Discussing Our Plot

As a group we all decided that we liked analysing the film Taken (which was suggested by me and Leyla), so we came to the conclusion that we wanted our film trailer to be of a similar format by someone being kidnapped. We also decided we wanted to convey conventions as well as subverting them. The brief plot idea I came up with for the trailer was that the female protagonist best female friend gets kidnapped. The group liked my idea but Alex came up with the idea that it would be better if her boyfriend gets kidnapped instead because, although a female hero is unconventional, it has been done many times before. So in order to give our film a USP we decided to make the boyfriend be the ‘damsel in distress’ to make our film offer something original to the thriller genre. Since we decided that we didn’t want to drift away from the conventions of the thriller genre too much by disrupting theorist such as Roland Barthes. In order to convey convections we decided that the kidnapper would be the stereotypical male villain and the location would be set in a city like London.

The Plot synopsis version 1:
In a busy centre of London, 2 ordinary teenagers were going about their everyday lives. School, homework and tests were all a chore, everything was completely normal, but when one of them is invited to a party and over hears a conversation between some shady characters everything changed! Natalie an ordinary schoolgirl finds herself fighting for her boyfriend’s life. The police won't help her because his existence has been wiped! All she has is word of mouth and having to overcome many obstacles means every step that she takes, is another step towards never seeing him again. An epic love tale about a girls fight for true love!

Since then our group decided to make changes to the plot. Shanyse came up with the idea with a conspiracy theory/twist of the reason why the boyfriend got kidnapped. However our group came to the conclusion that it may be too complicated and realised that although we need to produce a good concept and plot, we need to make it simple enough for us to be able to manage our time well and produce a well structured trailer. So then I came up with the idea that the girls ex boyfriend should kidnap her boyfriend instead, my group liked this idea and thought it was a good way of describing why the kidnapper takes her boyfriend rather that it being too complicated or just a random abduction.

The Plot synopsis version 2:
Holly was an ordinary 20 year old, fresh out of the University of Greenwich. Holly's life was great she had a much desired job with times magazine and a handsome boyfriend who she adored. On the night of her 21st birthday she celebrated with all of her friends at a club, the night was young but mike holly's boyfriend could not contain himself, in the middle of this packed party he got onto one knee and proposed to his darling holly. The happy couple headed home but mike needed to fill the car with petrol, they stopped off at the nearest petrol station and filled up, she went in to pay. That was when holly's great night turned bad. She turned with a smile to her boyfriend but he didn't smile back. He was being dragged into a blacked out Mercedes and all holly could do was scream. Trying to find him brings up many obstacles which mean every step that she takes, is another step towards never seeing him again. An epic love tale about a girls fight for true love!

After Alex produced the synopsis version 2, I suggested that we should change the female protagonist name as it’s the same as a member of our group which may confuse blog readers. We then suggested that we set our plot in the suburbs as well as London. This was because it would be hard to shoot everything in London as not all our group including actors may be able to get there in the time we need them for. So we decided that if we filmed in suburban areas they are a lot more local and people would not have as much trouble getting to the location when we begin filming. This also means that we can shoot in creepy locations.