The World of P17
An unsettling and emotionally affecting student documentary draws us into an intense, disturbing world. Inexplicable events in a found-footage format create a rising sense of dread. Thought provoking with believable characters, the film shows that what’s most frightening is what you don’t know, what you don’t see — the darkness within.
Tone, Style, Theme
‘Project 17’ is a post-modern thriller that will both engage and disturb the audience. Set against a complex background of social stigma and prejudice, the audience learns that, like the characters in the film, one must combat inner confusion and fear with inner transformation to overcome nameless and sinister forces, both external and internal.
The multi-shot filming style, a technique that proved highly effective in breakout hits like ‘Paranormal Activity’ and ‘Cloverfield’, also uses the disturbing power of black-screen space and the potential nightmares hidden within.
The found footage combination of CCTV, mobile, and handheld camera shots will leave the audience asking, “Did this really happen — and could it happen to me”?
A dark and disturbing soundscape deepens immersion, with small inexplicable sounds woven together with ominous music.
The more the audience understands and identifies with the main characters, the more they will be drawn into the deep currents that underlie the mundane world — a dark journey within.
Details
Period: contemporary
Genre: Psychological thriller
Budget: £2,000,000
Synopsis
Aspiring filmmaker Ryan Griffith has only one chance to be admitted to a prestigious film school — make a winning Truman Show-like documentary about a classmate’s daily life.
Back from a gap-year abroad, Ryan’s charismatic friend, Brandon Amory, is persuaded to star in Ryan’s film. Ignoring the protests of his girlfriend, Brandon agrees to be followed by a student film crew, allow a webcam to be installed in his flat, and keep a video diary.
But as footage accumulates, things grow increasingly strange. Brandon’s webcam reveals recurring nightmares. Someone is leaving eerie, sinister drawings in his apartment. And who is the grim man the crew notices in the background of so many of their shots?
Brandon begins to forget what he’s done. He has visions and premonitions of disturbing events which later take place. He knows things that he couldn’t possibly know. Brandon struggles to put it all together and comes up with nothing but a sense of looming disaster. His friends on the film crew can’t understand or stop his incipient madness and the energies it sets loose. Unless Brandon and Ryan can figure out what’s going on, something terrible is going to happen.
Characters
Brandon Amory
Brandon is a university student searching for direction and meaning in his life, unaware of the psychic abilities he inherited, hypnotically repressed by his protective grandfather. When Brandon is persuaded to become the subject of his friend’s documentary project, his abilities struggle to break free in an eerie battle of inner versus outer.
Ryan Griffith
A young director desperate to prove himself finds his crucial documentary project going wrong as the subject, his good friend Brandon, starts to fall apart. Ryan’s drive to make the perfect film clouds his judgment and tests their friendship.
Rudra Khatri Griffith
Ryan’s adopted younger brother, still in secondary school. He also wants to be a filmmaker and sees an opening in his opportunity to film ‘making of’ segments for the documentary. Rudra is often seen as a nuisance by the rest of the crew, but Brandon quickly takes a brotherly liking to him, and their strong bond proves invaluable in the end.
Jessica Reeves
Brandon’s university girlfriend. She is a graduate student, ambitious and very motivated. She wants to be there for Brandon, but her analytical brain can’t accept the bizarre changes she’s seeing in him. Jessica begins to think her boyfriend is really just going crazy.
Ayana Tedros
Director of photography, her passion for film and dedication rivals Ryan’s own. As the shoot continues, she develops a fondness for her camera’s subject. As Brandon and Lucy’s relationship evolves, Jessica grows jealous.
Spencer Owens
A ‘by the book’ kind of producer. He refuses to bend the rules for this film crew. When the documentary begins to go awry, his failure to adapt creates an enormous amount of tension within the crew as lines are drawn and sides are taken.
Dylan Kemp and Susan “Suze” Bagley
Obsessed lighting guy, Dylan, monomaniacal, a perfectionist, inflexible, and slow beyond belief. Worked on a union project the previous summer and won’t let anyone forget it. His perfectionist side comes in handy when he goes over the dailies.
The off-beat sound tech, Suze is always wearing headphones and recommending odd music. Her only concern is the sound for the documentary, which provides some comic moments. When she finally understands the situation, she is extremely sympathetic to Brandon. She knows what it’s like to feel weird and be seen as loopy. She argues that they have to help him.
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