Treatment

Product
We will be creating an opening sequence to a horror film. It was planned to be
released on the 10th of December as in the production, this is the day that our
protagonist would have gone missing. This is significant as the film is set in 1999 and
having it on the same day but 18 years later, it would act as an anniversary. This will
hopefully make the sequence more chilling and seem as a real sequence of events.
Our marking campaign will take advantage of the internet and social media as our
target audience are more familiar with social media. Plus, as we are an independent
film we would not have a big budget to pay for extravagant marking. An example of
our marking would be to have sponsorships on Instagram and Facebook so as people
would scroll through their feed a trailer or clips from our movie would pop up. This
would engage our audience as they would be able to like and comment on the post.
As well as having our trailer and clips being upload to YouTube, banners and
advertisements would be on the videos and if people clicked on them it would send
them to our website where they would find more information about our movie. As our
target audience goes up to 30 years old, they may not be as involved in social media
as our younger audience. To make sure our production reaches them, we would also
have adverts on popular search engines such as google. This would increase the
likelihood of our target audience seeing our production.
Genre
Our genre for the film is horror and the sub- genre is supernatural and thriller. The
theme of the production is found footage. We thought horror had simpler codes and
convention that would be easily achieved in the opening sequence. In the production,
we mainly focused on creating suspense and uneasiness with the audience rather
than having jump scares. We thought having a jump scares would be predictable and
there was a strong chance that it could end up looking poor and not actually scaring
the audience. It is set in a forest, Epping forest. We chose Epping forest as it is quite
well known and by basing it in a real place where people could go, it will add to the
realism of the production. The forest is a typical setting for horror films as it has a
naturally unsettling nature and has real life horror stories which take place in the
forest. Something we did avoid was how we portrayed our character. Our main
charter, Leila, is a young girl and in horror movies, females can be portrayed as weak
and not as intelligent as males. In our production, Leila is portrayed as an independent
and intellectual film student who is willing to do something that others would probably
not do.
Duration
The opening sequence will be two minutes long. This would mean the sequence would
have to be engaging so the audience would want to watch the rest of our film and to
explain the narrative while creating an enigma.
Character breakdown
Leila (protagonist)
Leila is a young film student who is doing research on legend where a family who went
camping but went missing. She was initially drawn to the case due to lack of evidence
and the rumours that surrounded the story. She went to the location where the family
has thought to have gone missing and filmed it as she explains what had happened
and her personal interpretation of what happened. She comes across as very strong
minded and independent as she went to the forest alone and would be very
knowledgeable around the whole subject.
Antagonist
In the opening sequence, we planned that the audience will never see the antagonist.
But will be hinted that is non-human and very hostile.
Outline
It starts with the audience perspective of Leila trying to turn on the camera before
going to Leilas perspective of the footage she filmed. The first clip will be of Leila
having technical difficulties with the camera before it cuts out. The camera then starts
where it working fine, Leila goes on to explain that she in Epping forest because of a
legend where a family went camping but were never seen after that. She goes on to
explain that many think the reasoning behind the legend has something to do with
witchcraft. But Leila concluded that she does not believe that be true. Leila then
begins to hear weird noises but kind of brushed it off as the wind. The noises start to
get louder and more noticeable. At this point, Leila claims to have seen something and
is clearly scared for her wellbeing. In fear that something may happen to her, she
starts to state her address and name in hopes that someone will find the tapes and
send help. The camera then cut again to the camera falling and seeing Leila trying to
crawl away but is then dragged back.
Institutions
Our production name is PLC productions. The name stand for Precious Caitlan and
Leila, all the people in our group. We liked the idea as it suggests the company is a
joint effort. Also, we didnt want to have a name that would only limit the production
to producing one genre. By having a simple and versatile name means we could
branch out and created different kinds of films. The company we choose to distribute
our film was Hammer films production. They are a horror movie company that are
based in London. Their films follow a theme of having supernatural elements which
our film also has.
Target audience
The target audience for our production is aged between 15 30. We wanted our
production to appeal to a mixture of ethnicities as well as both genders. We chose this
age group as young adults tend to enjoy the feeling of being scared and the thrill of it.
The element of danger and excitement that horror movies create would appeal to
them a lot more than a younger audience who would find some of the scenes
disturbing or an older audience who may not like the feeling of being scared.
Teenagers usually want to go and see movies together especially horror movies as it
creates a safety in numbers atmosphere and they will able to enjoy convention of fear
together rather than alone. Our audience is niche as the social-economic group ranges
from C2 to E because they are more likely to watch horror films and would be easier to
market towards that specific audience. From research, the social-economic group that
is more likely to watch horror films is C2 which tend to be middle-class people.
Additionally, the protagonist is a film student so a lower social-economic group, who
would include students, would be able to relate to the charter more and by having the
main charter a female it would help appeal our movie to a wider audience.
Media language
The theme of our production is found footage as in recent years has become
increasing more popular.
Lighting- We will us low key lighting in order create and eerie atmosphere and a sense
of uneasiness with the audience.
Camerawork- The camera work is mainly going to be from Leila perspective while she
is filming. By doing this it will put the audience in the protagonists shoes. As the
audience cant see anything other than Leila and her reaction, it should create a sense
of unease. Also as the antagonist is never seen in the opening sequence, it would be
left to audiences imagination which may emphases the feeling of restlessness.
Sound- Due to the theme being found footage, the film will not include a lot of non-
diegetic sounds. The sequence will heavily rely on diegetic sound. Sound effects will
help create an antagonist as the audience dont see it in the opening sequence. Also,
the characters dialogue will be the only aspect that explains the narrative and carries
the plot along. The fact that there is a lack of non-diegetic sound means at some
points in the production it will be silent, this should be disconcerting and eerie.
Trailer- The trailer will follow the same layout as the opening sequence whereby the
audience will not see the monster but only hear it and must build an image on the
sounds they hear and how the charters react when they see it.
Context
The majorly of the marking will be done digitally, this means using the internet
especially social media to promote our product. As our target audience is most likely
to has access to social media, it would allow our film to be seen by a wider population
than just using traditional mediums such as poster or billboards. By including social
media, our audience can interact with each other and the film as they can like
comment and share which would increase the exposure the production would get and
increase the size of our target audience.