pitch of ideas for my new and upcoming film - Arousal Level

1. A2 Media - Pitch of Ideas
By Josh Tills

2. Mood Board

3. The Idea
• An action/drama film highlighting and
expanding on the work of Raine and how he
thinks that people with a lower heart means a
lower arousal level and therefore means these
people will turn to crime to raise their arousal
level.
• My film aims to expand on this idea and look at
how if we were to look at children's heart rate,
see if they had a lower arousal, and therefore
see if they would turn to crime.

4. USP
• The reason why I am making this film is because I find this study in
psychology particularly interesting. I feel it is necessary to outline
and indicate the flaws with this study and how you can’t
predetermine someone to be a criminal. The way this will be shot in
the film would be through having a child with a heart murmur and
therefore has a lower heart rate. This indicates how there is a flaw
with this system and therefore the study is weak.
• The reason why people would want to see this film would be
because there no films which express the same conventions as this.
With the closest being The Island and Surrogate and The Changeling.
• This film is also very rare in the sense of it exploring both the genre
of drama and action, with the action being in the spark of the
human rights of this secret institution, and the drama being the
emotional content of the characters and how they adapt to the
outside world.

5. The Name
• The name of this film would be Arousal Level.
The reason for this is because Raine found a
correlation between a persons arousal level
and criminal activity.
• http://prezi.com/ryxgfy2xxg_f/raine-
biological-explanations-for-turning-to-crime/

6. Target Audience
• The target audience that I have chosen for this film
is that of 20-35. This is because the age of this
target audience would be able to imagine and
comprehend with this idea and I imagine would
feel compassion for a lot of the characters (i.e.
family, kids, etc.). This is not to say that my film
would be rated as an 18+. I would aim for film to
be a 12A, meaning that kids could too could watch
this film. I feel some kids would be intrigued with
this film and would feel empathy for the children
in this institution.

7. Style
• Like other drama based films, my trailer would
include slow shots, lots of dialogue, slow
music which gradually builds, lots of close ups,
voiceovers, etc.
• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0824747/

8. Location
• The majority of the filming will be hosted in
St. Mary’s High School due to it replicating an
institution. The family scenes will be shot in a
house (mainly a living room). The member of
parliament, human rights, and newspaper
scenes are all yet to be decided on.

9. Characters
Children
Family Members
• Character 1 – 1106
• Vicky Aylott (1)
• Character 2 - 2053 • Sam Aylott (1)
• Character 3 - 1491 • Jenna Marbels (2)
• Chris Marbels (2)
• Character 4 - 0872
• Kristy Beamont (3)
• Character 5 – 4010 • Matt Beamont (3)
MP’s • Sav Georgiou (4)
• Natasha Georgiou (4)
• Steven Jones
• Elliot Martin (5)
• Ken Adams • Trevor Martin (5)
• Harry Smith

10. Inspiration
• I aim for my trailer to be very slow and
dramatic with Joel Cox (Changeling, Gran
Torino, million dollar baby) being my
inspiration for how I want my trailer to be
edited and finally look. In terms of directing,
my inspiration is Gary Ross (The Hunger
Games, Seabiscuit, Big).

11. Todorov’s Narrative Theory
• My film aims to challenge the theory that
Todorov proposed as I am for it not follow the
five stages set. Firstly, in the beginning of my
film, everything will not be in a state of
equilibrium, there will already be disruption
with the sense that children are forced into an
institution.

12. Enigma Code
• Why are these children being put into an
institution?
• What have they done to deserve this?
• What does their heart rate have to do with
criminal behavior?
• How are these kids going to adapt?

13. Propp
• My film aims to heavily challenge the theory
of Propp and the eight spheres of action as
instead of showing particular roles within the
film, my film aims to focus on the journey of
the children.

14. Active or Passive
• I would wish for my audience to be an active
audience as I would want my audience to see
my trailer and think about it. Think about a
world where this actually exists and where
children are treated this way. I feel this would
be a crucial part of my film in getting the
audience to empathise and comprehend with
my characters.