Research and Planning 7: Our film title and plot outline

The title of our film is Payoff

Our film follows Blake: a man who worked as a police officer before quitting his job to become a private detective. He is a relatively recluse man who prefers to work alone more often than not. The only people he has been comfortable with are his ex-colleague Jennifer and his partner Rachel. But not long after he quit his job, Rachel is kidnapped by a criminal syndicate that Blake was pursuing during his time as a police officer alongside Jennifer. He is threatened with a ransom he is unable to pay, so with few other options, he turns to Jennifer to ask for her help in finding out where he can find the gang in order to rescue his partner.

The beginning of our film will start with a shot of Blake holding a ring. Chronologically, this shot will take place later on in the film, but we will leave this ambiguous to create a sense of intrigue in the audience. We have seen this method of story telling used in a number of our different references, such as The Usual Suspects and American Beauty.

In the opening of American Beauty, the first scene showing the conversation between the girl and the boy is an event that happens later in the film. However, the scene is revealed at the start of the film in order to make the audience question its relevance. When we see the scene again towards the end of the film it makes a lot more sense as the plot of the film provides information towards the impact that this scene has. This is a technique which we will use in our film using the shot of the ring.

In order to develop our story, we will need to consider which narrative theories can be applied to our production.

Theory of Binary Opposites: 

In our opening sequence, Blake attends a back-alley poker game in order to meet Jen. We aim to use costume and mise-en-scene to create an opposition between Blake, a private detective who represents law and the other players at the game; criminals who represent villainy.

Theory of Equilibrium:
The event which disrupts the equilibrium in our film is Rachel's kidnapping. Blake goes on a 'hero's journey' in order to rescue her, with the end of the film marking the progression into a new equilibrium.