Proposal for Short Film

Outline of concept/plot
The short film starts with four teenage girls who are best friends - the protagonists. One of the girls suggests that they should play the Ouija board after school as she has heard that there is a ghost in the school. They all agree to do it and go to a dark room in the school where they begin to play the ouija board. They ask it questions and it begins to move and answer the girls questions. All of a sudden, the room goes pitch black for a second. When they light the candles again and put their torches on, they realise one of the girls has gone missing. They all decide to search for her around the school. One of the girls finds her missing friend dead in a room. She starts crying and runs to tell the others. She finds her other friend and hugs her, crying uncontrollably. Suddenly, the girl she is hugging stabs her as she has been possessed by the spirit. This is the twist in the narrative. The last girl who was also looking for her friend sees this happen and runs as fast as she can to escape the possessed girl. She is trying to start her car but her engine is not working. The possessed girl appears in the back seat and covers her mouth. This is the end of the short film, and this will shock the audience.


Target Audience and Scheduling/Distribution
The target audience will mainly be female and around 15-20 years old. This is because the main characters in the short film will all be female and around 18 years old. Also, some of the content may not be suitable for under 15s as it will include some violent, gory content. The ethnicity will be mixed as there are characters of different ethnicities in the short film. The interests of the target audience may be watching horror movies. The location of the target audience will be London as the short film will be filmed in East London, and therefore those living in London will be able to relate to the locations in the film.
The short film will be distributed to our target audience via YouTube. This will be suitable as YouTube is a platform that enables anyone to create and upload any type of video content such as short films. Furthermore, YouTube is mainly used by a younger audience. Therefore, this will allow our short film to be watched by a large young audience.


Genre and Themes
The Genre of the short film will be Horror.
The Props used will involve fake blood, ouija board and candles.
The Recurring characters will be the four teenage girls, but mainly the girl who becomes possessed in the film, as she kills the three other girls one at a time.
The Sound will involve suspenseful and tense music as well as different sound effects such as a door creaking, a loud scream, loud breathing, and a loud bang.
The Cinematography will involve very slow moving camera pans to build a tense atmosphere, as well as a focus pull, changing the viewers attention from one character to the other who will be in the background.
The Lighting will be very dark, low key lighting, which will reflect a creepy atmosphere.
One key theme my film will explore is death. This will be shown when the possessed girl kills her three friends.


Setting and locations 
The film will be set in the modern day in London. We have chosen this setting as it will be suitable for our audience because they will be able to relate to the era and setting, as they will live in London and are living in the modern day.
The main locations will be inside of our school, Chadwell Heath Academy. The first location will be inside a room, which is also known as the drama studio at our school. This is a large room where we will be able to sit down in a circle and play the ouija board. Furthermore, it will also allow us to have low key lighting and will have a range of lights in the room. The next location will be in the corridors of the school where the girls will be looking for the missing girl. The final location will be outside, but inside of a car.


Personnel and job roles
I will be the director of the short film, as I feel that I would be good at directing the cast and my partner and have had a lot of previous experience when producing media products.
Both my partner and I will be camera operators and editors. We will both share responsibility of the production and post production of the film. When I am acting, my partner will be the camera operator and vice versa. The camera will have to be placed on a tripod and not operated whilst my partner and I are both on screen, as we are both actors in the film. We will both edit the short film together to ensure both of our ideas and editing techniques are applied to the short film, which will enable us to produce the highest quality short film.
The actresses will be:
Maheen - will be 1/4 of the group of teenage girls. I feel that she would be a great actress in the film as she is confident and enthusiastic. We have also offered to be actresses for her short film in return, and so she will be more likely to give her full effort.
Manpreet - will be 1/4 of the group of teenage girls. We have chosen her as she is very outgoing and reliable. We have also offered to be actresses for her short film in return, and so this ensures she will give her full effort.
Simran (me) - will be 1/4 of the group of teenage girls. I will be a good choice as I know how I want the character to act in the film, and so by being an actress, I feel like I will be in full control of how the character is portrayed. I will also be 100% committed and reliable as it is my short film.
Nierraja (partner) - will be 1/4 of the group of teenage girls. My partner will be a good choice as it ensures that she will be committed and reliable, and will put all of her effort into it, as it is also her short film.


Legal and ethical issues
The BBFC certificate for our short film would be a 15. This is because, BBFC guidelines states that the film should be classed as a 15 where "There may be strong threat and horror" and also states" Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury". Therefore, our film should be classed as a 15 as it includes violence and horror.
One issue of intellectual property which would affect our short film is copyrighted music. This is because, there will be a lot of copyrighted music online. Therefore, to resolve this we would have to find copyright free music that suits our horror film. This can be found on websites such as YouTube.
One ethical issue which may affect our short film production is that one of our actresses are under 18. This means we would have to gain permission from her parents/guardian for her to be involved in our short film.