Thriller Opening Sequence Treatment

Treatment for our film called 'Hacking the Woods’'.

The film starts with an establishing shot of a dead body of a woman in a forest with sounds of deer and squirrels coming from behind the trees. The scene cuts to a room which comes clear it is off a police station where there is two police officers talking about a brutal murder that they are in charge of investigating. As the camera pans around the office the talking is getting clearer and the audience can hear what is being said.

"I know who did it, I just need the evidence to prove it"

"Everyone knows the man who did it, I know him personally for gods sake'

"Well if only our job was made a little easier'

"If only'

Then the camera zooms out showing the whole room. The talking is getting dimmer and suddenly stops. The camera will then cut to a busy shopping street where people are talking, walking and generally going about their daily lives. The camera will pan down the street then eventually go inside a building to show two men, laughing who are hacking into a computer system and it shows their red masked faces. The camera cuts back to the police investigation room where the policemen are still talking and discussing the case. The camera zooms into a mid shot of them and shows there angry and shocked faces as if they know something bad is going to happen to them. The camera zooms out so to show both of the talking

'That is it then'

'You need to get more evidence, we need get this killer locked up for a long time'.

The two men finish the chat and get up to leave as they do so the lights go out. The door is locked and they suddenly get very cold. The camera shows a tiny bit of light coming from one small window this is when the police realise that this is linked to the murder.The camera shoots back to the men hacking into the computer, they are laughing even louder then before a mad evil laugh. Both of these men then suddenly stop and look towards the door of the police station and they see the handle of the door twitching.

‘Shhhhh, don't say a word’ says one hacker to the other

The camera then does a flash back to the scene of the girl walking in the forest, before she was murdered. As she is walking through the forest she can hear leaves rustling  and twigs snapping. The girl thinks nothing of this and carries on walking and the camera zooms in to her texting her boyfriend saying ‘be there in 10’

The scene then cuts to a still shot of the path where the girl was walking. The camera goes back and you hear the very loud scream of the girl. The Camera cuts to a shot of the girl lying face down on the floor with her phone on next to her. The camera cuts to a close up to the phone and it shows an unfinished text saying ‘This woods is creepy, I don't like it, please com.................’

The opening credits then plays with the title 'Hacking The Woods' fading in from black to bright white.

Throughout the opening sequence there is a dark eerie soundtrack playing underneath the visuals, This will build up suspense throughout the opening sequence until the opening credits start to roll when the music became louder and also becomes more cheery.

The theme that this opening sequence portrays is quite a dark sense but when the music becomes more happy and cheery you can tell that it is going to tell the story from before the girl was killed and why. This film will be very reliant on the audience being able to follow the story even though there is a lot of backtracking and flashbacks showing the past and present.

This will be a fairly steadily paced edit because this will tell enough of the story for it to be understood but short enough to build suspense.

The colours in the opening sequence will be fairly subdued because it is fairly dark and gloomy as it shows the crime. After the opening sequence the colours will change and be quite happy and bright as this shows before the crime happens and it’s a sort of back story. When the main story reaches back to the crime then the colours will slowly change back the the subdued colours as it reaches the crime being solved and the killers/hackers get caught and arrested

Target audience

The film is a crime thriller which we think will appeal mostly to older teenagers and younger adult audience of around 16-25 year olds. It is fast pace and includes themes and a storyline we think this audience will enjoy. The film overall will have a 12 rating because some people below this age will not be able to follow the film and get its full effect and the violence and language that this film contains will be too much for them to see. Over 25s are likely to also enjoy this film but it may be a little too fast paced and youthful for their liking.