Planning Brief

Division
Length
Deadline
Crew members and roles

5 minutes
December
Director- Sophie Laxton
Cinematographer- Elise
Thompson
Editor- Chloe Lashley
Sound- All

Overview
Replica is about a young teenage boy named Adam, searching for
an identity. He is lost and cant seem to figure out who he is and
what his purpose is. One morning, he is walking through a park on
his way home and he encounters three different characters that his
subconscious mind creates dark fantasies for, which contradict what
their realities are. There is an aggressive male, suicidal female and
demonic male. Throughout his day, Adam takes on these negative
traits that his disorder has created and his twisted mind is revealed.
The last thing Adam sees is himself in the mirror and he has
flashbacks to the people he saw earlier and realizes the way he
perceived them was not how they really were.
The genre of our short film is a dramatic thriller and the following
are examples of dramatic thrillers that helped us come up with our
idea:

The Butterfly Effect (2004)

Gone Girl (2014)

Black Swan (2010)

Shutter Island (2010)

Target Audience
The target audience for our production will be males and females
from ages 15-35. We believe the genre will appeal to this age range
and the audience will be able to relate with the characters in the
short film. Males will be able to side with the male protagonist and

Sophie Laxton

other male characters and females will be able to relate to the

female teenager in the film.

Promotion/ Publication
YouTube is the main website that we will
be using to promote our product as it is
the main platform for viewing video
content online. As YouTube has over a
billion daily users, our production will
reach a mass audience quickly. Also, as
our production is a dramatic thriller, our
audience will see our film under recommended on YouTube
when they watch other dramatic thrillers.
We will be using Snapchat (30 million
monthly users), Twitter (304 million
monthly users) and Facebook (1.19
billion monthly users) to promote our
production. These sites are very popular amongst our target
audience so it would assist in reaching a mass audience.

Representation
Our product may be classed as a stereotypical thriller due to the
suspense created during the film but as we have created a hybridity
genre of dramatic thriller, the production will differ from other
products and be original. The topic of mental health within our film
is presented in a stereotypical way as the character is depicted as
isolated and vulnerable. The audience will be able to empathise with
the character due to his loneliness and gain a better understanding
of this mental illness.
Comparable products
Secret Window (2004) the character in this film has
dissociative identity disorder (split-personality disorder) and after
divorcing his wife he is isolated and alone. He continues with his
writing and people around him begin to start dying and his divorce
gets uglier. This relates to our short film because of the themes of
isolation and mental illness. As a result of his isolation, our character
Adam begins to develop this multiple-personality disorder.

Sophie Laxton

Shutter Island (2010) the protagonist in this film creates a world

for himself where he believes hes a detective and is isolated away
from society. This links to our short film because our protagonist
creates personalities from his first impressions of people and allows
his identity to change because of this.

Codes and Conventions

Low-key lighting
Quick cuts
Shadows
Tension music
Montage of shots
Constraints
Time management this is essential during our production and
requires good communication and organisation between all parties
involved. Some days, the actors may be free but the crew is not and
vice versa. This could make the process difficult but if we are
organised and communicate well, we should be able to overcome
this obstacle.
Equipment as our production company have to book out
equipment, it could be difficult to gain access if others have booked
out equipment first. We would have to be organised and book out
equipment well in advance to ensure we have it for when we are
filming.
Money the cost of our production could be expensive. With the
cost of travel to our locations for multiple actors and the cost of food
for everyone, money could become an issue. However, our
production team would have budgeted for these costs and to help
we could travel at off peak times on trains so that we save money.

Sophie Laxton