3. Key Characters
■ Protagonist is young, carefree and lazy. He is a family friend of the owner of the house
and has been entrusted to look after their house and pet.
■ The owner is an older person, gone on holiday for the week.They are obsessed with
their pet, and evidenced of this is shown all around the house.
■ The pet is a dog or a cat.
4. Synopsis
■ The person tasked with looking after the pet loses the pet and panics, leading to a comical quick search montage to no avail. They sit and
try to think of what to do and notice the many photos of the pet, indicating the owners great love for their pet increasing the comedy of
the situation.
■ They then walk through the town trying to put up posters asking if anyone has seen the pet. Suddenly they come across a pet store and
an idea pops into their head.They buy a new pet.
■ The new put is brought home to try and cover up the mistake.The new pet looks similar but easily identifiable as not the same pet.They
try and make it seem at home and used to its surroundings.
■ The new owner attempts to FaceTime the friend and this gets quickly shut down by the friend.
■ Eventually the friend hears the owner approaching home and when they finally open the door the new pet comes to greet them. At the
same time the old pet walks back into the house as if nothing happened and consequently is in the same place as the new pet.The final
shot shows the reaction of the frustrated friend.
5. TargetAudience
■ Fans of comedy and short films and short comedy sketch films (like SNL).
■ The genre is also comedy and loosely action/drama so fans of this would enjoy my
short.
■ I am hoping to film it with some element of inspiration from EdgarWright’s style of
directing in films such as hot fuzz i.e. short montage cuts, so fans of this technique
could be interested in this short film.
■ The film could potentially appeal more to young people as well as most short films
appeal online, a medium typically dominated by young people.
■ Generally young people tend to be more interested in comedy too (as opposed to
drama or romance) so this will help with audience appeal for my film.
■ I will also advertise my film around platforms that specialise in short film appreciation,
likeYouTube channels or websites.
6. Form and style
■ I will shoot this film in a mostly naturalistic style with stylized editing.
■ The shots will be less candid/run on and more short and staged to create a more
dramatic and comedic effect.
■ This will be shown in the quick montage style cuts.
■ Due to its ‘real life’ style the shots won’t be filmed or the set be arranged dramatically,
more realistically.
■ I will use a variety of shots although the main range of shots will be various forms of
close up (medium close up, extreme close up etc.) and medium to long shots for a
more natural feel.
7. Marketplace
■ I believe there will be a good place for this film as I haven’t seen many short films with
a similar plot and comedy is generally well received genre.The film is a cliff-hanger so
there will likely be no need for a sequel but this be more successful at short film
competitions as there is no need to wait for an explanation of the film.
■ Youtube,Vimeo etc.
■ https://freesound.org/people/beman87/sounds/162848/
8. ■ An excerpt from an example script and a storyboard of a key moment are in front of
you.
10. Key Characters
■ Jenny – 17. Loudest most problematic and has a tendency to complain. Brown hair and
average height and build. She dresses formally due to her privileged lifestyle. All the
characters have been friends since early school days.
■ Charlie - is the only boy but he doesn’t mind. He’s also 17 but looks slightly older. He
has dark blonde short hair.Charlie is confident but not overbearing. He’s sometimes
too sure of himself as he gets them lost, but manages to rectify the situation. He is
very caring and helps Alex walk.
■ Alex - is similar to jenny in terms of height and build. Same age as the others (17). She
is the smartest as she notices the details around them conducive to them being in a
future year.
11. Synopsis
■ Sam is tasked to look after his friends pet.
■ Everything is going fine until he goes to feed the pet and its gone.
■ He frantically searches for it and cant find it.
■ He sets out with some missing posters and stumbles across a pet shop- getting an
idea.
■ He buys a new pet to pretend it’s the old one.
■ There is some humour in trying to get the cat to look the same as the others.
■ Eventually when the owner comes home his plan goes smoothly, until the old pet and
new pet meet as the old one miraculously comes home.
12. Target audience
■ Target audience is young adults/late teenagers between ages of 13-24.This is because
the main characters are around their age so they get a sense of personal relationship
and relate to them the most. Due to this I would expect them to fall under social
bracket E as this includes unemployed people for example students. They would
generally be fans of dramas, specifically sci-fi or fantasy based dramas, as this is the
genre of my short film. Additionally drama stereotypically attracts more women, due
to its conventions such as emotional and relational development of realistic
characters, more serious plot lines and emotional moments. Woman are
stereotypically associated with enjoying these features in films so my target audience
would reflect that. As well as this, while serious in tone, my film isn’t heavy (the
themes aren’t extremely emotionally and mentally draining) therefore may appeal to
younger people, who tend to gravitate to less serious topics.
13. Form and style
■ I’m going to film on a digital camera and microphone attachment as this gives good
quality sound and film and use a tripod to maintain level shots and steadiness of the
film. It’s easy to use and transport but still delivers quality. My shot types are going to
be naturalistic (not extremely close up or from abstract angles) to reflect the real life
situation and the drama genre conventions of naturalism and a more serious tone. It
will also therefore be edited naturalistically too, in a style that makes the film cohesive
and fluid.This would work most successfully as it doesn’t detract from the content of
the film (like flashy text or jump cuts would for example) and helps with continuity.
The genre is drama, more science fiction/dystopian drama as it has references to time
travel, future and living in an alternative future reality.
14. Market place
■ The market place for this must include the website ‘Short of theWeek’ as the company
has commissioned the short film. It would also be shown onYouTube andVimeo as
these are popular video sharing sites and would gather a large audience. I have seen
some similar ideas of time travel and futuristic plot lines in other films/short films but
none of his specific plotline so I think there will be an interest for this film – due to its
lack in the marketplace.
■ https://freesound.org/people/serop2012/sounds/169458/
15. An excerpt from an example script and a storyboard of a key moment are in front of you.
