LO2: Treatment

TREATMENT

PUT NAME OF PRODUCT AND PRODUCTION TEAM (include logo) AND DATE OF BROADCAST

THE BRIEF

Produce a film trailer in the style of Warp.

TARGET AUDIENCE

The target age group for our film is 15-25, as the film is about three university friends aged 19-20. Therefore, ages 15-20 would be able to relate to the film the most. The target gender for this film is mainly male, as the three protagonists are male and the sci-fi horror genre would stereotypically hold more interest for them. In terms of demographics, the dominant group who would watch the film is urban venturers, as the audience is mainly students and young people. They would probably target an ABC1 social grade of B or C1, middle class / lower middle class, as they fall into the same category as their parents who would likely be paying for them to see the film. It might also target class D, working class, for those students who have their own small jobs to earn a bit of money.

SYNOPSIS

-Three friends camping in the woods - equilibrium. They are all happy.

-Meteorite lands (small) early morning and the people don’t notice it as they are in their tent.

-They come out of the tent in the morning and as they are about to leave they see a small rock (hand size) lying in dirt. The rock is half submerged and has a white light coming from the top, a bit of smoke. Enigma created.

-One is dared to pick up the rock, "I dare you", taunting etc.

-He picks it up, shivers a little, drops the rock then the group leave. Disequilibrium.

-Static shot of car driving away, then a cut to the rock and the light vanishing.

-11pm, pan / tilt from clock to guy sleeping. Laid in bed, he opens his eyes, they glow white and he stands up to look over another guy, jump cuts as he does so.

-Guy appears dead, so they leave him and head back to the woods to investigate the rock and what happened to their friend. Similar to earlier shot, we see the car driving away then a cut to the door, white eyes guy standing in it.

-He follows them to the woods. Fade to black as he takes a swipe.

-Non-linear, so take shots from different times and jumble up. Use quick cuts. 

The genre of the film is sci-fi horror.

CONTINGENCIES

We were planning to film our trailer in Norfolk Heritage Park for the woods section, and student accommodation for the parts when the friends go back to their accommodation. As a contingency for Norfolk Heritage Park we could use the trees around Meersbrook Park or Skye Edge Fields, and as a contingency for student accommodation we could use the house of someone we know and set the scene there.

We want to use young actors looking for experience to play the three students in the trailer. As a contingency we could use people we know (family or friends) who are older and willing to act in it.

KEY MILESTONES

Things you need to do to make your production – give a rough estimate of the dates they will be completed by. For example

1. Planning (narrative, song permission, storyboards, location scouting, risk assessment) - in on Friday 22nd January
2. Filming - large sections need to be done by the end of January in order to hand in a first draft on the 5th February. Filming will be fully wrapped up by March.
3. Editing - need to put a rough draft together in the first week of February. Then we can use the 1st - 18th of March to edit our final film trailer for the deadline.
4. Launch date (the day that your product will be seen by the audience - for us, the day we hand it in). Friday 18th March.

EQUIPMENT

We will need to take out cameras and microphones with us when we film in the woods and student accommodation. We can use tripods for fixed shots and conversations, and maybe a camera dolly if we were to do a tracking shot. Lights may be needed for a section that we film in dull natural light as the three friends wake up in the morning.

To edit the film trailer, we will be using the Adobe software Premiere Pro and After Effects.

PROPS AND MODELS

The characters are going to be played by young people around the age of 20 who are looking to work for free to gain experience.

In terms of props, we will need a small rock, around about hand-size in order to be the small meteor that lands and lets out a white light.

LOCATIONS

We want to film our woods scenes in Norfolk Heritage Park, a public park 1 mile south-east of the city centre. There are also a couple of contingency options above. We need a place where we can film the three friends’ flat, such as getting student accommodation for a day. We will use the road leading out of the woods for the car driving away scene.

HEALTH AND SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS

1. First aider
2. Landscape awareness (Weather conditions) - make sure we are vigilant in the environment [keep eye on weather forecast per hour]
3. Emergency contact numbers if someone gets injured
4. Prevent damage to equipment - don’t put materials next to hot things
5. Vehicle awareness - Being safe around vehicles at all time.
6. Be aware of the public and the times we film. Don’t put anyone or ourselves in danger.
7. Correct clothing - Footwear
8. ALWAYS KEEP KIT NEAR YOU! Not unattended.

It is necessary to complete the following for every location we go to for health and safety reasons. It will also allow us to provide information/evidence of taking necessary precautions to supply to the examiner.

-A recce form is a type of form that shows that you have scouted an area and provides help in deciding which locations to film in. It also keeps us organised, so we will be filling one of these in every time we scout a new location. It is useful as it can be used as a reference later on for the production, identifying suitability of the land structure.                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

-We will be taking photos when doing a location recce because it helps us to remember the place and how suitable it was for filming; it also proves that we have been doing the necessary planning for the unit.

-We will also be doing a risk assessment which will makes sure we identify all possible risks before filming in a location. This will keep the cast and props safer as well as all camera equipment. Furthermore doing a risk assessment will also allow us to identify terrain difficulties for different sections of land when we are filming.

Therefore for every location we will complete a recce form, take photographs and do a risk assessment.

For every location we want to film in we must do:

-Location recce form

-Risk Assessment

-Take photos showing we have been there

LEGAL, ETHICAL, SCHEDULING AND CERTIFICATION

• The genre of our film is horror, and the narrative is one of unease, fright and disequilibrium. Therefore we feel that the appropriate age rating for our film would be 15, because the BBFC guidelines state that the tone of a film can only be disturbing at a 15 certificate or higher. In addition, it would get a rating of 15 because our film does contain strong language and violence - a 15 certificate “may contain strong language” and violence “may be strong but should not dwell on detail”. These are the right guidelines for our film as it may contain quite a bit of strong language and violence, however the violence will not be gory at all.
• It is important to follow BBFC’s rules and regulations set as they are they are a board of the parliament. This means the rules they set must be adhered to in order for the created media content to be legal. It also gives the film a target audience. By following the BBFC’s rules and regulations it allows our content to be legally broadcasted hence allowing a profit to be made on the film. If our product fails to follow these guidelines it could force a higher film rating which would impact the expected target audience and could make the film become a potential failure.
• Our production adheres to these rules by following the BBFC’s rules and regulations for the 15 rating. In this we are allowed numerous themes of horror as long as there is not sexualised or sadistic threat. As our film does not contain any sexual content, this is not something we must worry about. Our film trailer would also not go into a sadistic manner making the under 15. As our film may contain violence in the forms of death or murder, this means our film can contain this, however must not contain prolonged images of violence and/or gore. Also our film may contain bad language which is allowed in moderation for a 15. This is ok however as not every line in our script will contain prolific language.
• The watershed point is important for our film as it is rated 15. This means children under the age of 15 would not be able to watch our film and potentially trailer as well. For this we would need to make sure that our film trailer is aired after 9pm and that relevant logos (e.g the BBFC 15) is displayed at the beginning of our film trailer along with a verbal warning.
• In terms of music for our film, we can use royalty-free Creative Commons music found online, such as Kevin MacLeod (e.g. Aftermath) on YouTube. If we did want to use a copyrighted song, we would email its creator asking for permission to use it in our film trailer.
• The 1998 Data Protection Law states that consent must be gained from people who are featured in our video footage for it to be published. In order to adhere to this law, we will try to only feature our three actors (who we obviously have consent from) in the film trailer. If we end up catching any members of the public in a shot, for example in Norfolk Heritage Park, we can ask for their consent to have them in the trailer.  If they decline, we might have to edit them out or film the section again.

DISTRIBUTION

Since our product, entitled “The Deviation”, is a niche production in the style of Warp Films, it would be available on terrestrial TV channels such as Film4. This is because companies like Sky are more interested in mainstream blockbusters. In addition to this, the trailer would be available on YouTube for anyone who might be interested in the horror genre, and the full film would be on iTunes, Google Play and the online stores of consoles. These formats are important for the target audience of ages 15-25, as they use technology a lot and would be able to access the film easily. The trailer would also be seen in cinemas before films rated 15 or higher, as our film is rated a 15. This would give our film publicity.