New Treatment Sheet

Working title
Paramnesia

Genre
Crime
Psychological Thriller

USP
A psychological thriller following a female murderer with short-term amnesia, with a tone and mood similar to what is seen in Broadchurch/Strangers.

Plot
Eve runs in and picks up a phone and calls the police. Tells that that there has been a murder. Then cut to scene of Neil lying dead on the floor. Cut back to Eve. Then she says her friend Blake must be the killer he isn't here, and begins to describe Blake. We cut to Blake in a place hiding. Cut back to Eve. Eve recounts a story of how it happened.

They were going for a walk in the woods. They stopped on the way at a bench. Suddenly, Blake got up and assaulted Neil, killing him. In her fear, she ran away from Blake.  Eve cuts the call as police confirm they'll be coming.

As she finishes the call, and the police have confirmed they're coming, she puts the phone away- we see blood on the phone but she wouldn't have.

She puts the phone away because she's begun to hear rustling. It's Blake. She sees him, in his hiding place. Eye contact made- he emerges, trying to get away as she also backs away. He's scared of her. She holds up her phone at him, as a weapon. He backs off, but speaks.

Blake accuses her of being the killer and that she needs to stay away from him. Why did she accuse him, he asks, why did she have to frame him? She says no, it was you, what do you mean? He is appalled. He begins to tell his story, then he recounts the same events, but it ends with him pointing at something; "and we put the picnic there". Amounts of tension in this scene.

 (shot idea: in a wide shot he points at the picnic. We cut to picnic cloth. Then we see someone come sit on the picnic cloth, and pan to reveal we have changed time; we're in the same place but during an earlier time, revealing that this a flashback. We zoom into Eve's face, and it fades to black. We cut back to scuffed up Eve in present time).

Eve realises that the narrative she told was different, and not factually correct, because the proof of Blake's story is right in front of her. We finally cut to a full body view of her and see that she's completely covered in blood. She is the true killer.

Duration
2 minutes 30 seconds - 3 minutes

Logline
After killing her friend and immediately forgetting it, a murderer running from the Police struggles to come to terms with her actions- and whether it could happen again.


Characters:
Eve
Blake
Neil
Police

Visual elements
Filmed in 2:1 aspect ratio
High quality colour grading, film quality
Filmed outdoors with outdoor lighting

Audio elements
Emotional music
Ambient forest sounds
Voice

Themes in show as a whole
Coming to terms with a tragedy
Coming to terms with ones self
Friendship
Mental health
Modern life


Requirements and resources
Outdoors forest scene
Camera
Audio-gear

Audience
ABC1
liberal-minded
Cross-gender appeal
Viewers of typical ITV drama
18-35 year old millennials

Convergence
Marketable actors, interesting characterisations- how actors interpret their roles and what they think of it