This document outlines ideas for two short films. The first, "Forbidden Forest", follows a boy named Tom who gets lost in a mysterious forest while listening to music. He is chased and killed by a hunter who vows to kill one person in the forest each year. The second film, "Disappeared", is about a popular boy named Chris who wishes everyone would disappear after a bad day. He wakes up to find he is alone in the world. Both films would be 5 minutes long and target younger audiences with fast pacing and suspense. Sample scripts and character details are provided.

1. SHORT FILM IDEAS

2. WORKING TITLE
The title for the first film is “Forbidden Forest” and the tagline is “once you enter the forest you won’t
leave alive”. The length of this film would be 5 minutes.
The title for the second film is “Disappeared” and the tagline is “be careful what you wish for”. The length
of this will also be 5 minutes.

3. FILM IDEA 1- FORBIDDEN FOREST

4. CHARACTERS
The young boy in the film is called Tom Matthews. He is quite a quiet character and doesn’t have many
friends, he likes to keep himself to himself and doesn’t talk too much. One thing he likes to do is go for
walks in various locations and listen to music. The clothes that he will be wearing will be casual clothes that
he would wear to sixth form as when we see him in the film he would of just come from sixth form.
The other character in the film is the mysterious hunter in the woods, we don’t know much about him as he
doesn’t appear too much, he will be wearing dark clothes to show he’s a bad character.

5. SYNOPSIS –ACT 1
At the start of the film we see Tom leaving school and like he does everyday he is going to go for a walk.
We see him as he is leaving school and he is listening to music which he also enjoys doing. He decides that
he wants to go for a walk in the forest which is near to his house. As he is entering the forest he sees a sign
saying Do Not Enter but he decides to go in anyway.
When he walks in everything seems to be normal so he continues to walk through it. He continues for a
short period where he is just looking down and still listening to his music before he starts to realise that he
doesn’t know which way to go and he realises he’s lost. He starts to panic so he gets his phone out but he
has no service.

6. SYNOPSIS- ACT 2
After a few hours of walking around he realises that he wont be able to find a way out and because he still
has no signal on his phone, at this time it starts to get dark so he decides he will have to stay the night in
the forest.
He does what he can to set up somewhere to stay and make himself feel comfy. Whilst he is sat down in the
forest he starts to hear noises coming from the bushes behind him and he starts to get scared but he
decides to leave it and not check what it was. Just as he is lying down he starts to hear the same noise again
and this time goes to look at what it was.
As he gets up and walks over to where he thought he heard the noise he sees a man in the distance walking
towards him, the man is dressed in all black and looks threatening. When Tom sees him coming toward him
he starts to run away as he is terrified.

7. SYNOPSIS- ACT 3
When the man dressed in all black realizes Tom is running he starts running as well and chases him.
They run for a fair amount of time but tom starts to get tired and trips over on a tree stump on the floor
which allows the hunter to catch up to him.
The man stands over him and pulls a knife out and goes to kill Tom but just as he is about to stab him
Tom says to him “Why are you doing this to me?” in which the hunter replies with a story about how his
Mother died in those woods 5 years back and says “And now I vow to kill one person a year who comes
into these woods as revenge” and he stabs Tom.
It then cuts to a scene of the hunter dragging the dead body away and trying to dispose of it in the best
way he possibly can, the hunter then hears police sirens and we see him running out of the forbidden
forest.

8. TARGET AUDIENCE
The target audience for this film would be relatively young people and I will reach them by ensuring that
the film is very exciting to keep them on the edge of their seats to keep them interested in the film so that
they keep watching and hopefully they will enjoy my film. I will also intrigue them by adding fast paced
music where appropriate in the film to build up tension to key scenes which will keep them interested and
make them continue to watch to find out what is going to happen. I will also appeal to a younger audience
by having the main character in it to be around 17/18 so people of that age will see elements of
themselves reflected in the character which will satisfy their personal identity according to Blumler and
Katz’s uses and gratifications.
I will also appeal to fans of thriller at all ages by including key conventions of thriller films for example fast
paced music, quick changes of camera angles, isolated locations and low key lighting which will all help to
attract fans of thrillers as these are found in other thriller films so they will enjoy these conventions in my
film as well.

9. STYLE/FORM
My film will be very fast paced to suit the overall genre of my film which is thriller. I will make it fast paced by
jumping to different camera angles frequently and I think by making it fast paced it will suit the genre
because it keeps it exciting and thrillers are usually exciting. It will be shot using different camera angles but I
will make sure there are a few close ups of characters to show emotion as this is typically done in thrillers as
well.
I will use a handheld camera to film this so I can track the movement of characters in key scenes and the
camera will have good quality resolution and a mic for good quality audio to make sure it’s the best quality
short film I am able to make so that viewers enjoy it when the watch it.

10. MARKETPLACE
I will distribute my film on YouTube. This is because it makes it easily accessible to people who want to
watch it as YouTube is free to watch so people wont have to pay to see it which makes them more likely to
watch it and hopefully enjoy it. I will also distribute it here as it will reach my target audience of young
people because lots of young people watch YouTube so they will be more likely to see it if I post it here. I
think my film will be successful in the market and I hope it would do well at festivals but for this to happen
I need people to see it which is why I am distributing it on YouTube.
At this point in time I do not think there is scope for a sequel however there could be a prequel on how
the hunters mom died in the woods 5 years back.

11. EXAMPLE SCRIPT
Cuts to:
EXT: Alleyway in the woods
There is a man slowly walking towards Tom and as Tom sees him they both start to run.
Mysterious man:
Get back here!
*Music starts to fade in*
After a while whilst Tom is running he trips over a tree stump in the pathway allowing the man to catch up to him.
*Music fades out*
Tom:
Who are you and why are you doing this to me?
Mysterious man:
My Mother got killed in these woods 5 years ago and now I vow to kill one person a year who enters! And I
guess you’re the unlucky one.

12. EXAMPLE SCRIPT (2)
The man pulls out a knife
*fades to black*
We hear Tom scream and the man walk away
*sinister music starts playing*

13. FILM IDEA 2- DISAPPEARED

14. CHARACTERS
The only main character in this film is Chris Wilson who is 17 year old, he is a popular kid in school and
everyone seems to like him. He is very outgoing and does lots of fun things. He is also very dramatic and
something little going wrong can completely change his mood and it can cause him to do things he regrets.
There are lots of people he doesn't like who he attends school with and he makes fun of people is a mean
way. Chris would be wearing designer clothes that he wares to sixth form along with some nice trainers. He
takes a lot of pride in how he looks and puts a lot of care and attention into it.

15. SYNOPSIS- ACT 1
The film starts with Chris leaving his sixth form, he looks very upset as he has had a very bad day. We see
him on his way walking home and he plugs his headphones in and doesn’t talk to anyone which is a side of
him we don’t usually see as he is a very outgoing character. As he gets home he walks in without talking to
his parents and walks straight into his room which is also very odd of him to do.
Despite it only being 4PM Chris decides to get into bed and have a nap due to his bad day at Sixth form but
before he falls asleep he is reminiscing over how many different people caused his day to be bad and it
starts to make him angry and just before he falls asleep he wishes evryeone would just go away.

16. SYNOPSIS- ACT 2
The next scene is when we see him waking up from his nap and checking the time, he is very surprised to
realize that it is the next morning and he is late for sixth form so he jumps out of bed to get ready for his
day. As usual he goes into the kitchen to say hi to his mum before leaving the house to walk to sixth form
however upon walking to the kitchen he discovers his mum isn’t there and he checks the rest of the house
and she is nowhere to be seen.
He assumes she is out and leaves the house as he is in a rush. Upon arriving he realizes no one is in his class
which is unusual as he is late, he walks around the whole school and doesn’t see one person so he decides
to leave and walk into town and when he gets there there is also no one around. It is at this point he thinks
back to what he wished and realizes everyone has gone. At first this makes him happy and he starts to do
loads of fun things he wouldn’t normally be able to do but after a few hours he stops enjoying himself and
starts to get scared.
Later that night he decides to go to sleep and reflect over what has happened but after some time he falls
asleep.

17. SYNOPSIS- ACT 3
The scene cuts to his mum shouting at him to wake him up for school because he has overslept. He
wakes up and he is very confused because of yesterdays happenings but he doesn’t say anything to his
mum, he gets ready as usual and heads to sixth form. Whilst at sixth form he tells his friends about what
happened and they all laugh at him thinking he is joking but he explains he is being serious.
The film then forwards 2 months. We see Chris waking up to go to sixth form again but in a different way,
he no longer cares about his appearance, he walks to school and when he gets there instead of talking to
everyone, everyone is making fun of him which shows to us he is no longer the popular kid.

18. TARGET AUDIENCE
The target audience for this short film would be young people mainly people attending sixth form, college
or school. This is because the film is based on life in these atmospheres and as the main character attends
sixth form it allows students to have personal identity through relating to the character. I will try to attract
the target audience by keeping the film interesting with unexpected plot twists so the audience will never
know what to expect is going to happen.
People of all ages will still enjoy this film and I will attract them by keeping them on the edge of their seat
through using key conventions of the thriller genre to keep them engaged.

19. STYLE/FORM
The style of this film will be relatively fast paced and I will also make it relatively mysterious so that the
audience don’t always know what is happening which will intrigue them to keep watching as they will want
to know what is going to happen. I will use a range of shots in the film for example close ups to show
emotions of the characters to emphasize key scenes and let the audience know how the character is
feeling.
The film will also be shot with a hand held camera with a mic to film good quality visual and audio for the
audience to enjoy the film and it to be filmed at the best of my ability.

20. MARKETPLACE
I would also distribute this short film on YouTube for the same reasons being that it will make it free to
watch will will enable more people to see it and it will reach my target audience better on YouTube. This is
because lots of young people watch YouTube so by distributing it on here it allows them to find it easier
than if it was on another site which makes them more likely to watch it. I also think this film would be
successful and do well at festivals but I need it to gain popularity and by placing it on a free to watch website
I hope it would do this.
I do not believe there is scope for a sequel or prequel and I think it would work best as a stand alone short
film.

21. EXAMPLE SCRIPT
Cuts to:
Chris is asleep in his bed
*alarm clock starts going off*
Chris slowly gets up and turns the alarm clock off
Chris gasps when he looks at his watch and realizes that he is late for sixth form
Chris gets ready to leave then walks into the kitchen to say hi to his mum before leaves
When he walks in he discovers she isn’t there
Chris:
Mum! Where are you?
He checks the whole house and she is still no where to be seen.