Film Pitch/Treatment

Logline

A schizophrenic adolescent seeks to escape his own mind in an unlawful venture into an abandoned asylum.

Synopsis

The main character, Franklin, has schizophrenia, and against his parents will is going to make a film in an abandoned asylum with his best friend, Sam.  Now, Franklin is, throughout the film, being taunted by a boy, created by his own imagination, that only he can see. This is troublesome for Franklin, and even his medication won’t make him go away. Once inside the asylum, the two boys go to look around, filming as they go, when the anonymous boy returns to annoy franklin, who flips and starts to fight him, dropping the camera and eventually killing him. The final scene is a scene in a police station, where the police are interviewing Franklin upon the retrieval of the camera. When they look at the footage, it is clear that Franklin didn’t kill who he thought he did. 

Target Audience
The primary target audience for our film is 15-24 year olds that are of all genders and the secondary audience is 25-35 years olds, again of all genders. The audience beginning at 15 is due to the content of the film, which we believe would acquire a certificate rating of 15, yet will also be aimed at a younger audience, so this audience of young adults will fit the film very well. Furthermore, the secondary audience of adults is due to the film being a representation of mental illness and therefore the film will inform people of what people with this mental illness go through. 

Genre
The genre of our film is psychological thriller because the content of the film is about a boy with schizophrenia and the extremity of its symptoms, therefore our film fits this genre well. 

Actors
With very few Hollywood films actually casting kids to play kids, (instead they employ young adults, around 20 years old to play teenagers between 12 and 16) it's difficult for the viewer to really relate to the characters on screen, so I think it would be really important for the actors to be of the age that the characters are so that a) the narrative is more believable, and b) the viewers can relate to the character in more than just the narrative sense, i.e. in appearance and knowledge, etc. Therefore, looking at the few British tv shows with the teenage characters played by teenagers, I have found that: 

An actor that would play the character of Franklin well is Kane Tomlinson-Weaver, a young British actor that is used to acting with emotion from his role in Waterloo Road and would therefore be highly suited to a role such as this. 

An actress that would play Sam well is Finlay MacMillan, another young British actor that hasn't played many roles, but is noted for his role as a young cyclist and school student, also in Waterloo Road, and has credible acting ability.

Similar Films
Films similar to No Escape include Donnie Darko (2001) which is about a character who embarks on adventures in order to try and meaning from his hallucinations and Shutter Island (2010) featuring a character that shows symptoms of schizophrenia such as delusions of psychological manipulation.

Where it would be shown 
Being an independent production, our film would probably be shown at film festivals and small cinemas, such as Art House Cinemas and small local cinemas. 

Theory
In terms of Todorov's narrative theory, No Escape does follow the narrative structure of: equilibrium, disruption of equilibrium, recognising this disruption, trying to fix the disruption, and the restoration to a new equilibrium at the end. There is equilibrium at the beginning, with Franklin and Sam relaxing in a cafe and then naively going to make a film together, which is disrupted by Franklin’s hallucinations. Then, Franklin tries to get rid of his hallucinations – recognition and attempting to fix it, and then the new equilibrium is created when Franklin realises the result of his actions.

Propp’s character theory states that there are seven types of character that are commonly found in narratives: the villain, the donor, the helper, the princess, the false hero, the dispatcher, and the hero. No Escape involves a few of these character archetypes, but as it is only a short film there are very few characters. Franklin is the hero, as he is the victim of the story, generally, whereas Anonymous is the villain, and Sam is the helper, trying to help Franklin snap out of his hallucination, despite this ending in his death.