Thriller Pitch

Our idea is an opening sequence of a serial murderer getting ready to kill an innocent victim. The murderer is seeking revenge on his fathers business partner who ruined his fathers life by stealing his money and wife. This drove his father to suicide, meaning the murderer had to live with foster parents who made his life hell and tormented him throughout his childhood. He wants to make sure the business partner loses everything such as his wife and daughters, business and money. In the opening scene the innocent victim is the business partners daughter.

Example of b/w pictures we could use

We are going to use lots of short clips and pictures of what the man is doing to get ready for example him cutting out newspaper articles, looking at pictures and pinpointing his location of the murder. We will also include flashbacks of him stalking the innocent victim. To do this we will use point of view shots of the murder and make them black and white to make sure the audience understands it is a flashback. We do not want to reveal the identity of the murder to engage the audience and build up tension. It will also make them ask questions of the narrative and what will happen next.

Obviously the sub-genre of the thriller is crime/psychological. This is because it is about a serial killer - which relates to crime, and the film will have twists and a dramatic ending that the audience will not see coming. A brilliant example of what we are trying to create is the opening sequence of Se7en. There is a montage of the killer planning his murders throughout as well as the credits flashing up which become part of the montage. We are trying to create the same sort of effect however ours will not be as disturbing or chilling as our certificate has to be a 15 and the storyline of Se7en is fairly different from our idea.

Examples of the Se7en opening sequence montage

In our opening sequence we will see the main character which is the serial killer, although we will not see his face or features. The other character will be the innocent victim, however they will not be a main character in the film as they will soon be killed. If the film were to carry on other main characters would be introduced such as detectives - obviously we will not be including them in the opening sequence.

Our location will mainly be a low lit room where the killer is getting ready throughout the sequence. We have decided to use a garage as the location as it is dark and gloomy, so it will be simple to make it low lit and emphasize the theme. It will suit the genre and will show the audience a first look of how the murderer lives and this will create questions from the audience. We will also flash back to a street where the innocent victim is walking to/from her house to show that the killer is watching and analysing the daughter.

The BBFC classification will be a 15 certificate as the film will contain strong threat throughout with very strong violence and some frequent strong language. We will not see the murders in great detail but the aftermath may be seen in some scenes. This is the reason that the film is rated as a 15 rather than an 18. There is also little sex or nudity in the film.