Film Opening Edit 1

Psychological Thriller

For my film opening, I have chosen to work primarily with the sub-genre of psychological-thriller (As explained in my pitch). The reason I have chosen to use this genre is because I enjoy films in that genre, for example David Fincher's Fight Club (1999).

Fight Club (1999) Trailer:

The psychological-thriller genre focuses on the unstable emotional state of characters combined with mystery and thriller. Psychological thriller often involves aspects from mystery and drama genres, but can also involve traits from horror. Too many aspects from horror though can cause the film to become a psychological-horror.
The cliche of a psychological-thriller is usually the main character having to overcome an enemy using mental strength, as opposed to physical. This enemy could be another character who's using deceptive mind games to control them, or the enemy could even be an internal conflict that they must overcome. It's seen that the character will usually be in as bad mental state at the beginning and/or middle of the film, but at the end will have concurred their problem and recovered.
A back-story is used in the genre lots to be the reason why a character is mentally unstable. The back-story is revealed at one point to deepen our understanding of the story and character. This is great for plot-twists and character development.
A first person narrative is also used frequently in this genre so we see from the character's view point and enables the audience to understand the mental state and to become involved with this character. This technique can also be pared with the technique of unreliable narrator. The reason is for plot twist that make the film more exciting, psychyological and thrilling.

Film Opening Pitch

This is an idea for the opening of a film which main genre is psychological thriller.


The "basic" story is Riley has recurring dreams of himself shooting Nicholas. Nicholas is his best friend whom he has known for ages and the pair assume they know everything about each other. Nicholas works for an organisation that betrays him for getting too close to Riley who, unknown to both of them, is a brainwashed secret assassin. The organisation is controlled by a character named Eilif. The character is named this because "Eilif" means immortal and he is in a position of power where he's untouchable. This organisation is gigantic and controls near everything, having great influence on most global issues. A small but high-up segment of this organisation is the assassins, like Nicholas.  Another secret segment is the secret assassins, who're brainwashed. These secret assassins work with-in the organisation, disposing of anyone who threatens (Or appears to threaten) the secrecy of the organisation, like Nicholas.



The underlying questions the audience would ask from this film would be would be:

- "Can you trust others?" -The way Nicholas trusted Riley & Eilif.
-"Can you trust yourself?" -When Riley discovers he's been brainwashed.
-"What do you think you know?" -After Riley's mind has been opened, he questions this.
-"What do you actually know?" What Riley questions after the previous point.
-"Can you actually fully control someone/ something?" -After Riley discovers he's an assassin, Eilif wonders if he can ever fully control people or if it's just an illusion or something he can come close to but not fully achieve.
-"Can you actually achieve the goal you set or will you just accept what you've achieved?" When Riley & Nicolas find Eilif is basically untouchable in his position of power, this question becomes arises. And also this question is posed to Eilif when he realises he cannot fully control people like Riley.

Eilif could also be abbreviated to Mr. E, which sounds like "mystery". Though this could seem comical so I may not use it.