Design Practice 3: Assignment 3: DePict: Inspiration and Brainstorming: Part Two

Here is the mood board for my idea the letter, it includes shots from other films, shots I wish to use, colours and textures and the general feeling I want to incorporate into my Mystery/Thriller/Drama piece.

Treatment 1: The Letter: Arranging Your Own Death?

The establishing shot starts with a post delivery vehicle moving down the road.  An unknown deliver man moves down the driveway through a first person perspective in day light, mixed into this shot  is doley shot of a male ages 30-40 sitting face down on an the floor in a dimly lit room with a bluish tint. The fast pace of the alternating shots is brought to an abrupt end when the letter is finally slid in from outside, our character jumps up startled by the noise, revealing his face fully.  

The next shot we see our character moving hastily down the stair from a quirky angle in daylight. he  sorts through the letters, one of the letters is entitled, 'DO NOT OPEN UNTIL TIME OF DEATH'

At this point the mood becomes tense, we move to the kitchen, he sits down at a counter and begin to procrastinate, twiddling the letter in his hands, unable to sit still, the camera keeps cutting away to the title of the letter. He paces up and down the kitchen, finally stopping at the fridge with a serious expression on his face pondering whether or not to open it. He finally gives in and walks off screen, we cut to a shot of a letter opener being grabbed.

The man sits back down at the counter and a rips open the letter,  he tilts the letter upside down and shakes, numerous shreds of paper fall out and float to the counter. We see the numerous pieces of paper closer, he moves the paper aggressively around until he rearranges two pieces by luck, we see that they are in fact the shredded remains of a picture.  

We progress to a sequence of him taping pieces of paper together to try and reveal the picture, the music increases in pace. The music finally settles and we end with him slamming the picture down on the counter, we move to a tilt shot of him slowly lifting the picture to his face with a look of terror, The picture reveals the main character in a suit pointing a gun at the camera, he turns it around and the audience sees the writing 'you should have waited' or ' 'patience is  my worst quality'

We hear a sharp noise and the character quickly looks behind him, it fades to black. The shot reappears from black and we see the man head face down on the counter, a gun is visible in the picture but distorted. We move to a final scene of a either (mailbox, desk, pile of letters) The camera comes into focus to reveal the letter once again.

Treatment 2: The Letter: How Is That Possible?

Same premise until the picture is revealed.

We go to an over the shoulder shot and the image is blurred, he turns it around and the audience sees the writing 'you should have waited' wrote on the back, we hear a sharp noise and the camera cuts away to a mid shot of the character quickly looking behind him, it fades to black. The shot reappears from black and we see a slightly out of focus close shot of the man head face down on the counter, the camera moves in and into focus on the picture which now sits on top of a pool of blood in his hand, we see the picture is in fact the exact scene that has transpired just moments before, the character has seen his own death before it has happened.

This version adds a hint of the paranormal, you could add the (mailbox, desk, pile of letters) scene at the end to add to the eerie phenomenon of the letter. Yet it still question the mentality of the character, had he imagined it?

Treatment 3: The Letter: We Know It Going To Happen.

Same premise until the picture is revealed.  
In this version the audience gets to view the photo of the main characters death before it has actually happened, giving us the eerie realisation that he's witnessed his own death. He turns the picture around to reveal writing and hears a noise like the other two treatments. This treatment could leave out the death scene as we have prior seen it on the photo, leaving it to the audiences imagination. It could end with or without the mail box scene. This treatment has a stronger sense of the supernatural, he could be recalling the memory over and over or simply having a premonition.