Pitch

 I completed this pre-production activity in order to be able to advertise and explain my short film concept to the production companies. I created a document that had important features of my film such as the title, a logline, basic plot summary, my research and the unique selling point. By doing this, I have allowed myself to have a persuasive document ready for future pitches of my short film. 

House of Fun Pitch 

Three girls prepare for the most thrilling night as they enter a fun house, things take a turn for the worst and their lives are changed forever. 

House of fun is a short film production consisting of around 3-5 minutes long, this will be aimed at 15-30 years old of any gender as my target audience. I think this will be my key target audience as this film would not be appropriate for younger audiences due to some graphic and bloody scenes and characters being ‘odd and potentially scary.’ In my opinion this wouldn’t appeal to the majority of the older audience. By aiming my media product at a young audience, I am allowing myself to advertise this on more platforms like social media. 

The plot of ‘House of fun’ is, on Halloween three girls are walking home from school to get ready for a haunted house scare fest, once they are ready, they enter the house to be greeted by a ticket man who gives them entry in return for money. They are then taken around the house by their tour guide ‘Pogo the clown’ who is a young teenage boy who the girls know from school. After jump scares and scares, the character of ‘Spine Snapper Sophie’ shocks the group of girls and joins them on the tour around the house. When one of the girls gets distracted and drawn into an off-limits room, the rest of the group begin to worry, it isn’t until another of the girls goes missing and a thud is heard that the panic begins to set in for the 2 crew and the girl from the friendship group left. Upon investigation, the group discover one of the missing friends body and a pile of blood containing the other missing friend’s earring. When one of the characters double cross the rest by locking the door, the final shot reveals the killer (who is featured earlier in the film) running towards the huddle of characters (camera) when the screen cuts to black and to hear a scream, a thud, a final scream, a final thud and then a synchronised evil cackle.  

After researching into other thriller films, I have chosen to conform and subvert some of the typical genre conventions and codes. I have decided to follow a chronological order for my film, this way the plot line is simplified, and audiences will not get lost or confused with the plot of the short film. For this film to be categorised into the ‘thriller’ genre, I knew I must include key elements like a fast-paced plot line; unexpected twists; a death; a race against the pressure of time; and high levels of uncertainty and anxiety. However, I chose to subvert a satisfying ending for audiences due to the quick and sharp end of the film. I wanted a unique element to my film that would stand out to audiences therefore I decided to name most of my characters after serial killers thus adding a slightly creepier tone to the film. 

My short film production opens with an over the shoulder shot of three girls walking out of school, this could be seen to subvert conventions of a thriller film as the initial shot isn’t introducing the characters immediately. By using young teenage girls (aged 16/17) this conforms to a genre convention of using vulnerable and helpless characters, thus also conforming to a stereotype of women as being ‘damsels in distress’ – simplifying these three characters as a shortcut to help audiences understand and predict what is going to happen within the short film. Most of my film will use diegetic sound in the form of dialogue, sound effects and music within a scene. However for more intense scenes I plan to include non-diegetic sound like suspenseful music in order to entice the audience.