The document outlines the pitch for a short horror film called "Latch." It will tell the story of a man sleeping alone in a mansion who wakes from a nightmare of being attacked. Though he thinks it was just a dream, strange events seem to indicate something more sinister is happening. The film will be shot in black and white to create an atmosphere of fear and tension. It draws inspiration from the horror film "Lights Out" regarding a character who believes they are being followed after dark. The main characters will be a man in his 20s and a demon-like woman in her 50s-60s. Filming will take place at a mansion-like house owned by a family member.

1. Pitch
BY TYLER MILLER AND CONNOR BAKER

2. Genre Research
• After conducting research by looking at inspirations our have decided that
the best genre for a short-film is horror – this is because in such short time
it’s easily doable and puts the audience on the edge of their seat – it works
perfectly for our narrative.

3. Our narrative
• An opening shot shows quite a detached mention and then follows up to
the room that the scene will be in. It then shows a man, sleeping on his
bed shaking – it then shows the surrounding of his room, the window
being open with the curtain flicking open – the metallic wardrobe slowly
creaking due to the pressure of the wind – his bedroom door on the latch,
yet is shut calmly due to the wind. The room dark, but there is some form
of light coming from the external lights out outside the house. The
opening title flashes up “Latch“.
• It reverts back to the man, shaking on his bed slowly zooming into his
head shaking and clearly in distress – it zooms so far in as if it’s going into
the man’s thoughts (this is shown through the colour change). We can see
reality from a different perspective, the man believes that he’s just woke
up from a weird dream, yet he suddenly feels a full force pushing him onto
the bed – the last thing he checked was the time, it was 12:07.
• All of a sudden these long, dirty finger nails go deep into his torso and
abdomen causing his internal and external bleeding. He launches up in
his bed (this time in reality that we saw originally) with the door slightly
open, as he assumed it would be (the door closed in his sleep – only the
audience know this) and thinks he’s fine – the wind has stopped and the
setting is calm, he looks over at the clock and it’s 12:06 – he hears his
wardrobe door creak, the clock turns 12:07 and all we hear a loud scream.

4. Our inspiration
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fDzdDfviLI
• Lights Out is our inspiration for our short-film because both
films are similar. The woman believes that she saw a figure
following her within her home but she only noticed it when
the lights were out.
• The ending in particular is similar because she feels safe
within her bed after her real-life nightmare and then looks
over to the light and there the figure is, staring at her and
the lights going out. This relates considering the man had a
nightmare while asleep, and this entails into reality because
it’s almost as if he’s predicted what would happen.
• The reference to the title is similar too because she doesn’t
feel safe with the lights out, and the man in my film feels
safe because when he woke up all the surroundings were the
same as when he had gone sleep therefore nothing bad could
possibly happen, but he didn’t realise the door closed due to
the wind.

6. Location
• The location would be within a mansion, and then within that mansion it would be quite a big bedroom,
particularly with furniture that is in a sense vintage looking, yet the man is in his 20’s. This is because it
adds to the effect that it’s detached, nobody can access it to help save the man. We also want that age
because he would have just moved out on home, clearly the house he has was brought for him and looks like
he could have his parents to leach off of – his parents aren’t there for his darkest moment. The location
would be in Westonzoyland due to a family member owning a mansion-like house.

7. Characters
• There is only two characters in this short-film because that’s simply all
that’s needed for it to essentially work – overcomplicating the short-film
with different characters only leads to the short-film being dragged out, and
with the time restraint of 5 minutes it seems like a waste of time.
• The characters will be one male and one female. The female will preferably
be in her 50 or 60’s purely because she’ll have to look like a demon, but this
isn’t an issue with special effects make-up which we have covered by a friend
who did the course in college.
• The man would have to look in his 20’s to give that feel that he’s just got out
of college and we’d understand he’s quite rich due to the room being well-furnished.
He doesn’t live with his parents because they brought him the
mansion as a gift and shots of them in a frame will appear somewhere in the
short-film.

8. What we’d like our characters to look like

9. Forms and conventions
• The film itself will be shot in black and white in order to set the theme of
fear and tension towards the audience. It releases a sense of horror towards
the audience, as it’s meant to bring in darkness and that would be everyone’s
fear at one point in their life.

10. Back-up Plan
Penny’s Drop - Establishing the scene within a caravan, a male character, a
book and a penny, laying on the side. In this dark, unsettled private land
settles a low income man with little to his name. Forever the scent of burnt
candles linger within the air around him. Supported by the use of one
flickering light bulb hanging from the roof. He lays in there, just reading. A
tapping sound in the background draws his attention. His facial emotions
are scarce and confused. Bringing in the beat from the background of a
tense nature, he moves over to the noise slowly. Watching every step he
takes within. As the camera focuses on a crackling cupboard, he looks at it,
worried and on edge. He brings his hands to the cupboard slowly. The music
getting more intense, with the scent of fear bleeding from his skin. The
tension of the environment he lives in gets to breaking point just when we
flick to a shot of the a penny dropping. A lack of the male characters
attention allows the cupboard to creak open. For only him not to know that
his next turn will be his last followed by a loud scream of horror.

11. Question time
If you have any questions then feel free to
question us on our narrative – if you have any
critical feedback then please provide us with some
so we know on how we could improve.