Target Audience

The main target audience for our sequence is the 18/25 category. Initially we discussed 16/25 as my peers are aged between 16/17. However upon final discussion, we realised that such a low age group could not be targeted as the amount of gore and blood present in the final piece will be far to choking for a young audience. We felt that, if this film were to ever get a cinema release, in no way would it get a 15 rating, realistically, an 18.

While the film could be seen by any international audience, the idea is to give it a low budget British feel so it would perhaps be more relatable to a British audience, as opposed to a foreign one.

Detailed Storyline

• As we returned to College after our trip to Sutton park, we created a detailed storyline for our project.
• Beginning with an establishing shot of the sky that would pan down to reveal the park, it would also reveal a pair of teenagers holding hands in the center.
• As the boy and girl sit down we cut to a close up of them both, as they talk about current news events.
• The camera then cuts to a sequence of a dead body, which slowly zooms out from a close up to a full body shot which reveals a zombie eating him.
• A close up of the zombie will then be shown with a hand held camera to add a shaking effect.
• The camera will cut back to the boy and girl who hear noises in the woodland, they agree to go and see what it is.
• As the boy and girl stand the camera tilts upwards keeping their faces in full view of the camera.
• A long shot is then shown as the boy and girl walk towards the woodland, and the camera will pan to follow the girl as she enters. The boy will somehow be delayed.
• A shot of the girl entering is shown, following by a quick pan to the body, and a pan back to the girl again, in order to show her reaction. The zombie has disappeared by this point.
• Upon hearing the girls screams, the boy can be seen entering via the use of medium shots and panning of the camera.
• The boy and girl approach the body, kneel down, and exchange words via a two shot method. Also, a shot of the boy kneeling will be shown for a match on action effect.
• The boy and girl will stand, and prepare to get help, however a medium long shot of the wooland entrance will show the zombie preparing to attack them, she will attack the boy.
• The girl is then shown running away, the camera will follow her, this will be hand held.
• The title of the film will then be shown to the viewer as the camera cuts to black.

  

 

 

 

The Storyboard

Now that we knew that we would film a horror sequence, and that it would be filmed in Sutton park, now came the task of storyboarding camera angles and a general storyline in preparation for a planned dress rehearsal in coming weeks.

Essentially the plot is simple, yet effective. The camera will pan from the sky to the ground to reveal a couple hand in hand who then sit down. The camera will then cut to a medium shot of the two, discussing trivial nonsense.

We then cut to a full close up of the face of a dead corpse, gradually cutting further and further away from him to reveal a zombie eating at his insides.

Cutting back to the couple, from a side shot, they hear a noise. They then stand and a long shot reveals them walking into the woods, however, the girl will enter first as the boy will be delayed.

The girl will go into the woods to find the same dead body we previously saw, but no zombie. Eventually the boy will enter after becoming alarmed at his girlfriends screams. They will walk over to the body through the use of panning shots, close ups, match on action and two shots. They will discuss alerting authorities and will then proceed to leave the woodland only to be delayed by the zombie who then attacks them. While we do not see them die it will be strongly implied that they do.

It is also clear now to us as a group, that we need to add much more detail into our story and will write a script which will include detailed information about the sequence and who will film it. This will take some weeks to produce and will be ready by the time of the actual shoot, distributed among the team involved and then put into action.

No production journal will be made for the dress rehearsal as the idea is to informally go and film a sequence to get more inspiration for the actual film.

Finding The Location

On 1/2/2011, I, Laura Sheasby and Faye Slater journeyed to Sutton Park in Sutton Coldfield to obtain a location for where we would film and for inspiration for film ideas. By this point we were roughly convinced that it would be a horror film involving a romantic heterosexual couple.

We journeyed into woodland, finding several opening that allowed us to easily shoot scenes in the sunlight outside of the woodland mixed in with enclosed darker scenes. We found that such a style would add contrast to the tone of the film, with a happy couple in the open, but dark evil manifesting in the darkness. This is a convention that is often used in horror films, and one that we found on the location hunt that we would use in course.

We also found several branches sticking out of the ground that could be used as natural props for the actors to trip over, then getting attacked as they lye defencelessly on the floor.

After this excursion, we, as a group sat and discussed filming it in the location we travelled to in Sutton park, and discussed the possibility of filming a dress rehearsal to get an idea of how we as a team would react with the natural setting when we came to film the final production.