Treatment and research

Production company name:
Insignia 
We chose the name 'Insignia' for our company production name as it defines us well. The definition is "a distinguishing badge or emblem of military rank, office, or membership of an organization." which brings connotations of power and treats us as a group as a whole. 


Production team members:
 Claire, Eve and Megan

Title of production:
Infraction

We used the dictionary to find synonyms relating to crime and hostage, which is what our film is about. The dictionary helped us to build a mindmap of potential film name ideas which we thought would fit our genre and narrative. Out of the idea's we had, we chose three of the best. With these we asked members of our target audience what one they preferred. We used the results to decide on name of 'Infraction'.

Our results were as followed:

Results     Score

Default         4
Omission      1
Infraction     5

We were happy with the name Infraction as it is short and snappy, alike to other successful film names in this genre such as 'Se7en' and 'Argo'. The word itself also relates to the crime thriller genre and should give the audience a clue of what the narrative entails. 

Genre:
Crime Thriller

Synopsis:
An young quiet boy that seems ordinary attends college is in fact hiding a big secret. He is secretly a hit man and has received a phone call offering a large sum of money to kill someone. The hit man approaches this individual but later realises he is part of a gang. The gang find out who is was that killed him and in revenge the gang kidnap the hit man and he must escape. 

Detailed narrative outline:
A young eighteen year old boy who attended college has received a job that would change his life. He received a phone call at college from his boss saying 'I have another job for you' and offers a huge sum of money, £100,000. This amount of money would mean that he could buy himself a huge amount of things and this is what the character is driven by. Up until now the hit-man hasn't yet killed anyone and has just helped in the crimes that his boss took part in. The boss says 'this is the chance for you to prove yourself' and gives him an ultimatum. He wants him to kill the man that beat up his wife, he is sure he knows who he is and wants him to pay the price through revenge not the police. He says to the young boy that he is sure they are onto them both and he needs to die. The hitman follows the individual home down the alleyway and shoots him but see's a gang symbol on his arm when he checks the body. The gang discover that one of there member have been murdered and seek revenge by tracking down the hit man and kidnapping him. He must escape before they kill him in revenge. Todorov's theory could be applied to this narrative, with the equilibrium being when all is good and him being a fairly normal boy. The dis-equilbirum is the attack of the boss' wife and the killing of Jerome and the kidnapping of Wayne. 

There is evidence of some of Strauss' binary opposites, with there being a fight between love vs hate and life vs death with all characters there. There is also the decision between money and life, as the whole story is driven by money and it's what all of these people want - in order to afford the things they want in life. The narrative itself is very open, which links to Barthes theory of 'the tangled ball of thread' some of the audience may see the reasons why the characters have been forced into these decisions as such. The enigma code could be used throughout as the whole narrative and genre is based around crime and suspense. The Cultural code could also be incorporated as the background of each of these characters has an impact on almost all their decisions. Propp's narrative themes and characters are also evident in the narrative with "The princess or Damsel in Distress" could be the wife who needs saving and the father could be The Boss. The false hero is Wayne himself as he tries to fix this but ends up doing something that cannot be undone. 

Intended target audience:
The target audience of the film is 15 and above. We found that most crime thrillers are either 15 or 18's due to the nature of the films and what's included in them - such as violence and murders. The target audiences demographics range from A-E in terms of social class as this could appeal to anyone based on their interests and what they like in a film isn't wholly dictated by the money you earn. We intend to target to both males and females however have found that males are stereotypically more interested in Crime Thrillers. They will have daring, fun, thrill seeking personalities and could enjoy watching my film with their friends. Their lifestyle could be anything from a young person that can relate to the upbringing of the teens or a banker who is simply interested in the narrative and seeks thrill from an exciting film like this. Their lifestyle itself could be very different but they ill have an interest in crime and watching it.

Key characters:

• The hitman - Wayne, 18 years old, from a deprived background, seen as very quiet in school and keeps himself to himself, adheres to the character type of 'false hero' but by the end of the narrative is the damsel in distress. 

• The Boss - Name is never known to add a sense of mystery and eeriness to the narrative. Very stubborn, stearn and full of authority. You never see him fully only ever see his mouth or body. This charcter could be seen as the true villain. with the mind behind the madness. 

• Victim - Jerome, 18 years old. Very scary individual, with loads of friends which are part of the gang.

• Gang members - Roxie, Dominick, Regan ages ranging from 18-21 years old 

Mise-en-scene:

The costume will be very dark clothing. The hit man will wear smart clothes to hide the fact the is a hit man whereas the gang members will wear much more 'street' clothing as they are less of a criminal gang driven by money and care more about protecting their area. They have a significant 'gang sign' which is present around the area. We will need props such as rope and tape to stage the kidnapping and a gun for the murder. I want to create suspense, mystery and thrill throughout the whole trailer but will need to build this up effectively in order for it to be engaging. The gang 'symbol' is one of the main symbols throughout the film as it's so relevant to how the story pans out. 

Location:

We are setting our film and trailer in Birmingham as its a huge city with a great range of locations that could be suitable for each of our scenes. We will also use our school (Plantsbrook) for the college that the hitman attends and the alley on ebrook road will be where the murder takes place. The kidnapping and hostage will be set in a dark basement or dark room to create an eary and scary place. At times we will need to film at night as I don't think some of these activities would be happening in broad day light.