Final Idea Treatment

Our film centres around the surprising and unexpected death of the female lead (played by Harriet Austin). The antagonist will later be revealed as someone close to the victim, while her best friend is featured throughout. The film is aiming to be in the horror/drama genre, with many conventions and a few subversions of the genre. It is aimed towards teenagers as we believe this will be an appropriate age to relate to the location and the actors. The rating will be a 12 or a 15, depending on how the film changes throughout production. 

PLOT

In the opening two minutes, we will start off with an establishing shot of our first location, which cuts to a smaller room with a focused medium shot on the protagonist. We match-cut to a close up of her phone as a gloved hand comes and takes it. She doesn’t notice, however, as she is listening to loud music on a computer. This scene has limited sound, but possibly will include a suspended note to add tension to the scene. We will then cross-cut to a medium shot of her friend in a busy room where he is trying to call her. There will be some dialogue here as well as general ambient noise. This will cross-cut to a long shot of the lead walking outside and back to the friend, now giving up on phoning her. When we cross back to the lead, we see a long shot of the antagonist behind, following her. During the times where the antagonist is in shot, there will be some bass notes to emphasise the danger the girl is in. After this, we will cut back to a shot of her friend calling again. This time, it will cut to the protagonist in the toilets. There will be multiple shots of her washing her hands etc. with the antagonist hidden from her but not from the audience. A cross-cut to her friend again, and then a long shot of the protagonist dead on the floor of the toilets. This will match-cut to a close up of the phone ringing, and then to a low angled shot of the protagonist leaving the room. The titles will then come up, leaving the opening on a cliff hanger. 

As for the rest of the film, if it were made, we could possibly have her friend find her dead body and hunt for her killer. The horror we initially intended, would turn into a crime/drama type of film. However, we could also enhance the horror nature by continuously killing the group off until the audience discovers why that certain group were killed. 

CHARACTERS

The Female Lead - played by Harriet Austin, the lead will be quite secluded and keeps to herself. She is seen as oblivious and possibly too focused on doing well at school. She is the victim.

The Best Friend - played by Alex Bateman, this character is a classic best friend, with all the concern for where the lead has gone. He is over the top and dramatic and wont stop until he finds what happened to his best friend and avenges her.

The Antagonist - played by Sammie-Jo Bretherick, the antagonist will always be hidden. Until the very end, the audience will not know who this character is or why they are doing what they’re doing, adding to the tension of the film. 

KEY LOCATIONS

We will begin the filming in one of the sixth form study rooms. This will show us who the lead is and is important in the storyline of why she isn’t picking up her phone. This will be the scene where the audience will know more than the character but will also introduce the fact that she is in danger. 

In another scene, she is going to walk outside. This will be the scene where the audience will definitely know that she is being followed and is in danger. This is the first scene where the antagonist is revealed to the audience, though not totally revealed as to who they are.

The death will happen in one of the toilets around the school. This is important as it changes the thought of her as the protagonist at the beginning of the film. This will also be one of the last shots of the opening which means it will make more of a statement on the rest of the film.

GENRE CONVENTIONS AND SUBVERSIONS

We will conform to stereotypes of the genre by including classic horror cliches such as a hooded follower. We will have a concerned friend trying to figure out what has happened. A bathroom scene is always common, such as in Psycho, in which the protagonist is always on their own. The girl will also be the victim, which is common in horror films. 

We will subvert stereotypes of the genre by ignoring some cliches of the horror genre. We are not setting our film in a rural area. As it is in a school, there are lots of people around, creating different circumstances of the murder. There is also a murder in the opening two minutes. This is very uncommon in horror films as it usually gives away the plot and is usually less tense.