The story is of a 10 year old boy called John. 

The film starts with John waking in a panic, in a dark room. He knows he had a nightmare, but he can't remember what it was. He looks at the clock, it reads 2am. The house is silent and very cold. John thinks this is strange, as even though its winter his two parents always have the heating on. Deciding to get a drink and see his parents, John gets up and walks down the long staircase down to his kitchen. when he gets there the door is wide open, and a gust of cold air blows into his face. Once again, John thinks this is odd as his parents always shut the kitchen door at night. But he put it down to them being forgetful. Entering the kitchen a cold chill run down his spine. Both his parents sat there eating, and when John cleared his throat, they both stared at him with featureless faces. John wakes with a start, realising it was just a bad dream, but when he enters the kitchen for the second time, the exact same events unfold.

I chose Portals for the sense of being stuck in an alternate reality. In Portals, the twist is shown to the viewer through the main character realising that she was still stuck in the prison, even though at first she was sure her escape was real. We see her escaping from one prison to finding out she didn't escape at all. My film would echo this in that John thinks that he has woken up from the nightmare and then realises he hasn't woken up. The film Portals creates a false sense of hope and relief in the viewer when she escapes from the prison, only to find out that she in fact hasn't escaped, but is stuck in a Tru-man show like reality. I want the viewer to feel the same about John. I was mainly influenced by Portals because of the fact that there is no dialogue. Also, the camera shots are close ups of her face which demonstrate her emotions. In place of dialogue, I would replicate this technique by focussing on John's facial expressions using close up shots of his face. Also, the use of POV shots in Portals creates a sense of tension, so I would keep this.

The film Pitch Black Heist it is filmed in black and white. My film would also be filmed in black and white. There are also a lot of shots that trail behind the characters, following where they go, which I would replicate in my film when John walks down the stairs and through the corridor. This creates a sense of tension as when filmed in black and white it makes the scene feel more ominous, and the shots from behind the character help us feel the atmosphere of the whole corridor.   Using these techniques, I would hope to emphasis the importance of tension and suspense in my film.

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