Brief Pitch Synopsis

After some careful deliberation, the group began to formulate ideas for a potential five minute production. With ideas successfully circulating, we began to outline a primitive plot. We mutually agreed that amid this design, we needed to develop and nurture our characters in a way that positively anchored and reflected the story at hand. Therefore, character growth is still somewhat vague.

Put somewhat generically, the short film centres around a key protagonist. A man consumed and enveloped by sheer paranoia, potentially inflicted through people around him, or simply the universal pressures of life. To thereby set up a chain of enigmas, we will feature said protagonist deceased within a bath. However, instead of walking down the conventional route of tangible suicide, the target audience at home can question the real source behind his death, whether it be inflicted murder, or what is naturally presented to them-that being suicide.

Once witnesses to the fatality, the audience will then be introduced to another sub-character, a supposed friend of the main protagonist with a constant air of secrecy looming over his persona. This ominous sense of ambiguity should then alarm the target audience at home, with the viewer constantly considering whether this character is behind such heinous crime. I individually feel that a character with such profound effect would work fittingly, as the audience can interact with the film by weighing up the pro’s and con’s of this human being, and judge him on their behalf.

As this particular five minute sequence could potentially follow two opposing climaxes, one being suicide, one being murder, we have developed two juxtaposed endings. The suicide route could potentially feature the sub-character (pyschiatrist) trying to relieve his true friend of such paranoia, and is simply too late, finding his friend perished in the bath. While on the other hand, we could wean the audience into thinking that the sub-character is a true friend, until he ultimately betrays the leading protagonist, dropping a radio in the bath leading to his untimely death. I individually believe that if executed well, both tangents would produce enigmas and a sense of mystique, yet we will have to decide which idea would have a more profound effect on the target audience we eventually chose.

To add a certain touch of mystique, we have decided mutually that we will not follow the conventional equilibrium theory devised by Todorov. We have even pondered around the idea of two identical shots at the beginning of the sequence, and the end of the sequence, sewn together by a flashback. Yet, it is important to note that nothing is set in stone. Ideas in the group will naturally progress through the course of time, with the plot-line constantly being tweaked to anchor our targets audience, genre and locations.