2. The Treatment
• Mr Otto Palindrome is a man who believes and sees the world as being
backwards, everyone walks everywhere backwards and talks backwards
and he feels alienated in this strange backwards world. It becomes clear
that Mr Palindrome is mentally unstable and has serious delusions as it
turns out the world is not backwards and it is all in his head. He is really
the one doing everything backwards.
• The opening five minutes of the film will be about introducing the film’s
main premise, that Mr Palindrome sees the world as being backwards. It
will not be revealed that in fact it isn’t backwards, so the audience will
believe that it is for the beginning of the film. It starts with him waking up
and is generally just his average day doing normal things like waking
up, eating breakfast, travelling on a train, walking in the city. The main
entertainment will be from the fact that everything around him will be
backwards. The title sequence will be narrative.
3. What subgenre is it? What real film
openings inspired you?
• Our film is a psychological thriller, due to the
insane nature of Mr Palindrome’s brain.
• A real film opening which inspired us was
‘Memento’ by Christopher Nolan, the opening
scene is played entirely in reverse, this gave us
the initial idea of reversing footage which
inspired us to take it one step further.
4. Locations
West India Quay DLR Station
The Millennium bridge
And Kris’s house
8. Bread and a Toaster
One of the shots will feature a reversal of toast to
bread in a toaster to indicate time going
backwards.
9. DLR notice board and train
The DLR notice board will show us where Mr. Palindrome is
bound and the train is what he will get on. The scene will also
be in reverse so trains go back and the board also has time.
10. Dark Clothing
Steven can wear anything
dark but probably has to
wear it scruffy. Possibly a
baggy jumper, black skinny
jeans and black trainers to
give him that mentally
unstable look.
12. Preliminary Ideas about Sound
• Originally, I had planned for the opening
sequence to feature some original music but
coming up with a unique and fitting
composition would be very challenging and
time consuming.
• Instead, I have thought up of a few ideas.
13. • The sound recorded from the
video can be given a muffled
effect by lowering the high
and low frequencies on the
EQ, accordingly.
• Any talking can be played
backwards so it can emphasise
the time-reverse effect. This
would be a nice idea for when
someone is speaking to the
protagonist as recording sound
is difficult and so the muffled
effect and the reversing can
give off an
acceptable, distorted voice.
• Reverb and echo are some
good effects to add, especially
to foley sounds like doors
closing.
14. Production Schedule
Production (Filming):
3 Weeks – Mon 4th Feb to Sun 24th Feb
Post-Production (Editing):
1 Week – Mon 25th Feb to Sun 3rd March
Final week
Mon 4th March to Fri 8th March
15. • We will be filming during Mary and Dan’s
lessons at the locations previously stated
for the next two weeks. First at Kris’
house, then the DLR station and finally
on the bridge.
• The weeks after, editing will be the main
priority followed by the sound.
• In the final week, we will evaluate the
final product and if needed, we will redo
the problem.
16. Risk Assessment
• Theft
• Falling on the train tracks
• Dropping the equipment
• Getting the equipment wet
• Getting the equipment stolen
• Falling in the Thames
• Falling down the stairs
• Getting hit in the face with some toast
• Getting electrocuted by the toaster
• Getting beat up by station officials
• Getting run over
• Being assaulted by people
17. Skills
• So far, we have learned how to use the camera, we know all of
the basic skills such as focusing, zooming, switching SD
Cards, as well as the amount of time in which we should leave
after pressing the record button before acting the scene out.
We know how to safely set up, take down and carry around
the tripod without anybody being hurt or, more
importantly, the camera being broken.
• We have also learned a lot of blogging skills, these are seen on
our blog. They include including
sources, pictures, videos, links and even recording our own
videos to put up, or taking our own pictures to further explain
our point.
18. Institutional Details
• Our film will be produced by CandI Studios which would give
us a lower budget but would also allow us to retain all
creative control over the project. It wouldn’t affect much for
the better, apart from the fact that we gain the love and
support of Mary and Dan.
19. Audience
• Our target audience will be teens to young
men, who are the target audience for most
thrillers. It is a psychological thriller and
therefore we will hope to aim it at people
interested in thinking during movies, or as
they are known, ‘smart people’. These will
largely be young men aged around 20. We
hope they’ll have seen many psychological
thrillers in their lives and therefore have some
idea of what they are in for.
