Our initial idea was that there was a new pill that had been invented that claimed to "cure all disease", we then wanted to incorporate one of the most scariest creations of the horror genre, the zombie. This being our foundation for a story we then looked onto who our films hero would be:
In thriller films they usually start by concentrating on one strong character that will lead through to the rest of the film, this is certainly the case in thriller film's such as "The Third Man", "Rear Window" and "North by Northwest" which are by far some of the most famous. In all three films they have a strong hero, in all of these films it is a man, mainly because of the time of there making, we therefore wanted to go for a women. Having chosen to present a women as the main character we knew that we would be breaking down some of the stereotypical views with most films of the genre even at this time revolving around male leads.
Having a women be the main character, we had to build up a character that was strong minded and not afraid to speak out. Now we wanted the lead to have a high class occupation, so we considered either a police, detective, or a doctor. A doctor would know more about the science of the drug, then we jumped to the idea of her being a pathologist. The idea of a pathologist was very interesting because it gave us the idea that the hullicinations of the pills could cause people to commit suicide or have accidents. A pathologist would therefore be the first one to realise the danger of this pill being released to the general public.
We thus had our plot. A drug is about to be released into the general public, everyone will get given it. The pill does cure all disease but on the same day, at a certain point every month, people who have taken the drug have hullicinations of zombies leading most to kill themselves. The pathologist women we have created is therefore, through her job, the first to suspect the pill of causing such mental visions. She would investigate into the pill and manufacturers. It would turn out that they were desperate to get the pill released for the profit, they had gone about keeping the knowledge of the side effects secret through killing off people that become suspicious and bribing people. Our pathologist therefore fights off the drug corporation and ends up going on the run. Time begins to run out as the date of the general release draws ever nearer. Ultimatily she stops the corporation and destroys the factories that make the pills and she then awares the world to the pills problems.
We then decided to think of a name for our main character, which is very important as it will follow us throughout the film. Obviously the pathologist is going to be a Doctor. We all liked the surname Greenwood, Dr. Greenwood had a bit of a ring to it. We then wanted a female name that would be able to be shortened to a masculine name which would help the comparison of the usual male name after playing around we got the name: Charlotte, which could be shortened to Charlie. Altogether then the name for our female pathologist, who is the hero of the film is : DR Charlotte Greenwood. The name sounded rather good put together!
Having chosen to have a lead female character we actually were surprised by how few thriller films had female leads that were seen as strong characters, especially when it came to our choice of genre. We therefore did a brief bit of research looking at a couple of examples of women in thriller or horror films:
WOMEN IN THRILLER/ HORROR FILMS
THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991)
In "The Silence of the Lambs" Jodie Foster plays a young CIA agent who is investicating a case that involves her working with a serial killer that has been locked up. She is not the main lead though instead she is seen as someone playing with Anthony Hopkins character. Jodie Foster's character, Clarice Starling is shown as not very strong as she is pitted against many stonger male characters. This is the original film and it combines the thriller and horror genre.HANNIBAL (2001)
This is fourth in the series of films that branched out of the original "The Silence of the Lambs". It stars Demi Moore as the lead. She is slightly more independent and less stereotypical 'damsel in distress' type. This is more the character type that we wish to go with. Yet still Demi Moore's character as an FBI agent who again needs the help of a cleverer male figure.
ALIEN/ ALIENS/ ALIEN 3/ ALIEN RESURRECTION (1979-1997)
Sigourney Weaver plays the same character Ellen Ripley through the whole of the Alien films. In the films she is seen as almost masculine in concept with her orignal idea of making the character of Ripley as a man. It is therefore very striking how strong a character she is. In nearly all of the films she is the last character alive. This is the sort of character we wish to include in our film. This character inspires our film!
When it comes to our films opening sequence, that we actually have to film, we had to decide a few things. From our research we discovered that there is a divide between films of our genre, half start at the beginning and instantly start the story explaining things instantly, other films of our genre start with an action packed scene that leads onto the film, they don't have to make complete sense at that moment for they are explained later.
We decided that the second option of the two was exhibited in more modern day films eg. "Zombieland (2009)", "Ironman (2008)", "Inception (2010", "The Dark Knight (2008)", "Gladiator (2000)", "The Matrix (1999)".
We therefore want to show the hallucination of someone, the movies starting point will be a month before the general release of the pills therefore the figure taking the pill would have to come by them illegally. We therefore want to show a 'druggie' who is experiencing the affect of the drugs. We also wish to show and introduce the character of Dr Charlotte Greenwood. We therefore had an idea that is inspired in the majority by the films, "Ironman (2008)" and "Gladiator (2000)" both of which start with a jump forward in time, then the film twists back to normal time. This contrast of time got us thinking. We would have the druggie running away from her hullicinations of zombies this would happen a day before the start of the events of the film. Then we would interlink it with the office of Dr G where she is asleep and the phone is ringing. At the end of the open sequence Dr G will pick up the phone and having answered we then see that the druggie is dead and a pathologist at the scene is the one on the phone to Dr Greenwood.
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