Short Film Pitch

Becker Watson, Dominique Bendelow, Michaela Boddy

Missing

Title

When thinking of a font for our title we used www.dafont.com as it provided a wide selection of fonts to use. Here are a few of the samples we thought would be appropriate, which ever one we like the best will be used on our film poster.The title „Missing‟ gives a sense of unknown to the audience based on our ending, which is an open ending.

ConceptWe watched three main films to give us the ideas and inspiration for this film, which include; Sweeney Todd, Psycho and Zodiac.All three films are based on the idea of a serial killer with a main genre of psychological thriller. These films relate best to our short film idea because we wanted to try and make ours a thriller, although we keep the truth of the ending hidden from the audience.

Concept Trailershttp://vimeo.com/9513557 Sweeney Todd Trailer

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG3-GlvKPcg Psycho Trailer

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dWgRfb17-M Zodiac Trailer

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR9MsNurndQ The Butterfly Effect Trailer

These trailers are of the films that provided inspiration for our short film. We‟ve put the trailers on to give you a better idea of how we were influenced.

NarrativePlot/SynopsisThe film opens with different pictures of our main female character with her boyfriend and with her friend, with the opening credits and the title on top of all the images that are shown. Our main female character is going to Guisborough Woods for inspiration for her photography project. She gets to the place in the woods she wants to be, which is a secluded area, and she sees her friend Chris who has took his dogs for a walk. Just as the female character sees him she receives a text from her boyfriend asking “Are you ok?”, she hesitates and replies back with “I‟ll phone you in 10 minutes”. She then goes and talks to Chris, as they hug the camera closes up on Chris‟s face, he closes his eyes and we see a flashback of him doing the same thing with numerous other girls and then killing them. We are brought back to reality as Chris opens his eyes and has a sinister look on his face. The female character is unknown to this change in him. As she tries to leave he asks for one more hug, at which point his hand goes into his pocket to retrieve an unknown object, the camera flashes back to Chris‟s face with a sinister smile again and the screen goes black. There is the sound of a struggle with leaves rustling and twigs snapping then silence. We then see the images from the opening of the film and the camera focuses on Chris in the background of every image, to suggest he has some obsession with the female character. The sound of a phone ringing can be heard, the image to the Woods returns showing the female characters phone on the floor and her boyfriend phoning. The screen then goes black and the end credits are shown.

Characters„Victim‟Within our short film we are going to have a so called „Victim‟. We are going to make the audience feel like this person is a victim all the way through, but also make them question themselves as they consider the fact that maybe she isn‟t the victim, but she‟s also another villain by cheating on her boyfriend. We leave this bit to the imagination which also keeps people in suspense and makes them want more.

„Villain‟ We also have the typical „Villain‟ who is after the victim. We will make the audience constantly feel on edge with the way this character is portrayed in our short film. But towards the end we make it obvious that everything may not be what it seems, and we‟re unsure of where the story ends. Although this happens, we also make it known that he was previously a villain which adds to the confusion of the narrative.

Mise en SceneOur film is set in a secluded area of Guisborough Woods, (most likely in the snow, knowing our luck). This is seen as a mysterious setting and gives the impression that the main female character is, obviously besides Chris, alone.

The era of the film will be modern day, so 2011/2012 depending on when we start filming. This will allow us to incorporate modern day technology such as mobile phones, into the film.Our villain, Chris, will

be dressed in all black; black jeans, black hoodie, possibly wellies, gloves, maybe a scarf and a hat but he already has black hair. Our female character will be dressed in normal winter/snow day clothes; wellies, big coat, hat, gloves, scarf etc.

For the majority of our film we will be using the daylight provided, which will create a more ambient and lively feel, although we maybe need to use torches etc to create low key lighting or to show facial expressions with close ups. (We would use the big lights, but there‟s no plugs in the woods).

Audience ProfileIf our film was made into an official feature film we would have to have it rated by the British Board of Film Classification. We would say that our film is aimed mainly at an audience of ages between around 15 – 21 year old and therefore would label our film to be a 12 or a 15 certificate. Our film will be aimed at both males and females equally, although there is a natural domination of males rather than females due to preferences.

Themes, Time and Technology

Our short film will include „time travel‟ in the form of flash backs so the main theme of time will be the present day, other than in the actual flash backs. We chose to do it like this because we felt that we could relate to modern day situations easier to bring a higher quality film. The technology we use will be of present day with the use of mobile phones and a camera the main female character within the actual film.Other themes present will be; Mystery, Suspense, Drama and Thriller.

Animatic

This animatic made on www.goanimate.com gives a almost overview of our short film. It doesn‟t happen like this in the film, we just had to work with what we had.

http://goanimate.com/movie/00xKv73G0rR4?utm_source=linkshare&uid=02wp4V60mzI4