Age Certificate

 

Initially, I thought our film would be a 12 or 12a, due to the fact that there is very little to no violence or sexual scenes and doesn't explicitly show anything that would be considered unsuitable for children. Despite this, our film will be very dark in tone and the BBFC website states that a certificate 12 film cannot be "a work which has a very dark or unsettling tone which could disturb the audience" and "would be less likely to be passed 12A even if the individual issues in the film were considered acceptable under the BBFC Guidelines"
Due to this, our film will be certified 15, due to the aforementioned "dark and unsettling tone" that we aim to incorporate into our film, playing a big part in the mood of it throughout.

Similar Films

Pi
Pi is a Psychological Thriller by Darren Aronofsky, about "A paranoid mathematician searches for a key number that will unlock the universal patterns found in nature."[iMDb]
It shares a number of features with our film, including shooting in black and white and being in the psychological thriller genre. It also explores similar themes in regards to narrative, as our film also explores obsessiveness and how it effects the mind, leading to mental downfall.







The Machinist
"An industrial worker who hasn't slept in a year begins to doubt his own sanity." [iMDb]
The machinist is another psychological thriller that is similar to our film. It again explores obsessiveness and how if effects the mental state, but the narrative is quite a bit more convoluted than Pi, which is another similarity with our film. Although not in black and white, The Machinist uses very bleak and very little colour throughout, so this is somewhat similar to our film.




Note: No clips of The Machinist on youtube, only could find a fan made trailer.

Film Noir

Components of Film Noir

As previously stated, our film will be shot in a Noir-Style. This is not to say that our film will carry similar narrative conventions of Film-Noirs as our film is a psychological thriller set in present day, which is not a usual genre or setting of common Noir films.

In terms of aesthetics, we aim to produce a film with distinctive Noir look. Film Noirs consist mainly of the following cinematographic elements-

• Low-key lighting
• Hard lighting to produce solid shadows
• Black and white
• Heavy use of shadows 
• Chiaroscuro

In order to create a film-noir look the standard 'three-point lighting' system will not be used as this simply sets out a character from the background with minimal shadows. We will not use a fill light in order to create deep, solid shadows from a hard key light. A back light will still be used most of the time in order to make the character set out from the background where appropriate. We will experiment with varied lighting structures to see what effects we can produce (silhouettes, shadows etc.). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Pi (1998, Dir. Darren Aronofsky). In terms of visuals, Pi is very similar to how we aim to shoot our film and is a great example of the noir-style. The blacks in this particular shot are deeper than usual noir but the contrast of hard light and deep blacks make for a very interesting look. Also, Pi has very similar conventions as our film as it is a psychological thriller.

 

 The Killing (1956, Dir. Stanley Kubrick). Again, Kubrick's The Killing is a great example of film-noir. Again, the shadows are very profound in this film and the blacks are very deep. There is more of a cold look to The Killing, this something we also aim to achieve in our film.

 

 

 

 

Cantered Angles/ Obscure Angles

Another feature of film-noir is the use of fairly experimental angles.

 

 

 

 

 

The Third Man (1949, Dir. Carol Reed)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Citizen Kane (1941, Dir. Orson Welles)






We also hope employ the use of these types of angles in our work. They would be especially appropriate in particular scenes depicting psychological trauma.

Genre

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Our film follows a young man who develops writer's block and experiences something of mental decline brought on by his stress; leading to various illusions and loss of concept of time and physics. Although this may read as something quite exuberant and lively, we aim to keep it fluid and somewhat bleak. In this sense, our film would (probably) not be entirely convenional of more popular psychological thriller. Also, as mentioned before, we hope to shoot our film in a noir-style which would further stray us away from the common conventions of psychological thrillers. 

However, this is not to say that our film wont adopt many conventions of psychological thrillers.

Some conventions of psychological thrillers:

• Shadows- The use of shadows in psychological thrillers is a prominent element. Particularly used to create suspense and a sense of mystery. Shadows can make for an unsettling scene, especially when used to mask a character's identity or emphasise the fact there is something unknown in a scene. Because we aim to shoot in a noir style, we will be able to experiment grately with the use of shadows with various lighting techniques 

M: M (1931, Dir. Fritz Lang) is something of a psychological thriller and shot in a noir-style. This particular film has much of the iconography that we aim to include in our film. In this particular shot from M (above), the use of shadows quite clearly emphasises a feeling of suspense. In context to this particular film we know that the shadow is of a child murderer which therefore gives a very tense and unsettling scene.

• Illusions/hallucinations- Another consistent feature used is psychological thrillers. Often used to show the mental decline of characters. Hallucinations are also used to add an element of shock and thrill as they create an odd mixture of surrealism and realism. The concept of a hallucination is of  a surrealistic nature and what may be seen by the character may also be very surreal. However, by seeing the environment how the protagonist (or any character realy) may see it creates a greater sense of realism as it puts you 'in the same shoes' as the character.

 The Shining: The Shining (1980, Dir. Stanley Kubrick) is more of s horror than a psychological thriller, however the exploration of mental decline is still prominent and the film shares much of its iconography with that of psychological thrillers. In this scene from The Shining (right), Danny ((Danny Lloyd) out of shot) is exploring the hotel when he sees two twins at the end of a hallway. It is assumed that this is a hallucination as the twins dissappear after a while. Moroever, there is an occasional quick change to a shot of the twins laying dead in the hallway surroumded by a huge amount of blood. This creates a huge element of shock and also sight into the characters mind.

Donnie Darko: Donnie Darko (2001, Dir. Richard Kelly) is, again, not just of the psychological thriller genre but more of a Sci-Fi. However, due to the films plot it is very hard to distinguish that it is a Sci-Fi due to various complexities in narratives which includes many psychological thriller elements. The most noteable compnent of Donnie Darko is Frank (left, the giant rabbit). He is a hallucination of Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) (boy in picture), who makes him perform various acts. Frank is a character used to drive the entire narrative of the film and is the cause of every key point of the film.

• Mental Decline- The exploration of the decline of a character's mental state is an obvious feature of psychological thrillers, hense the name. It is usually the psychological troubles of the protagonist which are the drive of the stories. Psychological thrillers vary in their reasons for the loss of mental stability and there isn't much of a specific, common reason. Our film is based on a man having Writer's Block which causes his mental decline, similar to The Shining. 

 Some other examples of the premise of the narratives include:
> Post Traumatic Stress (Jacob's Ladder, 1990. Dir. Adrian Lyne)
> Obsession over finding a certain number (Pi, 1998. Dir. Darren Aronofsky)
> Amnesia and the hunt for a murderer of protoganists wife (Memento, 2000. Dir. Christopher Nolan)
>Loss of family (Shutter Island, 2010. Dir. Martin Scorcese)