Treatment

The plot we have developed begins with a typical situation of a troublesome teenage-parent relationship. The teenager Millie is the main character in the film, and hates living at home. Her mum is always embarrassing her in front of friends: walking into her room, texting and ringing to ask what time she is going to be home, asking where she is going or when she will be back...etc... These kind of issues are something which both the younger and older members of our target audience could relate to. One day Millie is trying to do her homework and keeps getting interrupted by her mum, so slamming down her notepad, she storms upstairs to her room. After trying to cool down in her room and not succeeding, she goes out to the park near her house to cool down, and as she enters a girl with a dog (Jodie) bumps into her and drops an armful of files. Millie stoops to help her pick them up, and after a brief exchange of dialogue they go their separate ways. As the main character settles onto one of the swings, she hears Jodie arguing with another girl in a hoody and looks over. The girl in the hoody (Sam) is shouting at her, and grabs for something in Jodie's pocket. In witnessing this, Millie thinks the situation is exactly as it appears - that the girl in the hoody is stealing something from Jodie. She is shocked and sits frozen as the Jodie runs away, and the girl in the hoody runs toward her, looking aggressive. At this point the screen fades out to black and the title of the film appears 'Jumping to Conclusions'. This makes the audience think about the situation, and question the situation they have just witnessed. Then the screen fades back in and the whole scene plays out again but in black and white, and this time around the entire sequence is shown from a different angle. At the point when the girl dropped her files and the main character bends down to help her pick them up, there is a slow motion shot of the girl reaching into the main character's pocket to steal her phone. This time around, it is therefore clear that Jodie was the suspicious one, and that Sam, the girl in the hoody was actually the one taking the phone back. The sequence then continues where it left off and the colour fades back into the shot as the girl in the hoody hands Millie the phone and says 'I was taking this back for you.' When the main character then apologizes, the girl says 'That's alright. I know her, she's been done a few times for stealing. Just be careful when you're out here.' 

This is a five minute short film called 'Jumping to Conclusions', and is aimed at a mainstream audience from teenagers to adults of both genders. We would certificate our film as a 12A because in correspondence with the BBFC guidelines; we are not dealing with matters of discrimination, drugs, horror, language, nudity or sex. The reason we have chosen a 12A is because our film includes minimal violence in terms of a mugging, which could be seen as imitable behaviour for young people. A 12A will also allow us to access a wider target audience which includes teenagers, while ensuring that young viewers are accompanied in order for them to view the film appropriately. According to the audience feedback we collected via our video questionnaire, we have established that certain parts of our plot will appeal to different groups of people. In all, we interviewed people within the age range of 17 - 45. The issue of prejudice will appeal to the young people in our target audience because young people tend to feel that they are wrongly judged on their appearance a lot nowadays, and adults like storylines that make them questions themselves. Most people like plots that have endings or twists that they don't expect, and this is why we think that our storyline will be very effective in terms of our target audience.

This is a linear narrative of the drama genre with a hint of detective and mystery as its sub-genre. It follows the conventions of the genre because it takes a real-life situation which is relatable, and presents it in a way to allow the challenging of stereotypes. We have also created our film in a way that engages the audience because it encourages then to question themselves in terms of prejudice. We plan to have the character in the hoody looking very suspicious in appearance because she will be wearing a hoody and dark clothes, whilst the girl who is doing the mugging will wear classy clothes that will make her appear ordinary and innocent. In doing this, our plot is very challenging of typical stereotypes which people are very familiar with, and will therefore provide an interesting storyline for the audience. 

Our film will stand out from other films in the genre because it uses elements such as text, slow motion, and freeze-frames. This will allow us to engage the audience and to make them second-guess themselves, as well as to help to outline just how situations can stimulate strong prejudices within people.