Pitch for short drama.

1. Working Title: A Fear of Outside

2. Roles
Director: Alasdair Richards
Producer: Roagan Hall
Cinematography: Joe Hannaghan
Sound Department: Tom Hirst, Colton Holland
Editing: Colton Holland, Luke Poore

3. Story
Synopsis: A young man refuses to leave his room convinced that
the world outside has ended. With all his windows boarded up, a
gun always close by and a typewriter by his desk he records his
days in the room reporting all he knows about the world outside
mainly through the sounds of bombings and screams he can hear
and the occasional banging on his door every now and then from
people trying to get inside the room. But is this scary new world
real or just something the boy wants to believe in replacement of
his dull reality?

4. Directing
Directing the project will require a key eye to the aesthetics of the film in mind. We will need a very particular lighting and
prop layout as the lighting will hopefully emphasise different items in the room to a surreal extent and keep the room very
minimal. In one instance we’re going to need a bullet to fly through the window and a laser beam type shard of light shines
into the room. For this to stand out we will need to keep the area very dark or at least change the dimness of different lights
to provide the different emphasis. In different sequences it’ll also be important to control how the colour of lights change to
match the mood of the moment.
Prop sourcing will be down to me again because I control the look of the film. Our plan is to focus on a creepy 50s aesthetic
to follow the apocalyptic fears of the time. Old toys to suggest a the man child personality of our character and carefully
organised suitcases will build an understanding of the character for the audience while a use of projectors shining different
mix media clips on to the walls can imply his fractured mind. I will choose these clips which will all be selected from stock
footage websites to avoid copyright issues.
Meanwhile our actor needs to move the plot much like the lighting guides our audiences attention. As the director it’ll be
important for me to keep an eye on how he moves around the room and where he leaves object since we will most likely will
rehearse and re shoot the scene multiple times as we have access to the room with little time constraints other than the
deadline.

5. Projections
We intend to use projections, shining on various surfaces around our
character, to reflect his head space. The projections will include old nuclear
war based archive footage, war footage and the stereotypical 1950s
American suburbs.

6. Tone
Long Take:
Cuts across one room seems unnatural
Experimental - why not?
Following his headspace and experiences
Engagement with the viewer - unique selling point
Has an explorative tone as we explore the character’s mind
• Our Drama will consist of several hidden cuts - put together to look like it was all filmed in one shot.
• The hidden cut is a technique used by filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock and Alejandro G. Iñárritu, in
Rope and Birdman respectively.
• We have chosen to go with this idea because we believe so many cuts across a room could seem
unnatural.

7. Producing
Key roles
• Support the director
• Organisational and man management
• Contributed a trained actor and location
Inspired by
• Treatment
• Tone
• Mystery
• Lighting & Camera
• Steady cam

8. Cinematography
One Take:
-The film will appear to be one continuous shot
-We will hide cuts, however, in various ways so we can reset the crew and set where needed
-Using the motion blur of whip pans and/or darker spots of the image will be where cuts are hidden
Steadicam:
-Shooting on Steadicam will allow us to follow our one singular character around the set fluently
-The smoothness will make hiding cuts easier than a more jolty shoulder rig or monopod
-Keeping a smooth shot will also make the long take more convincing
-Steadicam will also allow us to move from mid/long shots to tight close ups in a fluid motion, adding dynamic to
the shot
Wide Lens:
-16-35mm
-As we are exporting in a letterbox format, shooting with a wider lens allows us to keep more in frame and maybe
safer than using a more zoomed in lens
Lighting:
-Long takes present some issues with lighting as we have to ensure lights are not in shot
-This may involve hiding lights on set, out of shot
-Filters will likely be used to generate ‘red light’ behind the door

9. Examples
Birdman (Alejandro Iñárritu)
Rope (Alfred Hitchcock)
Scene from True Detective

10. Research
True Detective – Long Take

11. ht
Props

12. Sound
Bullets
Bombs
Apocalyptic Ambience
Typewriter
Flesh RippingScreams
Radio Transmission
Reloading
Mum