Idea Development

I came up with some ideas and then did some with development for each, I thought about what I could and couldn't realistically do for each. After much consideration I decided that Idea 3 is the one we want to take further. I chose this idea because realistically it is something I can produce without a large budget and with limited resources, not only that we feel more passionate about this idea whereas, with the others we didn't feel that. The idea itself allows me to explore a different genre and different techniques within camera movement, lighting, editing etc. ultimately widening our range of  knowledge.

Over the course of the past week, I have been looking more in depth into the idea and coming up with alternate plots and horror conventions it could follow. By doing this I now have a rough overview of the plot followed by a few character concepts, certain camera movements that would look good within it (for example: panning), editing techniques, the narrative the plot would follow (for example: flashbacks), some mise-en-scene such as; costume, lighting, make-up and props.


These are the main ideas I have for now (in chronological order):

• A group of 3-5 friends (teenagers) go to a location (abandoned, run down, old, creepy) during the evening/early night around 9pm. 
• There's a shot from within the house (INT) and someone is standing looking out the window where you can see the friends walking up to the house. 
• The friends walk into the old, abandoned house. In horror films teenagers are conventionally known to be stupid and immoral so we were going to have two or one being loud and almost disrespectful, another convention is to have a dumb blond or a hesitant person that doesn't want to do it; we thought we would mix these two conventions together can have one character representing them both. The other characters are yet to be decided but will most likely end up being casual teenagers.
• We would have a shot of the person that was standing in the window now standing next to a door way and the audience can see they're there but the teenagers can't so we'll have one of the teenagers walk through the door having the audience expect them to see the person however, we'd then change the shot to focus on the teenager and the person won't be there, causing some tension and mystery. 
• We'd now focus on the teenagers for a little bit where the one(s) being loud would suggest playing the Ouija Board they'd brought however, the hesitant one wouldn't be so sure and then reveal that the house they're at is actually the death place of their former friend and it's either is or close to the 1-2 year anniversary of their death. 
• The teenagers begin to play the Ouija Board  and the first time they do it and it moves it was really one of the teenagers who moved it which is a typical cliche for a Ouija Board scene however, we were thing of doing that so they we can use a conventional sound effect where there is a dramatic pitch change to shock the audience and then we reveal it wasn't really anything and they calm down to only to be shocked again later.
• The teenagers would then start again, this time it would be for real and we had an idea to put the camera in the middle where the board would be placed and have it spin in a 360 degree circle to not only show all the reactions of the teenagers in one continuous loop but also so that one the first 360 spin there will be no one in the background but on the second one the person from before will emerge from the shadows and we feel have it all one take would be it even more effective and impactful.
• We haven't fully decided yet if we'd cut away from the 360 degree at this point or have the camera stop moving but the person would then reach down brushing very closely past one of the teenagers to put their hand on the Ouija Board and continue to move it, the teenager wouldn't even flinch as they reach down because they can't actually see them.
• There would then be a fast pace sequence made up of the Ouija Board piece moving and reaction shots from the teenagers, some with the person in view and some without. 
• If the one rule everyone knows about a Ouija Board is that you take take your fingers off, so of course we're going to have the hesitant/dumb character take their fingers off the board.
• That character would then stand up refusing to continue, slowly backing away from the board, she then trips and hits her head causing her to be knocked due to this she then enters an 'inbetween/limbo' where she's able to see this unidentified person who will be revealed in that scene by the character that it is actually the friend that died here.
• An idea that we have thought of but not 100% sure will happen is that the dead friend will then crave some kind of symbol into the character's cheek which then appears on the character's face in the real world where her friends begin to panic as a result and with help from their friends the character would wake up and reveal the news to the rest of the teenagers.
• The next chunk is a part that me and Ronan haven't developed as much as the other parts however, the idea we have is for the dead friend to almost attack the teenagers and possibly kill them in ways that relate to ways that they might have been horrible to them or even had a part in killing them, if we were to kill off the characters we decided we would have their deaths relate to something they'd done to the dead friend and to show this to the audience there would be very quick flashback scenes to what they did between it all. 
• We've also decided that we would have it so that the hesitant/dumb character would be left alive, injured but alive and she would leave the house in panic and screaming and the dead friend would be standing in the door way with blood all over their face, with almost a menacing smile on their face.
• Then possibly in a few years time or another year someone would be walking up to that same house, in daylight this time and they would go to place down flowers, next to the already dead ones and as they look up they're met face-to-face with the dead friend they would also show the a scar on the characters cheek letting the audience know it is the one that was left alive, unchanged from when the audience last saw them and the screen would either cut straight to black after that shot or the camera pans round to an over-shoulder shot (should of the hesitant character) revealing more of the dead friend but then also showing the rest of the characters from the previous scenes also in blood standing behind the first one and then it cuts to black.