Treatment

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Film Genre: Psychological Horror

Title: Closed Doors

Running Time: 2 Minutes
Beginning: The audience is introduced to a young girl who has a dream about her best friend being murdered. The girl lives with her mother and step-father. They are a close family and get on well with a good family life. She discovers the dream is not actually a dream but her best friend is in fact dead. Now the story goes backwards, we see the best friend was actually attacked by her step-father (which is not revealed yet to the audience). The best friend has previously tried to tell the girl about the traumatising event that took place.

Middle: The dad finds out that the best friends has tried to confess what happened and murders her. It later goes on to reveal to the audience that the dad dresses up as woman to commit the rape, explaining why the girl once thought it was her mum who murdered the best friend. She regains trust for her mum and puts the pieces together to realise it was her stepfather. The mum however locks her in a room and calls the stepfather, betraying her daughter.

Resolution: What once thought to be a creepy caretaker comes and saves the girl, we later go on to find out that he the biological father of the daughter.

CHARACTER PROFILES:

Character:	Personal Traits:	Physical Traits:
Lauren	Paranoid Determined – to find out who murdered her friend	Dark, curly hair Petite - show innocence and vulnerability
Jay/Jade	Manipulative – turns mother against her own daughter Lauren. Mentally unstable – but very clever at hiding it from others. Likes to dress up as a woman to commit his attacks. He uses Lily’s vulnerability to his advantage.	Scar on the rights side of his back Dark features – sense of mystery Hair is starting to grey Tired looking
Mum	Comes across as friendly and caring Actually sneaky and disloyal (even to own daughter – shock factor)	Small – make audience think she is weak (shock factor bigger for audience) Glasses
David	Appears to be creepy and mysterious – not much of hi personality is shown	Greasy, dark curly hair Dark circles under his eyes Grubby looking Gold Tooth

Certification:

We are going to use a certificate 15 for our film; from the BBFC website we know it can be classified as a 15. As there is evidence of dangerous behavior, violence and adult themes, it would be unsuitable to have a 12 certificate. The reason it is a 15 is because we are not going to show the knife hitting the skin or wound, so it is only suggesting a stabbing. The violence and strong language will be kept to a minimum to make it suitable for a 15 certificate.

Audience:

We are targeting males and females. The horror genre is more commonly associated with males, as they tend to enjoy the suspense, tension and fear created within this genre. By having our main character as a female however, means that females can relate to her more easily and can empathise with what she is experiencing. Having a film certificate of 15 this is the minimum age we are aiming our film at. The age range will be from 15 to 45 years of age as we feel the storyline and tension created in the film will appeal to people in this age range. IT is going to be a modern psychological horror and so will primarily target the younger ages, as it is what they can relate to and they tend to have a preference towards.

Main scenes:

Scene 1:

It begins with a wide shot of our main character laying on a field. After walking through bushes in a park the audience are then introduced to a dead body on the floor, a man in a hooded jacket throws a rock to the floor and runs off.

In order to capture him running, the camera pans across. The first sound we hear is of his chunky boots thumping on the ground.

Scene 2:

A distorted image of the light, morning sky is shown to represent a new day.

Lauren is walking in the graveyard and she comes across the body of her dead best friend. There is a close up shot of her shocked facial expression. Her phone bleeps and she goes to read the text, which is from, the murderer. She then becomes the focal point of the long shot as we see a point of view shot of the mystery killer looking at her from behind a bush in the distance. An arch shot is then used to make the audience think you are about to see the killer, this creates a sense of suspension and an enigma as the viewers will want to know who this mystery character is.

Scene 3:

The next scene starts with a non-diegetic sound of a phone alarm, the camera pans over to a shot of the ringing phone. The girl is shown in bed waking up. She picks up her phone, turning her alarm off and begins to text her best friend who she doesn’t know yet is actually dead, thinking it was a dream. Text boxes appear as inserts of the outgoing texts she is sending to her friend (e.g ‘had a crazy dream last nite.’ ‘u comin round l8r???’) She outs her phone down. A few minutes later she goes to check her phone. A close up of her confused facial expression is shown as she wonders why her friend has not replied. Text boxes again. (e.g ‘y r u not replyin?’ Answr ur phone!’) Her doorbell rings’, thinking her friend has come round she looks outside. She sees a creepy man, who is the caretaker from her school standing across the road looking into her window; this is shown through a long shot.

Scene 4:

Lauren quickly draws her bedroom curtains and is shown walking down the stairs in to the living room where her mum is watching the news. A picture appears showing a picture of her best friend Lily with the headline ‘Local girl found dead in local graveyard’. Close up of Lauren’s face showing realization her best friends death was not a dream. The mum looks up to see Lauren standing at the doorway, she immediately turns off the TV. Lauren breaks down, sobbing into he mothers arms.

Scene 5:

The next scene takes place on the next day at Laurens school where we see her in the bathroom. She receives another text ‘Ur not alone in here’. She looks behind her and sees red shoes from under a cubicle, which she then realises, are her mothers. The hypodermic needle theory is applied here as this point of the scene injects fear in the audience. A flashback shot of her seeing her mother wearing the same shoes that morning is shown. She runs out of the bathroom in a panic. As she runs into the corridor she bumps into her mum, who Is wearing different black shoes. A close up of her confused face is shown. Realising her mother is not the mystery killer, Lauren asks her to take her home. On the journey home, Lauren explains the whole situation from the dream, to the shoes (the mum keeps quiet).

Scene 6:

They arrive home and the mum asks Lauren to get her something from Lauren’s bedroom, betraying her as she locks Lauren in. Her mum runs to the kitchen house phone and dials a number. A jump cut is shown to a low shot of someone stepping into the drivers seat of a car. The character is wearing the same red shoes Lauren saw in the cubicle earlier. They answer the phone. There is a jump cut to a close up of the mother on the phone as she says ‘it’s done. Come now’. Another jump cut back to the unknown character’s shoes, the camera then pans up to reveal the face of  the step father, he says ‘Good.’ This creates a dramatic irony for the audience as they now know who the killer is, whereas Lauren doesn’t.

Sample Music:

We liked the music from this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EljH747HKE

for the opening sequence. We like the eerie atmosphere, to allow the audience to identify with the horror genre straight away.

Sample Fonts:

This sample font would be ideal for our product. The blood dripping conforms to the horror genre, as it conveys death.

 We will have a black background with white writing, this is binary oppositions as it will portray good vs evil.