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A Proposal for a FMP (short film)

Prepared by Will Griffiths

Kudos Film

Tuesday 14th March 2017

PROPOSAL

Log line

A desperate photographer enters a competition to secure funds thatll pay for her mums live-
saving operation, but finds herself in a fight against more than she originally thought.

It is important that our log line is as attention grabbing and effective as it can be, so that when
someone hears it they immediately want to watch our short film. To achieve this reaction from
the potential audience, we must create a log line that doesnt only raise questions that they will
want answered, but also replicate the mysterious atmosphere that our short film will have.
Below is the log line that we would use to promote our film if we were trying to grab the
attention of distribution companies. We feel as if it really enraptures what we want our short film
to represent, the idea that the original impression is harmless, however a disturbing twist at the
end which turns how the audience perceived the story on its head.

Content Outline

As all stories, our short film will follow the three act structure. We wanted to have the audience
unaware of the twist that is coming at the end of our short film and so want to keep the first two
acts relatively mild in relation to the of a horror theme so the ending has a much harder impact.
We have decided that we will not directly show any codes and conventions that will put the
audience on edge, instead we will include minor plot points that will hint at the fact that
something could be unusual. However we will get the main character to gloss over these hints
so that it is less obvious to the audience, but will make sense upon the big reveal at the end.

Act 1

We are aiming for our short film to only be around three minutes long as, due to the narrative, it
will feel too slow if it is stretched any longer and therefore become very boring for the audience;
therefore the first act is only going to be around 60 seconds long.
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During the first act we will be introduced to a girl, who will show from the first couple of shots
that she has a keen interest in nature photography. She will
be holding a leaflet that is advertising a nature photography
competition, with a prize of 10,000 going to the winner.
She will look across the room to a framed photograph of
what appears to be an older woman in an hospital bed, this
will show to the audience that she has an ill relative. We
will also see a pile of unpaid health bills on the desk before
she walks over to them and flicks through them. From here
we see her packing a camping bag with her camera, a
photograph album that will be full of nature photos, canned
food, a sleeping bag and a tent; which will make it obvious
that she is going camping, as well as the leaflet that she was originally holding.

To transition between locations, such as from her

packing her bag to driving to the camping spot, we are
planning to use a montage of multiple shots that cut
between each other at a very high speed. After this
sequence, she will be in a car driving to the woods that
she is going to be camping in. She stops en route by
the side of the road and gets out to take some
photographs of the surroundings and environment,
further cementing her interest in photography and
wildlife. After a few shots of her on the side of the road, she will get back in the car and carry
on.

Then we will cut to her getting the equipment out of her car and leaving it at the entrance of the
woods. The equipment she would have picked up is typical of a camping trip, such as a
sleeping bag, a tent, and a bag which we saw her pack at the beginning. From here, we will see
her walking through the woods, enthralled by her surroundings. We will have another montage
of her setting up the tent and getting ready to go and explore and take photographs. This first
act of our short film we are aiming to be no longer than 60 seconds.

Act 2

After this we will see her taking photographs of wildlife and

nature in general, however the animals that she is trying to
capture keeps on getting away and we see her getting visibly
frustrated and so she keeps on venturing away from her tent.

We have a short time skip and we see that it is closer to

evening as the light levels are lower than in the previous
scene.

We see her suddenly realise how far she has gone and starts
to head back but with a sense of urgency as the levels of light are getting low. After a fast
paced couple of shots of her running back through the woods, after the tension climaxes we
see has made it back to her tent just before it gets too dark
to see.

She constructs a fire and we see her sat by it, looking

through the photographs that she had taken that day and
the photograph album that she had bought with her on the
trip. She hears some noises that would be typical of a
woods at night, but she brushes it off and goes back to
being in a trance by this photograph album. The screen
will cut to black to bring an end to the second act of our
short film.
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Act 3

Act three will open with her waking up in her tent, in her sleeping bag, with her camera left next
to her. She notices that the tent door was left open and is now blowing in the wind so she gets
up to zip it back together. She lies back down in her bag and grabs hold of her camera and is
again about to start looking through the photographs she had taken the day before, but she
hears rain starting to fall against the outside of her tent and so urgently starts packing her bag
again.

The story cuts to her trying to take the tent down as quickly as she can and then to her speedily
walking back through the woods, in the rain, with all of her equipment.

We then cut to her driving back home, although she is soaking wet from the rain.

We then cut to her in a dark room processing the photographs

that she took during the camping trip. We see the ones that she
took by the side of the road and some of the ones she took when
she arrived. She hangs them up and is about to leave before she
notices a photograph that she didnt remember taking. She holds
up the photograph to the light to get a better look.

We see that the photograph

isnt one that she took, as it
is a photograph of her,
asleep in the tent. The music builds and just as the tension
climaxes, we cut to an extreme close up of her, showing
her fearful response. Before the audience have the
opportunity to comprehend what theyve seen, a hand
covers her mouth and pulls her back. We then cut to our
final shot of the door from outside the red room, with
muffled screams being all we hear until they slowly die out
and we fade to black.
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Character Brief (Name, age, appearance, personality, motivation, role, flaw etc)

Name - Jolene King.

Age - 20 to 24 years old, a young adult who is still inexperienced in the world but due to her
circumstances in life is being forced to be a strong, independent individual. Due to how she will
be represented, she will feel younger than she actually is (around 16 to 18 years old) which
isnt the case.

Appearance - Jolene is a very young looking, in her early twenties, very soft facial features,
expressing her artistic and creative side of her personality through her clothing. She wears a
mixture of bright and dark coloured clothing, however no to the point where she would stand
out within a crowd. Jolene is always well dressed and never goes anywhere in a casual style of
clothing as she likes to be presentable to society, however she doesnt dress in a particular way
to attract attention, she dresses more this way to fit in. The clothing style and items that she
usually wears is shown below.

Personality - Very shy being who keeps herself to herself and doesnt want to be noticed within
a crowd. Jolene is much happier when she isnt the centre of attention and would much rather
that she went unnoticed by everyone, she is also very comfortable in her own company and
doesnt understand societys expectations of surrounding yourself with a large group of friends.
She is kind to everyone, however wouldnt class herself as being close to anyone outside of her
family, but she believes in the saying of treat others as you would want to be treated.

Motivation - To win the nature photography competition that she sees the leaflet for in order to
get the 10,000 prize money. As Jolene is struggling to pay for her mothers healthcare bills
and therefore sees this competition as the last opportunity she has to get her mum the care she
needs. Not only will winning this competition potentially save her mother, it will also build her
reputation as a photographer, which is the career path she wants to take.

Role - Jolene is the protagonist that will be followed throughout our short film. As she is the
only other character the audience will meet, she will therefore be the main character and focus
during all three acts.

Flaw - She appears very vulnerable because of her shy and innocent demeanour that she
represents at the beginning of the short film. This is furthered by her experiences in the woods
as the way she will be represented on screen will be very small as we will always use long
range shots when filming her to give this impression.

Similar looking actors:

Laura White Rita Bernard- Georgina Susanna Claire

Shaw Findlay
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The underlying message of the film

The message that we are aiming to spread through our short film is to not become too fixated
on a task or goal that could end up getting you in danger. We also want to spread the idea of
taking caution when entering the unknown, which Jolene doesnt do in our short film. We want
people who watch our film to see what Jolene does and make sure not to get themselves into
circumstances that could be life threatening. Even though Jolene has good motivations for
venturing into the unknown of the woods, we still dont want our audience getting into
dangerous situations, despite any potential motives that they may have.

USP

The unique selling point of our short film is that there is no recognisable genre throughout.
There will be factors that will make sense and the audience will realise once the big reveal at
the end has happened, such as the open tent door, the camera next to her when she is
sleeping etc. We feel that by making the film in this way, the plot twist that comes at the end will
have a much bigger shock on the audience and will make it harder to predict, than if we made
the entire story have an element of horror. There will also be no dialogue in our short film
because there is no need for it as we only have one character and we feel that if she was to
talk to herself, it would break the tense atmosphere when we are trying to build it. We also want
to make the audience really understand how alone she is in the woods, so by having her not
speak throughout, it will emphasise this, again making the twist have a larger impact when it is
revealed.

Example of similar films

An example of a film that uses a similar technique that we will be using is Shaun of the Dead,
using the quick montages that show that time has passed. At numerous points throughout the
film, there is the use of a montage that uses a series of very quick shots that shows the viewers
what the character has done within the time skip, without taking up much time within the overall
running time of the film. We will be using the same technique a couple of times in our short film
as we want to keep the running time at around three minutes and the use of this style of
montage will allow us to do this without making the narrative feel disjointed. The images below
are screenshots taken from Shaun of the Dead that are used in a montage during the first act
of the film.

Another film that ours is similar to is The Blair Witch Project as we want to
incorporate a location that looks like the woods we see in this product. The
scenes that take place during the day dont demonstrate the horror genre to
the audience, which is what we are going for, but then there is areas of The
Blair Witch Project that create a scary atmosphere, which we will do right at
the end of our short film. We dont want to give away or hint at the fact that
there is a plot twist at the end of our short film and therefore by having the
scenes, up until the end of the third act, not display any characteristics of a
typical horror film will create a larger impact at the end, which The Blair Witch
Project executes really well. The screenshots to the right show how a woods
environment is portrayed in a way that isnt directly linked to the horror genre,
which we will be doing in our short film.
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Resources needed (e.g crew, cast, props, locations)

The resources that we will need during our production include 5 different locations, a collection
of props and one actress, however as a group of three, we shouldn't need any addition help
from external crew members for us to create our short film.

The five locations that we will need to shoot in will be a girls house (while our character is
packing her bag for the trip), inside of a car (while she is driving to the woods), by the side of a
road (while she stops on her trip), a woods (where she will be camping) and finally, a dark room
that will be for our final scene (while she is processing the photographs). The photographs
below are similar to the types of locations that we will be using in our short film and the kind of
atmosphere that we want to create while in these locations.

Kitchen (welcoming and Inside a car (not as safe, but no By the side of the road (similar
safe atmosphere) danger is present and the atmosphere to when the
character is still comfortable) character was inside the car)

Woods during the day (a
safe and relaxing
environment, there is no
danger present)
Woods during the night (a sense
of danger is present and this
makes the character uneasy,
horror genre is starting be
become present)
Red Room (the red lighting
will represent the urgent
danger that is present in the
scene)

The props that we will need for our short film include a camping bag that our character will be
packing in the opening shot, as well as a DSLR camera, a tent and other camping equipment, a
photo album full of nature photographs, cans of food, bottles of water and other items that
would be typical for a camping trip. All of these props will be used within the first and second
act. In the final act we will need photographs thatll be hung up in the red room as well as the
photographs thatll reveal the plot twist to the audience. Below are photographs of the types of
props that we will be using.

DSLR Camera A Tent Canned Food Competition Camping Stove

Leaflet
As we will only need one actor in our short film, we will therefore only need one cast member.
This will make production much easier to organise as we will only ever need one actor to be
available rather than a whole group, it should also allow us to organise extra shoots if we are to
require them. The character/actor aspect is covered in more detail under Character Briefs.
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Feasibility

Our project doesnt include any locations or require any particular shots that would be
extremely difficult to capture and therefore we believe that it is very feasible. All of the locations
that we want to film at arent the types of areas that would be difficult to gain access to and
therefore shouldnt present us with any issues when we organise filming shoots.

The fact that we are also using one actor in our short film makes the production stage much
easier as we wont have to try and find a vacancy in a number of actors schedules for us to
film. Instead, we only have to find a couple days in one persons schedule which is going to be
much more common to do, it also means that we will have more opportunities for reshoots if we
were to require them.

With regards to props, we havent chosen objects that we will struggle to get ahold of for our
shoots as well as choosing items that we can easily replace if we need to. We already know
places where we can either purchase or rent props from and they are all local and easily
accessible on a regular basis.

As we will be renting the equipment from Weston College, we will have regular access to any
equipment that they have available. Due to the large window for filming that we have given
ourselves (as seen in the schedule), there is a high chance that we will be able to get ahold of
the equipment that we require for the short period of time that we plan on filming for.

Schedule

Pre-Production (Research and Planning Window) - Tuesday 28th February to Friday 14th
April.

During pre-production we will complete all of the research that we will need to successfully
create our product, allowing us to comfortably move into the production stage. We will also
deliver our pitch during this section of the overall process, as well as having fully planned all of
the events that will take place during production.

Production (Filming Window) - Saturday 15th April to Sunday 7th May.

During this time we plan to have all footage we need filmed so that there is no need for
reshoots, and we will have a more accurate dates once our actress is confirmed. We believe
that the total number of filming days that we will require during this three week period is only a
maximum of two days providing we dont come across any major issues.

Post Production (Editing Window) - Monday 8th May to Monday 15th May.

We will have the final edit of our film completed by Monday 15th May so that we have a
contingency period that can be used if we come across any issues with footage or during the
edit that will require time to resolve. This will ensure that we meet the final deadline on Friday
26th May in time for the screening.

Final Deadline for all Paperwork and Short Film- Friday 26th May 2017.

Budget Required (Industry)

Pre-Production Sub Total: 4,300

Production Sub Total: 14,569

Post-Production Sub Total: 3,920

Contingency (10%): 2,529

VAT (20%): 4,403

Total Production Budget: 32,221

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Target Audience

Our target audience is people of a similar age to us, 18 to 24. We feel that people under this
age wont enjoy it because it is quite a unique story that wont appeal to the mainstream or
younger people who arent as easily invested in stories with a less engaging narrative. As the
twist that occurs the third act is quite horrific and could potentially cause distress to anyone
under the age of 18. On the other hand, viewers over the age of 24 may not be interested in our
narrative as it is unique and doesnt follow the mainstream structure that we see in most films.
People over the age of 24 could also struggle to relate to our protagonist and therefore wont
become as invested in the storyline as someone who can relate to our main character.

Research results

The first piece of research that we conducted was a survey, that we used to aid us in gaining an
understanding of the preferences that the general public generally have on short films and what
techniques we could use that would encourage people to watch our product. We asked 7
questions in total that we felt gathered a large amount of valuable information.

What is your gender?

The purpose of this question was to get an understanding of what proportion of our participants
were male and female. Even though our target audience is a particular gender, it was still important
for us to know this information so that we were aware of the statistics of our participants going
forward during the remainder of our survey. The results showed that 54.17% of people who took
the survey were female, with the remaining 45.83% being male. As mentioned previously, this isnt
massively relevant to our overall research as we arent targeting a particular gender, but it is still
important to know.

What is your age?

The relevance of this question was to find out whether our target audience (people aged 18 to 24)
were taking our survey, so we could understand whether the results we collect are relevant to our
overall research. The results show that over 66% of those who took the survey were in fact our
target audience, which is exactly what we wanted as it means the majority of answers that we
received is beneficial to our findings during our pre-production stage. The second most common
age range that completed our survey was people aged 45 to 54, which isnt near our desired target
audience, however this was only 12.50% of the participants. This isnt a detrimental amount and
shouldnt have an enough of an effect on the survey to make it not worth using as relevant
research.

How often do you watch short films?

Our third question on this survey was asking about how often the participants watch short films.
This question is important as we needed to understand the frequency that people watch short
films, especially our target audience. 20 of the 48 people who took our survey said that they
watched short films monthly, which equates to just over 41% of participants. Only 7 of 48 people
said that they watch short films daily, which wasnt the results we were seeking, however it isnt
massively important because with effective promotion of our product, we could attract more people
to watch it. The second most common answer was never, where 11 of 48 people responded with
this, which as a percentage is 22.92%. Even though this isnt ideal for us, it isnt completely
detrimental to our production or eventual product.

What is your favourite genre of short film?

The next question was enquiring about the favourite genre of short film of our participants which is
important for us to know so we could understand whether the product we are going to create is
going to appeal to our desired audience. The results show that 29.79% of people who answered
our survey enjoys the comedy genre in short films the most, which translates to 14 out of 47
participants as one person skipped this question. Horror, which is the genre that we will loosely be
incorporating into our short film, was favoured by only 8.51% of participants, which equates to 4 of
47 people who answered, which isnt ideal, however from our other research and personal
knowledge we know that horror always tends to attract attention from people within our target
audience.
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What is your ideal length of short film?
This question is very important when planning our product as we need to understand how long the
majority of our target audience prefer their short films to be. If we make our short film too short,
then it will be extremely difficult for us to create the atmosphere that we want, while also building
up enough suspense to make the impact of our product have the effect on the audience we are
looking for. On the other hand, if we make our short film too long, exceeding the length that our
target audience prefers, then it could result in them getting bored and stopping the film before it
finishes, which we dont want either. The results show that over 32% of the participants prefer short
films that are 3 to 5 minutes long, which is the time range that we are aiming to make our film,
therefore this is the exact result we wanted. The second favourable time length was 6 to 8 minutes,
which 12 of the 46 people who answered preferred.

Would you be interested in a short film with no dialogue?

This question is also very important as we are planning on not including any dialogue from our
character throughout our short film, however if the results were to show that very few of our target
audience would be interested in this, then we would have to change our plans. The results showed
that 60.42% of participants, or 29 out of 48, would be interested in watching a short film with no
dialogue in, which again Is very positive results for our production. This has confirmed that we will
be going ahead with the idea of having no dialogue in our short film, which we can support with
primary research that we have conducted via surveys.

Do you like plot twists in short films?

The final question that we had in our survey was asking about whether our target audience enjoy
seeing plot twists in short films or not. Again this is very relevant to our production as our narrative
builds up to planned plot twist that occurs at the end, therefore if the results came back that our
target audience dont prefer to see plot twists, then we may have to change our storyline. However,
the results show that 80.43% of people who took our survey prefer to see plot twists in films, which
is the results we wanted as this will ensure that our target audience enjoys to see them. This
confirms that we will incorporate a plot twist into our short film.

Focus Group

We also conducted a focus group where we got six people who fit the characteristics of our target
audience and showed them our branding (which included our title, log line and mood reel) to gain
an understanding of what their unbiased thoughts were about it. The responses we got for our title
The Photograph was good as everyone felt that it gave the impression that it was a Blair Witch
type film, which is one of the similar products that we compared our product to. Some people felt
that it also would be a typical title for a horror film as its poetic, which most horror film titles are.

With regard to our log line, the members of the focus group felt that it was very mysterious
and unique due to the niche narrative that is hinted at, while also not revealing too much
about the direction the short film will be taking. They felt that it was intriguing and made
them want to watch the film, however the majority felt that it was too vague to be able to tie
it to a specific genre.

Finally, after watching our mood reel, the participants felt that it was very effective as the
beginning secures you into a false sense of security before dramatically changing the
atmosphere. A couple members of the focus group said they were shocked and that it
shakes you up, which is the exact response that we want our product to create. One
participant commented on the beginning being very aesthetically pleasing to watch,
which we want our short film to be, before twisting the atmosphere and emotion that the
audience are feeling when viewing our product.