PORTFOLIO OF OUR

SHORT FILM
Enigma Productions - Molly, Lili-Rae, Sally and Megan

NARRATIVE DESCRIPTIONBEGUINNING
We're using a Linear narrative structure, so the film will have a clear
beginning, middle and end.
Rose, a teenaged girl, receives a phone call from an eerie sounding woman asking
her to baby sit her child, Mercy-Violet, that night.
The mother asks Rose to arrive at 9pm and that her and her husband shall leave a
key under the doormat for her.
'Mercy-Violet', the baby, will already be asleep so the mother informs Rose not to
disturb her under any circumstances and gives her several rules to strictly follow.

MIDDLE
As rose arrives at the house, we'll play the non-diegetic sound of the voicemail over
the top of the shot of her walking towards and entering the house.
When she enters the house the voicemail will end and she trips on something, a
rattle, which startles her. We intend to make this part a jump scare as well for the
audience.
Walking round the suburban house nothing is out of the ordinary, so Rose goes to
watch the television but it's a creepy looking kids show. She tries to change the
channel but it's not working. Close up of the TV showing audience creepy show. Rose
just turns the TV off instead and picks up a old, mysterious book. She falls asleep
and is woken by creepy baby noises.

MIDDLE
Worried that the child has woken and has gotten out, Rose rushes upstairs to check
on her. The baby is a china-doll.
Confused, Rose picks up the doll and calls out 'Mercy? Mercy?', believing the child to
have escaped from her bed leaving her doll behind.
Starting to panic, Rose goes to phone the parents in worry, however as she is
walking down the stairs she notices something disturbing that she missed before
when she rushed upstairs...
All the family photos include the doll in place of a human child.

END
In shock, Rose drops/throws the doll and jumps backwards in fear. Blood starts to
appear around the baby's head. Suddenly as Rose is panicking, the doll slowly turns
its head to look at Rose.
She screams and runs to grab her belongings to try and escape, however it is at that
exact moment that the clock strikes midnight and the parents arrive home.
Last shot can be a parallel shot between the door opening slowly and Rose
panicking on the floor
The end

GENRE AND CONVENTIONS

Our main genre is Horror, but with

conventions from the thriller sub-genre
being applied.
Such Codes and Conventions include:

Mise-en-scene:
Scary China Doll
Blood
Dark setting, isolated, no one is around,
suburban victorian house
Family photos
Children's TV show
Sound:
Child laughter
Screaming
Suspenseful non-diegetic music
Voicemail with creepy woman voice

Lighting:
Low Key lighting
Night time
Camera:
Match-on-action
Close ups to see fearful reactions
Establishing shot at beginning
Over the shoulder
High angle shots
Hand held shots
Dutch Tilt
Editing:
Effects, filters
Slow motion
Fast-motion
Quick cuts
Dual/parallel cuts

CHARACTERS

Celeste Denyer will

be playing the part of
our protagonist, Rose

Stacy the China Doll

will be playing MercyViolet the China Doll

Parents yet to be cast

SUGGESTED LOCATIONS
We have decided to adhere to the typical codes and conventions for the
horror genre as we will be filming in a suburban family house. The house
was built in the Victorian era however it's being live in so it's insides are
contemporary but with things such as the old fireplaces left behind, which
adds a old fashioned feel to it.
As it's a family house it will be close to what our target audience is
currently living in so it will be closer to real life, adding to the fear factor.

BBFC AND TARGET AUDIENCE

Our target audience will be teenagers.
To classify our short film we looked at the criteria for 15 and 12/12A films in the BBFC
booklet.
The criteria for 12/12A are as follows:

Theme: Mature themes, but treatment must be suitable for young teenagers
Language: Swear words must be rare and justified
Nudity: is allowed, but sexual content must be brief and discreet
Sex: may be implied
Violence: must not dwell on detail, no emphasis on injuries or blood
Imitable Techniques: weapons not glamorized, dangerous techniques shouldnt be imitable
Horror: occasional gore, sustained threat
Drugs: brief 'soft' drug references

BBFC AND TARGET AUDIENCE

The criteria for 15 films are as follows:
Theme: no theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate to 15 year olds
Language: frequent use of strong language allowed, continued use and sexual abuse unacceptable
Nudity: no constraints on nudity in a non sexual or educational context
sex: sexual activity may be portrayed but without strong detail, the depiction of casual sex should
be handled responsibly, occasional strong verbal references
violence: may be strong but no dwelling on infliction of pain or injuries, scenes of sexual violence
must be discreet and brief
imitable techniques: dangerous combat tech unlikely to be acceptable, no emphasis on use of
easily accessible lethal weapons e.g knives
Horror: sustained or detailed infliction of pain or injury is unacceptable
Drugs: drug taking may be shown but clear instructive detail is unacceptable, must not encourage
drug use

BBFC AND TARGET AUDIENCE

we have looked at the criteria for both the 12/12A rating and 15 rating
and have decided that our film will not encroach on any of the 15 criteria
However when looking at the 12/12A criteria we found our film is going to
include aspects from the horror and violence categories such as dwelling
on injuries and blood as well as occasional gory moments and threat and
menace.
so therefore our film would be rated as a 12 by the BBFC
Our film will be appropriate for our target audience as the film is targeted
for people age 16-25 year old.

ROLES WITHIN THE

PRODUCTION
there are 4 main roles within the production. We have decided to share
these roles as a group rather than do them individually. However because
of logistics the amount of tasks within the micro elements won't be
evenly distributed, so some people will be doing more of camera and
others will be doing more editing.
1) camera- framing the shot, the duration of the shot, lighting, angles,
movement of camera
2) editing- effects, cuts/transitions, titles/credits, screen time, continuity
3) sound- dialogue, effects, music/soundtrack, non-digetic/digetic
4) mise-en-scene- props, location, lighting, costumes