Unit 19: Learning Aim C Proposal

My film proposal (idea) 

Title 

Dave’s Nightmarish change 

Genre: 

My Genre of my film is a psychological horror film about substance abuse. 

Logline: 

When a substance arrives and is ingested that carries nightmare fuel into the imagination and surroundings of an injured film studies student, they describe the trauma they experienced on paper to a therapist, including the "doctor" who harmed them.

Narrative overview of my film: 

For more information click the link

My script idea in lots more detail

Act 1  

At the start of the film the main character Dave Kype is in the hospital. He went to the nearest hospital after injuring his arm and was in so much pain. At the start he is walking into the hospital sits down in the chair. While he is sitting down on a hospital chair, we the antagonist the Russian doctor “Yury”. He asks him to wait for a couple more minutes in English and tells him that he will be with him for a couple of minutes.

We don’t see him for a while. The second main character Amelia is in hospital after getting serious pains in her chest and legs. She has conversation with Dave as they both talk about what their long-term goals for the future. 

Act 2:

The climax is when they are both in the wardroom blindfolded and asked to take the drug while tied up. They both start to hallucinate. This is the most important and a key scene for the characters as it goes ahead and creates conflict in their own world. 

Amelia dies in Act 2 from the substance of the drug toxifying her lungs and blood. She screams for help but it’s no good. This is important as it suggests the first death of the film. We see her running through a forest scared from a monster in her own mind. 

Act 3 

We are introduced to the psychologist Susan. Dave is awoken from his coma and questions where he is. She asks questions which Dave replies and asks her questions eventually coming to an agreement of wanting to face the man in person. The film ends abruptly after he say’s “I want to see a lawyer about this”. 

Background information about the characters: 

The protagonist’s name is (the person who survives the Hallucinogenic trip) Dave Kype 

A 19-year-old student working in a top-level university. He is studying Films, film theory and wants to become a successful director and earn an income from being a director and earning the qualifications to become a director. He always knows that he has made lots of films and is on a trainee course. He wears a black winter coat and carries a heavy bag around with him. He will speak heavy English accent. 

Susan Conan the Doctor (psychologist who specializes in substance abuse) 

A 41-year-old psychologist who studies people who have experienced substance abuse. She is very understanding for the trauma people go through, as at a young child she was abandoned by both of her parents and fostered into care by someone she didn’t know. She tried to escape at age 15 by taking ‘micro dots’ which led her to become insane. She was sectioned and decided to right her wrongs by working with similar people who suffered from this. She is from Canada and hopes to help others around the world. She likes to watch movie. She wears a white coat and glasses. She also has brown hair and dresses in smart attire. The psychologist speaks Canadian but has a heavy British accent. 

The doctor who speaks Russian in the background and gives them the drug: Professor Yury Avangelos 

This guy is the antagonist. He is a 25-year-old man who wants to ruin other people’s lives. He can do this since he has contact to the National health service. He can easily manipulate people into taking his drug. He needs to do this since he earns respect from the Russian mafia who pay him weekly along with other people across the globe. He doesn’t have many interests and is only motivated by money. It should have a heavily Belarusian accent and they should speak quiet loudly. 

The other patient: Amelia Sandy the patient the person who dies. 

Amelia Sandy is a 16-year-old who is in a cooking school. She wants to run a business however her dad tells her to be a “doctor or Lawyer”. She is an immigrant from China however her accent has disappeared and learned how to speak English exceedingly well. She likes to read books and talk with her mom when they are cooking together. She will speak English. 

Film treatment: 

The opening of the film should be unexplained opening. 

The time of day at the start of the film is early in the morning. In opening of the film, I want to have a completely dark and rainy day and near the forest since this is a common horror movie trope. 

The hospital will be located near a forest. This is what someone will be hallucinating over since they saw that same forest. When the patients take the drugs, we shouldn’t see what they see. This includes what they imagine but we should hear what they hear. This can include unsettling diegetic sounds the characters hear, like screams, voices and their own breathing and heartbeat. The noises will get progressively louder until Act 3 when we see what happens to the protagonist. When Dave ends up in a coma, we should see an edit for when he wakes up. This transition should see low angle close-up shot on his face to show how he is feeling. The hospital rooms should look very modern with modern colors like grey and black. The film will include colors to connote feeling fear. The hospital chairs and props should look metallic. 

We shouldn’t see what they see. The idea being that they are afraid of what they imagine and see. The audience have some knowledge but not in the minds of the characters. 

Film purpose: 

I want to raise awareness on the fact that it isn’t good to do drugs since you end up in a traumatized state of mind, especially ones which go ahead and create hallucinations. I want to raise awareness that they are harmful for people and that people shouldn’t take them or they shouldn’t be taken for pleasure. It will raise awareness on preconceptions that taking LSD is not good and dangerous no matter what anyone tells you. I want to misrepresent the drug dealer/ doctor as being the doctor who grooms them into taking the drug and eventually kills them for personal welfare/ payment for what he wants. It also should bring nightmare imagery to the viewer as what it’s like to take a hallucinogen. 

Target audience: 

If it is well produced and well put together it will target young adults who have an interest in horror films. The age group being around 18–19-year-olds. This is because the median age between 15-18 and 30+ in my research was 18–19-year-olds who will go watch the film. Gender isn’t targeted towards a main one. Each one is completely equal. This because I can. The people who are pressured into taking drugs they don’t want from the doctors is another target audience. 

Legal and ethical considerations: 

For legal considerations, I am not trying to copy or plagiarize a films idea. A film which follows my idea of patients taking LSD and experiencing the effects of it can be seen in documentaries across Netflix and other film production companies. An example of this can be seen in The Substance and Have a good trip. These films (documentaries) demonstrate the effects LSD has on people and how it shows why people take these drugs. However, they are not psychological horror films. I’ve double-checked films and I haven’t seen any film which talks about this idea of being brainwashed by what you know. I don’t want to copy or plagiarize other films. Another film which does investigate LSD is Jacob's ladder. This talks about a person named Jacob who lives his life seeing possessed humans and having a psychedelic experience himself. He isn’t dreaming when he feels like his brain oscillates from different brain waves and images. This is a lot like my film and looks lots more detailed. It has the same kind of imagery and visuals. This is like what I am doing except 2 characters are involved in what they see is different and not the same compared to the norm. Along with the beginning of the film the characters in my film get admitted to the hospital in the opening act. Also, I am not trying to suggest that people should take these drugs. In fact, I am merely acknowledging the fact that they exist and that they shouldn’t be used.

The ethical considerations of using a substance suggest a film about torture. Torture films or slashers are a common horror genre. Ethically it isn't right since it could be point fingers towards a group of people who take Drugs. This film is only trying to use horror and substance abuse as a way to mess with the audience's mind. We want to address that substance abuse is something that needs to be taken seriously.