The document proposes two short film ideas. The first follows a teenage girl named Charlotte who goes missing on her way to a friend's house. Her friends and family search for her and find her phone but not Charlotte. The film ends with Charlotte trapped in a dark room. The second focuses on a girl who runs away after an argument with her parents and hides in an unsafe shed. She wakes to loud noises and runs into the woods, where the film ends with a hand over her face. Both films are proposed to be thrillers targeting older teenagers and adults that leave the audience wondering what ultimately happens to the main characters.
2. SYNOPSIS
■ ACT1: The film starts with the main character Charlotte who is hanging out with her friends and one
of them invites her to go out for her birthday. She goes home from school and has a normal evening
at home with family and then starts to get ready for her friends evening out. She leaves about 8am
and walks over to their house.
■ ACT2: On the way to her friend’s house, she starts feeling paranoid as she hears footsteps behind her
and it starts to get dark quickly. She does not want to face turning around so she starts walking faster
although the footsteps behind her start getting louder. She goes to get her phone out as she starts
running but drops her phone.The person behind her catches her and she is gone.
■ ACT3: Friends start calling her, no response.They go to her house, worrying her parents about her
absence.They find her phone on the pavement near her friend’s house. No one knows what to do.
They start putting posters on telephone poles and contacting the news to make people aware of this
‘catcher’ looking around for children.The last scene we see is of Charlotte trapped and captured in a
small dark room, and we are left to wonder what happens to her and her family.
4. INTRODUCTIONTO CHARACTERS
■ To begin with there is the main character called Charlotte. She is a teenage girl and in
the film is getting ready to go to a birthday event with her friends. Charlotte would
wear normal stylish clothes any teenage girl would wear, for example ripped jeans and
a sweatshirt.
■ Next, there is the character of a child catcher, who wears a black balaclava and outfit
to show its hidden identity.
■ Later there are the two parents of Charlotte, who are worried about their daughter
who has gone missing.They are both middle aged with dark hair and fair skin, who
care and want the best for their daughter.
■ Lastly the friends of Charlotte and the public to make the film more visual and
fictional.
5. TARGETAUDIENCE
■ The target audience of my short film is aimed at anyone who is interested in thriller or
suspense. Mainly the target audience would reach older teenagers or adults who are
interested in thriller or fearful plot twists. I would not recommend my short film to be
suitable for younger audiences because my short film could potentially scare children
of being kidnapped or taken by strangers.This would also trigger nightmares and bad
imagination and thoughts for the young kids, making parents and carers worried
about what this could make them do.
■ Linking to the NRS Social Demographic Scale, my film would reach social grades A to E
because upper, middle, and those at lowest level of subsistence would be interested in
thriller or suspense.
6. FORM AND STYLE
■ I will be filming my shots and scenes with a Canon digital handheld camera because
they are easy to use and give you good quality video and pictures. I will also use a
tripod in case I need to take any moving shots without the camera moving too much.
Also I will be editing my film with Adobe Premiere Pro to ensure I get the best editing
software to create my film.
■ I will include short-paced clips where for example she is running away from the child
catcher, I will film short clips to show how Charlotte is tense and worried. I would also
record heavy breathing over the top of the shot to enhance the tense feel to the scene.
I will shoot the film along a dark narrow road, with a pavement, so I can film the two
characters together.
7. MARKETPLACE
■ I would upload my short film on Short of theWeek or onYouTube.This is because they
are both popular social media sources that are used regularly, making my film
regularly watched and viewed by an audience. Making my short film distributed online
will make it more likely for people to find and then watch my film, whereas if it were
only on someone’s social media page, like Facebook, only their friends and family
would watch it preventing from finding a more variety of target audience viewers.
9. SUGGESTEDAUDIO
■ ‘Ofelia’s Dream’ on
https://www.bensound.com/index.php?route=product/search&search=dark
■ This dark and sinister piano music is suited to when Charlotte is walking to meet her
friends and then she is captured later on in the film.
11. SYNOPSIS
■ ACT1: We see the main character at her house talking with her family. She suddenly
gets shouted at by her parents and she feels stupid and that everything is her fault.We
see her upset and annoyed. She eventually decides to run away and finds a shed that
the audience see as very unsafe.
■ ACT2: She goes into the shed and falls asleep inside. She wakes up to loud knocking
and men screaming as she puts her ear to the edge of the door.
■ ACT3: Girl runs out and down the woods.We see her running and tripping on
branches.The last shot is of her screaming, as a close up of her mouth, and a hand
over her face.Audience is left to think about what happens to her and what he looks
like.
13. INTRODUCTIONTO CHARACTERS
■ The main character is perceived as an innocent young girl, with dark hair and brown
eyes. I have chosen for this girl to wear nice clothes, jacket and jeans, and then while
she stays in the shed she get dirtier and her face gets grubbier, as we see her change
from looking well-kept to looking shoddier.
■ The next two characters are the parents, who are shouting and screaming at their
daughter at the start of the film.They both are wearing stereotypical parent clothing,
trousers and a sweater.We want these parents to be perceived as quite rough and a
horrible home life for the daughter.
14. TARGETAUDIENCE
■ The target audience of my short film is aimed at anyone who is interested in thriller or
suspense. Mainly the target audience would reach older teenagers or adults who are
interested in thriller or fearful plot twists. I would not recommend my short film to be
suitable for younger audiences because my short film could potentially scare children
of being kidnapped or taken by strangers.This would also trigger nightmares and bad
imagination and thoughts for the young kids, making parents and carers worried
about what this could make them do.
■ Linking to the NRS Social Demographic Scale, my film would reach social grades A to E
because upper, middle, and those at lowest level of subsistence would be interested in
thriller or suspense.
15. FORM AND STYLE
■ I will include short-paced clips where for example she is running through the woods, I
will film short clips to show how the daughter is tense and worried. I would also record
heavy breathing over the top of the shot to enhance the tense feel to the scene. I will
shoot the film along a dark wood, when she is arriving at the shed. I may even think
about using a drone to film some of my film, to get a higher and more bird eye view of
the scene.
■ The particular genre and style I am aiming for is to create a thriller, fearful film with
short quick shots that enhances the suspense on a certain scene. In addition, I will
want dark lighting, evening time, to make the shots look more fearful for the
audience, making the film edgier.This will make the genre more thriller and creepier
because the audience will assume something bad will happen in the dark.
16. MARKETPLACE
■ I would upload my short film on Short of theWeek or onYouTube.This is because they
are both popular social media sources that are used regularly, making my film
regularly watched and viewed by an audience. Making my short film distributed online
will make it more likely for people to find and then watch my film, whereas if it were
only on someone’s social media page, like Facebook, only their friends and family
would watch it preventing from finding a more variety of target audience viewers.