My Primary Story Line Idea

My Primary Story Line Idea:

Genre: Psychological Thriller

My first film idea is a about a criminally insane patient who has escaped from a mental health hospital; however, he believes he is  actually a colonel in the army, participating in the Vietnam war. 

I would shoot the film from a first person narrative, meaning that the audience would be viewing the plot unravel from my protagonists perspective: being led to believe he is in fact who he thinks he is. This factor creates the psychological thriller element. 

The dramatic structure means that the audience would not be aware of the fact that my protagonist is actually living in a fantasy world, nor that he is escaping the authorities. This will build a climax for when my protagonist finally remembers his true identity at the end of the film.

Throughout the plot, I will gradually leak understated clues strand by strand to hopefully hint the reality of the situation to the audience. For example, my protagonist will have flashbacks of previous events that he has experienced in his life, that ultimately led to his downfall. I will accomplish this by editing the said flashbacks in final cut express, lowering the saturation to create a grey filter and the blur tool bordering the shot. This will suggest the particular scene is a fragment of my characters imagination. 

However, in order to question the audiences' perception of mental illness- as it is well known to be a controversial topic- I would use cinematography such as a high angled shot to suggest the characters vulnerability; this would also be an example of challenging stereotypes.

                  I was inspired to create this story line from the psychological thriller 'Shutter Island':

The Beginning:

The film would begin with my protagonist (Ben) fighting in the Vietnam war. I would present the atmosphere to be very hectic and use typical conventions of a war-type setting such as guns, loud bomb sound affects appearing to be coming from the surroundings, smoke and a typical green camouflage army uniform. This would also be supporting the typical stereotype of a war setting. For this scene, I would choose to shoot in a wood/ park as it would provide me with the basic setting of a war type environment and allows me to add special affects such as mist/ smoke and sound affects to add to the verisimilitude that the film is set in the army.

The Middle:

Ben would eventually be left with the crises that he is the only surviver on his side of the army, and that he has now got to figure out the Vietnamese codes for where the Talibans are going to plot bombs in Europe since they are trying to take over the land. He now believes he has to go solo to defeat the war. Gradual clues will be leaked such as flashbacks of his life when he was sane and the crimes he committed before he lost his sanity in order to hint to the audience that he is living in a fantasy world because it will contrast with the verisimilitude of the 'war' setting, also, he is shown fumbling in his pocket in one particular scene and reveals the fact he is on medication for his mental illness which will be shown using a close up shot of the label on the bottle of medication.

The End:

Ben's sanity eventually takes a toll for the worst as he's not taking his medication and causes him to have a mental breakdown. The real situation of him being a patient on the run is gradually unraveled to the audience with flashbacks and canted angle shots to suggest something sinister. Ben is eventually found by the authorities and taken back to the mental health institution where the view of Ben's persona is completely changed due to the fact the audience are informed of the fact that he was falsely accused of the murders and has therefore led him to have a mental breakdown and was admitted to a mental institution.