TREATMENT:
1) Working Title: 'Rancour'
2) The genre i will work in is horror, this will allow me to follow simple genre conventions to appeal to my audience. These include; low-key lighting, tense moments, isolating environments etc.
3) Synopsis: A teen girl (Quinn) wakes in the middle of the night to find someone... or something... in her house. Panicked and alone, her mum tries to calm her over the phone, but not all is what it seems.
4) The only roles I will need cast to be on screen is my main teen character Quinn and my shadowy figure. I will need to cast a voice acting role for the mother as she will not be seen on screen.
5) Crew Required: Actors (2), one voice actor, camera man (me).
6) The location of filming will be in a house.
7) Props: I will need are; a phone, fake knife, fake blood, Halloween cut/gash prosthetic. The the phone will be important as its a symbol of our protagonists lifeline and light in the dark. Its also used as an important plot device. The knife will not be used for stabbing or in any action scenes but mainly used for creating interesting shots, giving the protagonist a reason to move downstairs and create another false sense of security. It also helps to fulfill genre conventions. The fake blood/ prosthetic may or may not be used (its undecided if the body Quinn finds of her mother in the climactic scene of the film will be mostly off screen or not) and is used to create a visceral image but doesn't have to be too good/realistic as it will only be on screen for a short period of time and i don't have a large enough budget to afford anything too technical.
7.5) Costume: For my protagonist, Quinn, the costume i will use is a teen girls pajamas, pajama shorts and shirt, this will work well to contrast the comfort of being in your own home with the horror of your personal space being invaded and will make the viewer feel unsafe. My antagonist will be mostly unseen and lurking in shadows but will still be seen in some scenes. I will need a full black mostly featureless outfit, i plan to have my antagonists arm appear in a scene as if it belongs to a woman, so i will have to keep this in mind when designing the antagonists appearance. These are important for my short film as they help to immerse the viewer in the world i am creating, allowing me to better improve my visuals to create a more impactful and effective short film.
8) Technical Equipment: Camera, Tripod, Lighting equipment, microphone.
SCRIPT (camerawork annotated):
Scene opens:
INT. QUINNS BEDROOM -- NIGHT
QUINN wakes in the middle of night, TV still on from when she fell asleep. The TV is just out of frame, but we see the light from the TV sprawl across the room. We switch to an extreme close up of her eye, a different light from the hallway appearing from a slowly opening door hits her face.
NEWS PRESENTER
-with over 6 missing persons reports in the Sheffield area in the last month, victims all young adults disappearing at the dead of night without a trace. Residents have been warned to keep doors locked at night and to-
QUINN is a young woman, aged 17-19 in appearance and wearing white/pastel clothing. Her long hair is slightly messy and pushed behind her shoulders
(to light QUINN I will use a camera mounted light as room is too small for large lighting equipment)
QUINN rubs her eyes and slowly starts to wake properly as the light slowly blinks off before she notices. Quinn turns off the bright light from the TV, a pair of white dots can now be seen in the darkness. They linger high up in the door frame, suggesting the scale of the thing just out of sight in the darkness.
ISO of 800 used as I want the space outside the door frame to be completely dark at a distance. There is no natural light in this scene affecting the lighting.
Aperture of f11-f22 used to create wide depth of field as the audience need to be able to see far into the room
QUINN notices and gasps, she reaches for her phone and shines a light at the dark figure, the shadow disappearing as the light hits it. The dots now being gone causes the panic to reappear. She hurriedly makes a call on her phone.
THE MOTHER
(tired) Quinn why are you-
THE MOTHERS voice is the first, and last, we hear.
QUINN
Mum I think I saw something in my room but i don't know if it was real or not (trailing off) and-and I'm really scared-
THE MOTHER
(Worried) Wait... what do you mean 'saw something'?
QUINN
Like a shadow in the door-
THE MOTHER
(Cynical) A shadow... at night? c'mon sweetie, go back to sleep it was probably nothing.
QUINN
Mum I'm being serious, I'm really scared and I think there's someone in the house with us.
THE MOTHER
(sighs) Quinn I already told you me and Katy aren't home tonight we're out of-
QUINN
WAIT- (starts hyperventilating) you mean I'm alone? I'm calling the police.
THE MOTHER
(changes to a more serious tone as she realises the severity of the situation) Quinn calm down. Arm yourself with something and look for the front door keys. I will call the police.
QUINN
Wait-
THE MOTHER
The police will take the shadow story more seriously if they hear it from an adult, ok?
QUINN
(building up courage) Okay-okay
THE MOTHER
I'm gonna make the call. I'll call back in just a second to make sure you're okay.
THE MOTHER hangs up as only a deafening silence is left in the house as QUINN slowly approaches her desk next to her door with her phone torch. QUINN frantically searches her desk draws.
QUINN
(frustratingly) Come on, where are you?
As QUINN is searching for the keys, we see a door in the background of the hallway creek shut. The noise startles QUINN.
Aperture of f11-f22 used to create wide depth of field as the audience need to be able to see the door in the background being closed.
ISO increased 1400 as the dark space in the doorway needs to be more visible so that the audience pays a significant amount of attention to it.
QUINN
(Approaching the door) Deep breaths- In... Out... (she grabs hold of the door handle) In...
She hurriedly forces the door open, a sigh of relief washing over her as we see an open window whooshing in air. She takes a step back and it's revealed the shadow is in her room now. (As her room now needs to be darker behind her, ISO is reduced to 900) The scene is broken up by her phone ringing and piercing the silence. QUINN jumps back in front of her door frame, covering of the white dots, we don't see them again in the shot when she moves.
THE MOTHER
Sweetie, the police are on their way but are you sure you even saw something? -
QUINN
(Still hurried/hyperventilating) Mum the keys are gone.
THE MOTHER
(small pause) They must be in the lock box in the kitchen.
QUINN
Shouldn't I check your room first?
THE MOTHER
(Authoritative) No. They aren't there.
QUINN
But shouldn't I at least che-
THE MOTHER
(Insistent) We don't have time to waste. You need to grab a knife from the kitchen, get the keys and leave.
QUINN
O-okay.
She glances at the door to her mum's room and starts to walk down the stairs. The shot lingers on the door.
CUT TO: INT. DOWNSTAIRS CORRIDOR
A long shot stalks Quinn as she reaches the downstairs corridor and flicks a light switch.
ISO of 400 will be used as the lighting from the window will naturally light the scene however I still want it to be relatively dark in the scene to set the tone and keep consistency.
THE MOTHER
Don't turn on the lights. You know your way around our house in the dark better than an intruder does.
QUINN SILENTLY OBEYS.
ENT KITCHEN.
A panning shot shows us the kitchen as QUINN enters the doorway.
THE MOTHER
Remember to stay calm sweetie, the keys should be in the change box on the counter.
QUINN
Yeah okay.
QUINN hurries over to the kitchen counter, sliding her phone in her pocket. Whilst rummaging around for the keys, we see something moving toward the fridge behind her in the reflection of the glass in front of her. The shot changes to one of her back.
HD setting used as its important to capture the movement in the glass without it being lost due to low quality.
This scene uses 3 point lighting to highlight QUINN properly in the room, as well as her surroundings as they play an important part in the events of the scene.
A blue light slowly spreads across the room. QUINN suddenly stops rummaging for the keys when the light hits her, she is frozen in fear. Quinn takes the phone out her pocket as she agonisingly slowly turns.
QUINN
Mum...?
The shot changes again and shows us that the light is coming from the now opened fridge.
QUINN
(raising the phone to her ear) M-mum...?
Shes met with the isolating sound of noise glitches/static echoing out her phone.
The shot changes: She hurriedly grabs a knife out of the kitchen droor. The camera pans up to a tracking shot (camera mounted light to properly light the tracking shot) as we follow her hesitantly past the garage door to the fridge. The shot rotates to her side as she grabs the fridge door, blocking the view of the rest of the kitchen. The music rises. She closes the door and the audience sees there's nothing there. The shot continues as she turns around with the camera: (this is a fast panning shot: 24 FPS used to capture the movement smoothly) we see the garage door now open, a hand that was reaching out now retracting into the darkness. The shot changes to a low angle as she reaches for the door handle, the door opening more before she even touches it.
The static from her phone rises, SEEMINGLY TAKING OVER/POSSESSING THE PHONE ITSELF.
This scene uses an aperture of f1.8-f4. The close ups and low angles are meant to feel as if the audience themselves are being feeling as distorted as QUINN. These aperture settings create a shallow depth of field to replicate this.
We see something in the dark... the hand now reaching out to her again? Her fingers flex out as cracking of bones can be heard. The hand would be the mother's, made apparent with jewelry. The hand is grey in appearance with deep red nail polish.
The static is now unbearable. The kitchen becomes distorted: the natural moonlight somehow flickers out, causing short periods of total darkness. A man's voice (young) can be heard embedded in the white noise:
THE VOICES
(Lifelessly, obviously trying to draw her in) Help me. I can't see in Here. Help.
QUINN stumbles back as the arm slowly retracts into the darkness yet again, before the door suddenly slams open by itself, she turns and dashes through the corridor and up the stairs. The white eyes can be seen in the darkness as she begins to run away.
THE MOTHERS voice can be heard panicked and calling out for her daughter, sobbing and asking if she's okay. Her voice begins to return to a normal state as the static lowers. We return to the shot of the landing again as QUINN approaches the door. She barges through in a rush. We see her pause, staring at something off screen, frozen in fear and panic as she realises something horrific. We see the same hand as before switching off the landing light, just out of the shot.
The aperture used here is f11-f22. This is because I am using a wide shot where multiple things are in frame and need to be noticed by the viewer. These settings allow for a wide depth of field. This is effective in allowing me to adhere to the audience expectations of what a horror film should look like.
THE MOTHER
Sweetie?
...
Are you alright?
Static from QUINNS phone begins again, THE MOTHERS voice takes a more sinister tone as a close-up shot reveals the same hand laying limp on the bed, covered in blood and black ink, clutching the keys. QUINN falls to the floor, overcome with grief and despair as the shot changes to a low angle of her phone on the floor and the doorway. The same two white dots are seen staring her down, but this time a silhouette of the mother can be seen, slightly blacker than the darkness.
THE MOTHER
(Her voice flicking between a deeper, masculine voice and the mothers) Sweeeeeetie?
The static rises again (still from her phone) as the moonlight gets sucked out of the room, in the static we hear many stolen voices speaking in unison.
THE VOICES
Behind you.
The shot switches to QUINN as she notices something out of shot. The shot switches to a low angle of a silhouette of her mother in the doorway, her eyes glowing with the same white dots. (The low angle uses a shallow depth of field of f1.8-f4 to blur the silhouette so the audience aren't able to see her fully, it also implies how the creature distorts the world around them) She begins to plead for her life and sob, THE MOTHER mimicking her from her phone. We follow a tracking shot (camera mounted light used) inching towards QUINN as she frantically holds out her knife infant of her, still pleading.
The screen goes black as credits begin to roll; we hear QUINNS pleading sobs turn to horror as she inhumanely gasps in. THE MOTHER still lifelessly mimicking her pleading sounds, as her voice and QUINNS, which becomes calm and dead, begin to speak in unison. QUINNS' voice is no longer her own.
The outside lamp now blinks back in, the title flashing in the light as the diegetic sounds return and all is back to normal.
END OF SHORT
RISK ASSESSMENT:
LOCATION RECCE SHEET:
Location Recce
Location: Residential Home
Date: 14/01/24
Survey time: 09:08
Address: S8 Westwick Road, Greenhill
Interior
Available power: Correct
Natural light: Medium-High
Doors & windows: One in every room, natural light not required
Logistics
Transport: Not Needed/ Self transport
Permits: Gained
Facilities: Available (food, drink and restrooms)
Exterior
Weather: Clear skies
Light: High-key
Sound: Little to no outside sound that will effect my filming.
Notes: Cramped house environment may difficult for filming, ensure to keep this in mind when planning pre-production. The filming must take place at night to achieve the low-key lighting atmosphere. Take the actors into consideration as they may be tired, make sure to provide food and drink.
No comments:
Post a Comment