PITCH

PRESENTATION
Horror short film by Corrin, Anaya, Tasha & Megan

Narrative
Description
- Beginning

We are using a linear structure to conduct our production

in order the keep the narrative relatively simple as it is
only a short film and so there will be a clear beginning,
middle and end.
The first few shots of our short film will all be at ground
level to engage the audience and build tension from the
get-go.
The scene will start off with a group of teenagers getting
out of the car and walking towards an abandoned house
with the intention to do drugs.
The edit will then cut to one of the teenagers filming
themselves as they go into the abandoned house whilst
telling the others a story about a girl who used to live in
the house and died there from sexual abuse.
The narrative will continue as the teenagers explore the
house for a while and then eventually sit down in the
main room to do the drugs after deciding that the house
appeared safe enough. While sitting in a circle, the
teenagers will pass around magic mushrooms and each
eat some with the use of POV shots.
The following shots will show them sitting/laying down
whilst they begin to trip.

Narrative
Description
- Middle

As the mushrooms start kicking in, the teenagers start joking

around saying I can smell the colour red etc. and feeling
spiritual.
This will be interrupted by a sudden loud noise and the
teenagers will become increasingly paranoid.

Some of the teenagers start having bad trips and think that
they can see the girl who had died there. As they sit back up
into a circle again after the loud noise, a POV shot will
demonstrate one of the teenagers hallucinating and thinking
that they can see the girl who had died in the haunted house
and she was sat in the circle with the rest of them.

The dead girl will then run behind them leaving them asking
what the noise was. After the paranoia surrounding this, one
of the teenagers feels like they can hear the girl laughing and
murmuring to them yet no-one else can see/hear anything.

*climax happens we are yet to decide what the climax will

be. We figured that it would be best to gather feedback from
our target audience on what they would enjoy/expect the
climax to be and then incorporate the findings into our
production*

The edit will then zoom into one teenagers eye and back out
again to *end*

Narrative
Description
- End

Edit zooms out from the teenagers eye and

shows them all sit up at the same time all
sat in someones bedroom
This will demonstrate that they were
collectively having a bad trip and were
actually sat in one of the teenagers
bedrooms the entire time.
This will ensure a definite ending to the short
film which eliminates the possibility that it
could end up seeming like an opening
sequence

Typical conventions of a horror film include:

Genre and
conventions

1.

Low key lighting is typically used throughout horrors to create ambiguity

2.

Ambient diegetic and non-diegetic sounds are used to engage the audience
further for example, footsteps, screams or strong winds

3.

The audience would expect blood and gore throughout a horror

4.

The manipulation of ghosts/demons/spirits/murderers are anticipated in horror

films

5.

Props such as knives, masks, dolls are commonly used to create a sense of
disturbance and creepiness

6.

The audience anticipates suspense, tension and fear

7.

We found that horror films are either set in familiar places such as a persons
house or completely unfamiliar places to the target audience such as abandoned
houses

8.

Camerawork in horrors are typically very expressive and therefore unnatural, for
example, a lot of close up shots are used to demonstrate emotions, canted
angle shots are also typically used to create a sense of ambiguity

9.

The overall colour palette used in horrors are typically very dull and monotonous
in horror films

10.

Characters typically used in horror films include creepy children, teenagers,

psychopaths, serial killers etc

We aim to follow the majority of these conventions in our short horror film in order
to ensure that our production meets the expectations of our target audience.

Character
Types

We aim to have around 6 characters in our

production to keep the narrative simple and allow
the audience to identify with the characters. We
think that using stereotypical teenagers in our
production, the target audience (teenagers) will
be able to relate to the characters. We will also
have one girl acting as the dead spirit from the
past that has come back to haunt the teenagers
for trespassing.

Suggested
Locations

After researching into 3 different locations, we

decided that we wanted to film in an abandoned
orphanage in Chertsey called Silverlands Manor.
We felt that this would be the most achievable
and realistic as the manor follows all of the typical
codes and conventions used in horror films.

BBFC and
Target
Audience

We are aiming for BBFC to give our film a rating

of certificate 15 as we feel that this would best
appeal to our target audience. We wouldn't
expect our short film to fall under the certificate
12 due to the use of drugs, horror (e.g. blood and
gore) and strong language that will be involved,
however we highly doubt that it will reach an 18
as the film wont feature nudity or mass violence.

BBFC and
Target
Audience

The criteria for a rated 15 film is as follows:

Violence - Strong violence is allowed
Language The use of frequent strong
language (e.g. 'f***').
Sex - Portrayals of sexual activity, strong
verbal references to sex (e.g. innuendos),
sexual violence and verbal references to
sexual violence
Nudity - Sexual nudity, however it should be
handled responsibly
Discrimination - Discriminatory language
or behavior
Drugs - Drug taking however it must not
encourage drug taking

Individual
Roles

There will be for main roles within the production and

so we have decided that we are going to distribute
these evenly due to the uneven amount of workload.
However, we will all be assigned a main role each, but
we will work as a team to complete all 4 roles together
and with each others input. We have collectively
decided that:
Camera work and filming will be done as an entire
group to maximise our potential.
Anaya will focus on the editing, such as shot duration,
effects, transitions, credits and continuity
Megan will focus on creating the logo for the institution
using Photo Shop and Final Cut Pro
Corrin will be doing the majority of the sounds and
music, such as diegetic/non-diegetic sounds,
script/dialogue, effects and the soundtrack.
Tasha will be providing props and co-ordinating
composition and lighting within the mise-en-scene.