So when I am creating my movie, I need to think about how I am going to set my movie so it sticks out from the rest.

The highest-grossing thriller of all time, according to Wikipedia is Inception, which was directed by Christopher Nolan and is the 35th highest grossing film of all time. This tells me that for my thriller to be successful that it has to have a good and interesting central plot to appeal to the mainstream audience.

A Infograph about Horror movie sales

This infograph tells what is popular in terms of horror in different times and some of the highest-grossing films of each year. This gives me an idea of what movies I should research so I have some inspiration and knowledge of what scares the populace.