Script

EXT. METROPOLIS CITY – SOUTH KENSINGTON - 11:08

Establishing shot - South Kensingtion from a high angle. DRAKE sprints through the street dodging pedestrians, in his attempt to run away from something. He fails to dodge a businessman, reading a newspaper - knocking the paper to the floor.

Extreme close up - newspaper. A photo of DRAKE - a young adult, wearing a oversized hoody. Muscular. Freckles. Wanted for manslaughter.

The man attempts to collect his paper of the floor, but it begins to blow away. Frustrated, he mutters a few swear words. DRAKE disregards the insults and runs off.

MAN

Oi Wanker!

DRAKE swerves around a corner, tired and out of breath - he puts his hand on his knees and slowly peaks his head around the corner.

POV shot - DRAKE watches a police car drive past.

A policeman walks behind DRAKE, without him knowing. The officer confronts DRAKE by grabbing him by the shoulder. DRAKE is terrified, his whole body freezes in fear.

INT. DRAKE'S APARTMENT - BEDROOM - 08:00

Extreme close up - Alarm clock.
DRAKE's alarm goes off. DRAKE abruptly jumps up from his bed, waking up from a bad dream. He holds his hands on his head. Stressed.

Overkill - Title Sequence Treatment

A black screen, onto which a splash of water emerges and vibrantly takes the form of the production logo – adjacent to the logo is the studio name. IGNITION! Meanwhile the IGNITION™ soundtrack is rendering in the background. The screen fades to black, and non-diegetic sound of a metropolis city can be heard. A sudden sound of rushing cars and the words - IGNITION PRESENTS come into view. The words on screen are shaped to resemble a car.
OVERKILL! The name of my title emerges on screen – the font is smooth and three dimensional. Once more sound of rushing cars can be heard and the Director’s name appears on screen.

The film opens in a metropolis city. From above, the urban city seems serene and ordinary. All of a sudden the urban harmony is broken when Drake is running through the busy streets, pushing his way through pedestrians - knocking a businessman to the floor and his newspaper. An extreme close up of the newspaper allows us to read important details on the paper, which explains why Drake is running. The newspaper also includes an image of the actor with the caption below STARRING [and the actor’s name]. The man tries to collect his paper of the floor, but it begins to blows away - the audience can just vaguely see Drake running away into the distance.

The camera jump cuts back to Drake, as he is running around a corner and sticks himself up on the wall suggesting he is hiding from someone. We begin to emphasise with Drake because of a POV shot as his eyes pan across watching a police car whizzing past. The adrenaline is empathised at this point, by all audio being overpowered by Drake’s heartbeat and his panting.

Dramatic irony is formed when a police officer walks behind Drake; this is shown with a POV shot. The officer grabs Drake by his shoulder, turning Drake’s body to see his face; we see a close up of Drake’s face terrified. The camera fades to black and you begin to hear a digital alarm clock goes off and an alarm clock appears on the screen. The camera pans towards Drake’s bed – Drake abruptly jumps up, waking up from a bad dream. OVERKILL BEGINS!!

Pitch

Ok where do I start? My film is called...

IGNITION™ is proud to produce, a gritty UK thriller!

OVERKILL - The use of excessive force/action to achieve a goal. For example, using a sledgehammer to crack a hazelnut, a flamethrower to light a candle, or killing an ant with a rocket launcher would be considered overkill.

My film revolves around the life of Drake, a 21 year old male living in London. Drake is a university student with great deal of potential, but all goes amiss when he is framed for murder. A cunning plan and Drake being intoxicated at the time of the incident, leaves him bewildered and so he doesn’t realise his innocence. Throughout the film we see Drake on the run from law enforcers and him destroying any evidence; doing the dirty work for the genuine murder without knowing. He slowly becomes paranoid and crazy over a course of a week, soon after he kills his closest friend, Scott - because he assumes that Scott is going to inform the police about his whereabouts. While watches his friend's death he is traumatised and begins to realise his life can’t carry on like this. So he is about to hand himself in, when a thought occurs that cause him want to revisit the scene of the crime one last time. At the location he finds a mobile phone, with a video recording of the victim being murdered on the night. As he puts the phone away in his pocket, knowing that he is once again a free man, he is confronted by the genuine murder!

Research - Title Sequence

This is probably one of the best title sequences I have seen! It begins with John Doe, the movies villain, turning pages of a book. He is surrounded by papers and ominous instruments of torture as he composes a ransom-like letter. Because the audience wouldn’t see Doe again for nearly 40 minutes, Cooper needed to establish a connection with the character immediately.

There is metronome clicking at a very slow tempo, and the shots go to the actors names one by one between pictures of what appears to be a person cutting their fingertips off. Nothing is definite in the title sequence and it causes the viewer to think, the confusion intrigues them. The title sequence is very long and the score seams to speed up as well as the speed of each shot. It is also very detailed, it even mentions the composer of the score, casting and costume.

A factor which is very interesting is that the title sequence does not mention the serial killer and main character John Doe played by Kevin Spacey. This seams to heighten the mystery of the murders of the film, this shows us that it could be a good idea to leave main characters out of the title sequence to create the effect of mystery.