Initial Ideas

Our initial ideas revolved around a hostage situation whereby a hostage is being held and questioned. In it the hostage has flashbacks involving an object she has hidden and is being quizzed about. We decided that we would use a setting of an empty room, possibly in an abandoned house, with the flashbacks taking place in a forest. After watching the opening sequence of The Strangers we also had the idea of using a flashback to shots of a girl being tortured and the house being discovered and explored in the modern day. We also had the idea of detectives inspecting the house and picking up evidence with flashbacks to the torture/murder.

We also had several initial ideas of shots/scenes –
- Shot of car pulling up
- Close ups of face
- Pan of people walking across towards house
- Wide shot of person in woods
- Black and White shots in Flashback
- Point of view shot from outside the house
- Telephone conversation over film
- Iconography including knife, rope, chair, etc

We wanted to include a flashback in the opening that would be in black and white, as this showed that audience the events were taking place in the past. This was partly inspired by Cape Fear opening and the opening to Casino Royale.
We also had the idea of using contrapuntal music during the flashback, with songs such as ‘wouldn’t It be nice’ playing while the negative images were being shown on screen. We also discussed the possibility of using a voiceover as a way of introducing events and summarising the opening.

Laurence Ruthven