Treatment

Production:

Our short film is called What Lies Behind Closed Doors as it depicts a protagonist
who is experiencing trouble from the father of her baby who is trying to get back in
their lives. However, due to paranormal activities and strange occurrences that
happen within her house. She finds herself in a predicament facing life or death and
the only thing separating the two is a door. The production will last roughly 5 minutes
and will carry the audience on a journey through a downward spiral of supernatural
activities as well as character development between the audience and the
protagonist within the thriller genre. In regards to advertising we have created
accounts on social media and example would be, snapchat, twitter and instagram.
The reason being is that a very mass amount of our target audience which is (15-35),
use these platforms in terms of socialisation as a result we believed this would
connect to them more. And this is a beneficial way as we have a small budget due
to us being an independent production company. Additionally, all the platforms of
social media we chose to advertise on as listed above are fairly easy to use and
comprehend, as result the older end of our target audience spectrum would be
able to manage and access the methods of advertisement. Furthermore, we plan
on utilising YouTube to market our product in particular before the trailers of other
films of a similar genre to ours.

Genre:

My group and I came to the conclusion that wed stick to one genre, that being the
thriller genre. We chose this as it best relates to our synopsis due to the events that
occur throughout our short film. Our film starts with a normal setting relating to
Todorovs theory stating the equilibrium. However, due to the sinister aspects that
occur further down the short film, meaning the supernatural events that occur in the
kitchen as well as the electricity cutting out, they create a disruption. These elements
are present within thriller genres. In addition the main aim is to keep the audience
enticed and on the edge of their seats.

Duration:

The duration of our short film is 5 minutes, simply because our task was to produce a
short film which will persuade the audience to want to watch the full film. However, it
is a short time to create an interesting piece which is why detail will be vital when
creating the short film as we want our audience to be intrigued all through.

Target audience:

The target audience that we aimed our production at is between the ages of 15-35,
whilst doing so we made our certification a 15, our production appeals to both
genres as we believed that if our product is aimed at one specific genre this will limit
our audience therefore, making it target a very niche audience. The male
audiences can relate to how our protagonist Erica thinks on her
feet which is stereotypically a male trait as males are deemed
to be fearless in comparison to women. Furthermore, we thought the female
audience will relate to the protagonist being a girl as they may understand her
mind-set during that period of time. Our product is aimed at those who belong to
the socio-economic groups E, D, C1, C2 we chose this as people who are in this
range are more likely to visit the cinema or stream films. Also, we have chosen to set
our production in a house in an urban area which can relate to the audience more
as well as our actors being a part of these classes. We didnt chose to target our
production to any of those higher than the C2 bracket as they may not be able to
relate to the short film also, they may not have time to go to the cinemas or stream
films.

Outline:

The short film beings with an equilibrium as the normality of the situation is our
protagonist being briefed by the parents of the child. This gets the audiences
attention as the parents lay out set instructions regarding the child. The camera
focuses at the protagonists facial expressions, and then cuts as she shuts the door.

Character Breakdown:

Ericia- is a black 20 year old mother with one child. Ericia won full custody of her
baby however, the father of her baby is constantly trying to get back in their lives.

Actors:

The actor that we chose has previous experience when acting and have shown an
interest toward taking part in our production, our actor was aware of what was
required of her and knew the extent of how well we wanted our work executed.

Lighting:

To match the conventions of our thriller genre we are going to use stereotypical
lighting thats often seen in this genre, which often tends to be a dull and gloomy
colour, this in itself adds tension and a sinister attribute to the entirety of the short film.
We need to ensure that our film still has professional elements in it so the audience
are able to understand the narrative. In order to successfully do this, we may have
to manipulate the lighting during editing.

Camera Work:

My group and I have planned on incorporation a vast variety of shots in order to

keep the audience involved and on the edge of their seats. Due to the genre of our
film being a thriller we needed to incorporate conventional camera work that
appears in most thrillers such as close ups to exemplify facial expressions, tilted
angles to illustrate discombobulation and confusion and low angles to emphasise
intimation and class as low angles show superiority.
Editing:

To edit our short film, we will be using Final Cut Pro x software. Editing is
an essential part of our production as the editing helps the narrative flow as well as
help it link to the convention that were aiming for, in this case Thriller. Editing within
our production needs to be done to a high standard in order for the outcome to
look professional which will attract our audience.

Setting:

Our production will be set inside a house, which is a confined area. I researched and
conventional locations for a thriller and a house was one. We previously planned to
shoot our film in a school however, we found that this isnt a conventional location
for a thriller film as it might be interpreted to be an educational setting.

Props:

The props that we intend to use within our production consist of objects found within
most households. The props we wish to use is a glass of wine, Ericias mobile and
house phone and a hockey stick. We chose the wine as it dates back to biblical
times which shows its superiority and the baby monitor for when Ericia begins to her
distorted sounds come out of it. Lastly, the hockey stick is an uncommon object of
protection as a majority of people will choose a knife. However, we plan for our
production to have some counter-typical elements thus the usage of the hockey
stick.

Costume:

The costume we intend our protagonist to wear, needs to reflect her age as she is
20. However, we want her costume to represent the type of character she is which is
an independent sophisticated woman. We plan to dress her in light clothing as this
will juxtapose with the typical dark colour schemes that appear within thriller films.
The light colours will represent her purity and innocent which will contrast with the
stuff that occur within the house.

Sound:

We will be in-cooperating diegetic dialogue coming from our protagonist and

dialogue coming from Jax whos on the phone to Ericia. Music is an important
element within our production as it helps the audience to understand whats
happening within the scene and it conveys a specific message even when dialogue
may not be used. The non-diegetic music will be added in later during the editing
process. These sounds will add to the realism of our overall production.

Representations:

We have decided to include typical conventions of the thriller genre by making the
protagonist Ericia relatable to younger members of our target audience. During the
opening of our production it is clear that Ericia is having issues with the father of the
baby, which illustrates that she is on the verge of becoming a single parent which is
becoming more present within todays society. Portraying her in this way allows
people to look upon her situation and empathise with what she may be going
through. The strange occurrences that happen to Ericia which
include her electricity turning off and her hearing strange
sounds adds to the thriller element of our production.

Institution:

Our production company is called StreamLight Productions. My group and I

decided on this as Stream lights are torches and torches enable us to see within
the dark as it exemplifies how an object looks. This is used metaphorically within our
case as we believe that the quality of our production will be seen in an almost touch
like clearness. My group and I are executing a thriller film and it can be interpreted
as a mystery lies within the title of our production name as it is called what lies
behind closed doors which furthers the thriller genre.

We chose that specific logo as it is clean and crisp which links with how the quality of
our films are. Furthermore, this shows the audience what to expect when watching
one of our films.