The synopsis for the full film will be focused around the character McTavish who will look to recover the lost drugs after hearing about them from the two policemen who hired him, who are shown in the opening sequence.
The narrative will take place over a period of 3 weeks while he twists and turns until he gets what he is after.
Initially he is led to believe that the rival drug gang from that of Sydney Smith who he killed earlier, headed by Serbian immigrant Roman Huschuk, are in possession of the drugs as he looks to track the gang down one by one until he gets some answers.
Meanwhile the police force, headed by hardboiled Detective Dan Johnson, is tracking McTavish himself down for the 3 murders that he committed at the abandoned warehouse. This leads to a frantic cat and mouse chase between all 3 groups as the police also begin to uncover some of the dirty secrets that are underlying even their own institution.
In the end, will McTavish escape with the drugs, will Detective Johnson get his man or will the Serbians keep what they seemingly have ?
Opening Sequence
The idea that we have decided to use for our film is that we give the audience two corrupt, morally questionable policeman look to recover a large quantity of drugs after a botched deal goes wrong for their own personal gain. These two policemen will be Sgt. Quincy Jones (Andrew Magill) and PI Slyvester Roth (Jay Corbett).
They have taken hostage a small time con, head of the failed drugs bust, Sidney Smith (Danny Phelps) for interrogation, so that they can find out where the drugs are being kept. At this point the narrative starts and the audience is given enough information to realise all that is previously mentioned. Chuck McTavish (Adam Larkin), a big time criminal and hit-man and ex-SAS soldier, who is hired to ‘rough up’ the drug dealer and find out what information he can.
We will see McTavish enter the sequence, ideally being shot in a steelworks or old warehouse, were he greets the two policemen and then gets on to interrogating the suspect. With the sequence being taken in the warehouse or steelworks, it could help us with the obscuring of the characters using the low-key lighting effects reminiscent of a film noir.
We will get a shot of the two corrupt policemen letting McTavish enter the area where the drug dealer hostage and the close the door behind him. We then get a short narrative between the two policemen before we hear a few screams and a gunshot. The policemen open the door as McTavish walks straight out covered in blood with a knife in hand. Then the policemen look to push McTavish for answers about were the drugs are being held and he tells them he knows. However, when they ask were are they then, McTavish kills both of them and lights a cigarette and walks off calmly, seemingly leaving to go and get the drugs for himself, and this is where we will leave the audience to it.
Target Audience
We will look to aim our film at the18 certificate band, and generally at males aged between 18-35. We believe that because of the plot line involving main themes and connotations of that from the seedy underworld of crime e.g. violence, drugs etc, it will involve a lot of violence and explicit language so will have to be aimed at the higher age group. The plot will involve a lot of twists and turns with the ending being totally secret until the very ending, letting the audience guess as to whether McTavish will escape, Detective Johnson will get his man or the Serbians will end up getting away with the drugs. We have been heavily influenced by films such as Reservoir Dogs, Dead Man's Shoes, American Gangster, L.A Confidential and No Country For Old Men, which could lead to us aiming our film at an already open market of fans who enjoy violence, gangsters, cool and a good plot.
Creative Techniques
As our sequence is mainly of the film noir genre we are looking to involve a lot of creative techniques to help us pull off the look:
Low-key lighting and disorientating shots will be used to create atmosphere and tension between each of the characters in most of the scenes. Camera shots such as high angle\low angle shots, point of view shot, extreme close ups and over the shoulder shot will be used for this.
Incidental music will also be used to create atmosphere and tension in the scenes.
In our sequence we will use music that heavily relies drums and bass to create a sort of ‘cool’ feel for when we are originally introduced to our main character, McTavish.
In the past, violence was one of the most problematic aspects when passing a film with an 18 certificate, whether it is sexualised or fantasized violence. Horror films were often the culprits for depicting graphic violence and this often results in a lot of grief to the examiners. Therefore, they must remove the offending scenes before giving it a certificate. With the advent of videotape, this meant that any film that was cut in the cinemas could be released uncut on video. This had led to a moral panic concerning "video nasties" as coined by tabloid newspapers. The Government passed the Video Recordings Act 1984 which meant all videos offered for sale must be assigned a classification agreed upon by an authority designated by the Home Office (the BBFC in this case). As a result of this, many films previously cut for cinema (such as The Evil Dead and Dawn of the Dead) had to be cut further in order to get a legal release.
References or scenes of suicide, which can be easily imitated by youth, can lead to a DVD being given an 18 certificate due to that potential. For example: Volume 3 of the anime Paranoia Agent is rated 18 because of suicide references and violence, mostly in the episode "Happy Family Planning", which had comic talk of suicide and a scene of a comic hanging (cut by the BBFC). The other volumes were rated 12 and 15.
