Film Treatment

 1. Who is your chosen target audience (both core and secondary markets)?

Target Audience: 16-24 M/F
Secondary Audience: Supernatural Horror fans            --->   The fact that we chose a supernatural/
                                   Suspense fans                                       psychological theme rather than gore
                                   Horror fans in general                          horror attracts many female/teen 
                                                                                                audiences that would otherwise be turned
                                                                                                off by gore elements.

2. Who is the media institution responsible for the distribution of your production?

Lionsgate - Distributes many horror films successfully (Texas Chainsaw, Saw films, Silent Hill etc)
                - Familiar with audience expectations for horror genre. 
                - Able to distribute globally. 

3. Describe your chosen genre and film idea.

• Genre: Horror
• Sub-genre: Supernatural/ Psychological

• Log line: After losing her sense of reality, a mentally disturbed British girl is forced to deal with her fears, which in turn become more real and more frightening than she could ever imagine.

4. How do you plan to represent social groups in your sequence (eg gender, ethnicity, ability, class and status etc)? You may want to focus on one or two of these as your key representations.

• We're planning to tackle gender stereotypes, mainly on the female gender. Already by portraying the main character as psychologically disturbed we are showing that she isn't the typical "innocent" victim. Although she's seen as vulnerable in our sequence, as to keep to some conventions so the audience can instantly familiarize with the character and genre, in terms of mise-en-scene, making her room reflect her personality with disturbing pictures would help make the audience think what we want them to think.
• Also we are challenging stereotypes by using an actress who is from a different ethnic background to what is usually portrayed in horror movies. The audience don't usually see an Asian main female protagonist so it will be something fresh and new for them.

5. Explain the intended style and form of your opening sequence, including the conventions you intend to use, develop or challenge. This could include genre conventions, as well as the typical features expected in a film opening sequence.

• Young girl is initially a victim (uses horror convention of a powerless girl being a victim) but then evolves into trying to fight mentally what it is that is trying to get her. This challenges the convention and develops the initial idea of a female victim into something new and interesting for an audience that has become accustomed to the convention. This way, we are also not changing it so much that it will become confusing and unappealing.
• We want to keep the atmosphere of the opening quite tense and enigmatic as many horror openings do to grab a hold of the audience's attention as soon as it begins. This is something successful openings should do.
• Using a house as a location is very conventional in horrors that are associated with hauntings. This will also assist us in being able to create an eerie and voyeuristic atmosphere as there will be a variety of places to film e.g from outside of the house looking inside. The grading of our opening is going to involve lots of dark blues and whites. 

6.  How will your film opening sequence attract/address your target audience?

• Our opening sequence is going to shock the audience and create suspense. There will be a sense of danger as the girl is home alone and strange things are happening in her house. To build on this effect we will make use of conventional horror sounds and a shaky, chaotic filming style. Our main character/victim will appeal to our target audience a lot, because she is quite vulnerable but brave. In order to attract our secondary audience of horror fans, we will incorporate a lot of genre conventions and use elements of other horror films such as The Others and Paranormal Activity which they can relate to. 

7. What kinds of film making techniques and technologies do you wish to use in the construction of your opening sequence?

• We will try and have continuity throughout the clip. For example when the girl is walking or running the shots of her should fit together smoothly and in time. 
• We're going to use a fish eye lens effect in one of our shots to make it seem realistic when the girl looks through the spy hole on the door.
• Our filming style is going to be voyeuristic to build suspense and suggest that some                                                                        one or something is in the house with her. 

8. How do your plans draw on work completed last term - both theory and practice.

• First of all we are going to try to apply the principles of continuity editing which is a new concept that we discovered and studied last term. In order to achieve a continuous sequence we will create a story board and script, then group shots that are in the same location, which will also save some time and make our shooting more efficient. 
• Last term we did a lot of work on genre conventions. We want the opening to have many conventions of the horror genre, as well as building on them and creating something new which will still be familiar to the audience.
• In the Post-Production stage we will be using Adobe Premiere Pro to edit the sequence since we already have some experience with it. This will also help us with grading to achieve the low-key horror look.
• Our knowledge of institutions was also important when deciding on our target audience and distributor. As we have learnt we targeted a primary audience (Males/Females aged 16-24) and a secondary (Horror fans).