1. ‘Missing’
New Short Film Pitch
Dominique Bendelow & Michaela
Boddy

2. The new ‘Missing’
Due to unforeseen circumstances, our group
decided to go separate ways at the beginning of
filming. This left only two of us to do everything
between us. We struggled to find actors who could
do the time slots that we could and in the end
decided to change our story line in order to save
relying on others. Our story now has only one main
actor in and another small part. We had to change
the plot in order to this, so… Here’s our new short
film pitch…

3. The Plot
Originally we were to have two main actors, a male and a female. They were going to
meet up in the woods and we were going to leave the story ending on a cliff-hanger.
This time however, we decided that we were going to keep the concept of a stalker
that the girl was familiar with, but change things. For example, our story starts with
our main actress, Michaela, who is walking with her friend when she gets a text
message saying ‘woods in 10mins?’, Michaela tells her friend she has to go and walks
to the woods/graveyard. Michaela is very nervous as she is walking around and stops
every time she thinks she hears something moving. We then flick to another point of
view, as if a person is watching Michaela walk through the woods. This is to emphasis
the fact that she is not alone and she knows it. The camera will follow her facial
expressions as she turns around and see’s something she doesn’t want to see. We will
then have a person just out of shot to grab her and cover her mouth. The screen will
then go black as it did in the original and we are considering having the phone
vibrating on the floor again. We then decided to edit it in a way which will look like
time is being rewound, back to the beginning when Michaela gets the text message,
as if she’d had a premonition about what was going to happen to her. We think that
the themes of time travel and technology are suitable in this plot line and we think it
will be much more easy to film and more convenient for us.

4. Concept
The concept of our film will still be the same as it has a very similar story line of
obsession and stalkers, along with an innocent victim .
There are a couple of films that gave us the inspiration for our film, mostly
circulating around serial killers with a psychological thriller theme in the genre.
Some of the films we watched included; The Butterfly Effect; Psycho; Zodiac and
mainly with our new idea, Final Destination.
Although our story line has changed we still want it to remain as a thriller if
possible, but we know that it may not be possible to pull this off as well as we want
to, and there is the possibility of it looking very much like a ‘typical student film’,
which we want to avoid.

5. Concept Trailers
The trailers of films are very important as its usually what gets an
audience to go and see it, we have included some of the trailers for the
films of which are mentioned in the previous slide, our concept films.
http://vimeo.com/9513557 - Sweeney Todd
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG3-GlvKPcg – Psycho
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dWgRfb17-M – Zodiac
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR9MsNurndQ – The Butterfly Effect
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DD_MAz96L70 – Final Destination

6. Characters
Much like our last plot, we are keeping the same ‘Villain -
Victim’ thing as its one of the most popular things and is
easy to work with.
‘Victim’
Within our short film we are going to have a so called
‘Victim’. We are going to make the audience feel like this
person is a victim all the way through, but also make
them question themselves as they consider the fact
that maybe she isn’t the victim, but she’s also another
villain by cheating on her boyfriend. We leave this bit to
the imagination which also keeps people in suspense and
makes them want more.
Villain’
We also have the typical ‘Villain’ who is after the victim.
We will make the audience constantly feel on edge with
the way this character is portrayed in our short film.
But towards the end we make it obvious that everything
may not be what it seems, and we’re unsure of where
the story ends. Although this happens, we also make it
known that he was previously a villain which adds to the
confusion of the narrative.

7. Mise en Scene
Location – We have set this version in a closer location as the
previous wasn’t realistic or convenient. We have set it not far
from college in a very suitable woodland area with a Graveyard
close by which is great as shots often work well there. It’s a
misty place and is quite dark which works well with our theme.
We wanted to create the feeling that the only people in the
world that were there are the main character and an unknown
villain.
Era – We are setting our film in the modern day, 2012, as we
feel that it’s the best time in which we can relate to and create
the best possible short film with as much detail. It also makes
it simple for things such as costume and technology.
Lighting – We will use mainly natural day light if possible as
carrying round lights will be hard enough, plus we’ll be out in the
open without plug sockets, and battery powered lights aren’t
strong enough. There is a possibility it may snow when we’re
filming which means that the snow should naturally bounce light
back up to the main characters face so we should be fine!

8. Audience Profile
Audience profile is very important to us as it determines who will watch our
film and who we should aim it at. We would say that our film, because of it
being a student film, would be aimed at an audience between around the ages of
15-21 year olds, also because of the ages of the actors in it. This demographic
would most probably be able to relate to our short film as there has been many
stories of young people meeting up with a person they didn’t know whilst on
their own, and then they go missing.
If our film was made into an official feature film we would have to get it rated
by the British Board of Film Classification. We would say that our film would be
either a 12 or a 15 certficate because of our audience ages.
Thriller movies have tended to attract more of a male audience rather than a
female audience so, it would most probably be dominated by a male audience.
Although the fact that our main and only actor is female, this might turn the
tables as females may be able to relate more, plus its usually girls that go
missing after meeting up with strangers rather than boys.
.

9. Theme’s – Time and Technology
The themes of our story are most definitely time and technology, and
it has been fairly easy to create these themes. Technology is a part of
our generations everyday life, so to include a piece of technology such
as a mobile phone has been very easy. Just a simple shot of our main
actress walking with her phone in her hand, or the text message that
she receives in the first place, would have done it.
Time was a little bit more difficult to include as the theme of time
travel would be too hard to do, we felt stuck.. Until we realised we
could have flash backs and flash forwards. In our original plot we had a
flash back but in this one we have a flash forwards. We think it
generally works better now, plus there are less actors to have to
direct!
Other themes also include; Mystery, the infamous ‘Unknown’, Drama
and Thriller.

10. Advertisement
We decided that we would go for advertisement and a movie poster in the
same way in which things such as District 9 and the Blair Witch Project
did. We are going to make realistic ‘Missing Persons’ poster and write an
article for a newspaper on how a young girl has gone missing.
We have decided to do this in hope that it would bring big ‘hype’ to our film
and it would get it recognised for being different.
Although we’re taking inspiration for The Blaire Witch Project, we are
filming it like a normal film and not hand held!