The document discusses initial ideas for a student horror film including location, actors, narrative, and titles. It was decided that a forest would be the easiest location to film in, with the plot involving a group of teenagers stalked by a killer while camping. The filmmakers plan to star themselves and friends, with one taking a dual role as killer and friend. The opening scene will show the group being chased and one being killed after retrieving a dropped bag. Fading titles in a horror font are planned to accompany the opening scene.

1. INITIAL IDEAS

2. LOCATION
We had different ideas for where our movie should be set, this included various horror settings such as
graveyards, forests and abandoned buildings. We found that the easiest and best location for us to film our
movie in would be a forest. This is because we have a lot of ideas of the different forests to film in that are close
by and that are more accessible than graveyards and abandoned buildings. It also allowed us to create a more
atmospheric horror environment as the killer that was following them would be harder to see as there was a more
open environment for him to be stalking the victims in, the trees and foliage also included some visual
impairment for the victims as it provided a shield for the killer and so the victims only notice small glances of the
killer through the small holes in the foliage and branches so that the killer isn’t shown on camera which adds
mystery to the horror effect. The leaves and sticks on the ground also give us the additional effect of us being
able to hear the killer snapping sticks and crushing leaves as he walks about. This gives us additional free
resources to use to provide extra tension and horror to our movie. It also allows us to use the plot of a group of
teenagers who have went camping in the woods, only to notice that it is also home to a disturbed hunter who
constantly stalks the teenagers. Although the idea of having an abandoned building was also a useful thing to
add to the horror and tension of the horror movie as we would usually refer to abandoned buildings to be
dangerous and maybe even haunted, it didn’t provide us with the right tools we needed to film our movie as it
didn’t fit with our plot, we also couldn’t think of any nearby abandoned buildings that would be safe enough to film
in. The idea of graveyards was also a good idea but again this didn’t really provide much of a plot for us and we
couldn’t think of anywhere that was big enough or secluded enough to provide a horror type theme.
An example of a good
graveyard setting for a horror
movie.
An example of an abandoned
building that would be a good
horror setting.
An example of a good
forest themed horror
movie.

3. ACTORS
We were thinking of first of all using myself and Scott as the main characters in the
movie. We realized that we would probably need a few more people to help us film
the movie as two people wasn’t enough to fit our plot, we needed one person to be
killed and we would need another few people to join this person. Scott could have a
dual role as both the murderer and the friend of the person as the murderer isn’t
seen during the full opening sequence of our movie so we only see glances
through the trees so this will also reduce the amount of people we need to film our
movie which will make it more convenient for us as we won’t have problems with
who can film at what times. We are also thinking of adding extra characters in case
we need them and this would be a few of our friends who want to join in to film our
movie. Overall we will need a killer who will be stalking in the woods and stepping
on sticks and walking through the trees in the forest whilst being obstructed by the
foliage, this could be anyone as we won’t show their face. We will then need a few
friends who are going camping in the woods and we will need somebody to be
killed off during the opening sequence

4. NARRATIVE
Our narrative is a group of teenagers who have went camping in the woods without knowing
about the area first, they eventually get chased by a mad man who lives in the forest who
hunts people who enter the forest. During the opening sequence we will first of all show the
company logo as an intro and then the intro will fade in saying a time frame such as ‘2 hours
before’ this is so that we can set the opening sequence to later on in the movie so that it is
more interesting rather than showing how the campers have set up, this will keep people’s
attention and they will be more willing to watch the full thing. It will show a group of teenagers
running away from something, and one of them will drop a bag on the floor, they will then hide
in a nearby bush or behind branches out of the pathway. They will then exchange some
dialogue that will give us the audience an idea of what is happening, they will then say that
they need a phone to call the police but then realize that the phone was in the bag that they
dropped earlier so one of them has to decide which person is going to go out and get the bag,
this therefore creates a tension that one of them has to leave their hiding place to go out into
the open where the killer was chasing them from to get the phone. We will have tense music
playing as the person approaches the bag and the people behind the bushes are looking at
the person getting the phone. As he goes to open the bag he hears a noise of somebody in
the woods around him, after looking around he doesn’t notice anybody and looks back at the
bag and then suddenly notices a shadow on the ground and turns around quickly, the killer
isn’t revealed except for the shadow and the scream of the person being killed in a splatter of
blood.

5. TITLES
First of all during the intro we will have our company’s logo show up and then a
noise of a panther and possibly an animation of the logo being scratched. We
will then open up the movie and space our titles out in the order that we have
analysed other movie’s opening sequences so that it’s done properly. We were
thinking of possibly doing our text in a red blood joint handwriting font so that it
sets the mood of a horror movie. We were also going to have the text fade in
during different times of the opening sequence so that the audience can read the
titles as the opening sequence is playing so that they don’t have to wait for the
movie to start and are immediately thrown in so that they don’t get bored of long
title sequences. In our titles we will include things such as the directors, the
producers, editors, the cast, the company name, etc, at the end of the opening
sequence when the victim as the victim is killed and screams we will have this
scream playing through to the title and the title will suddenly appear to add to
this shock from the tension that has built up previously before the end and we
will most likely add some effects to these titles such as grain or projector moving
like effects to add to the horror effect.