JOURNEY: EVOLUTION OF AN IDEA

THE INITIAL PITCH:

Feedback and changes: 

-Two many time jumps would be unrealistic in the given time restriction. 

-I need to explore the idea of the stalking more to have build up to the murder. Make her a stereotypically immoral character, for example talking about drinking or going to a party, to justify her murder. Or work with counter types (Cherry Falls 2000 Geoffrey Wright), make her stereotypically innocent.

-I need to decide if it is set in the UK or USA to have clear identifiers.   

SECOND PITCH:

On my film opening I decided to work with Laura (L48 FILMS) as we both explored the idea of  Rom-Com/Horror. I looked at Jennifer's body (2009 Karyn Kusama) while she looked at Jawbreaker (1999 Darren Stein) and Heathers (1989 Michael Lehmann) which could be comparable with their visuals having some similarities.

I decided to continue on with using the slasher genre conventions and the ideas of final girl and scream queen, as well as the idea of binary opposites.

Working Title: GobStopper 

Genre: We decided to combine horror and teen rom com for our film. We were inspired by the films Heathers (1988), Jennifers Body (2009) and Jawbreaker (1999). 

Synopsis: A group of girls decide to prank their friend on the night before her birthday by kidnapping her. They accidentally kill her, and the rest of the film follows them covering up their tracks with the scream queen dying at the end to pay for her crime. 

Opening: The film starts with a flashback of the girl being murdered, with exposition being given through the use of missing posters and radio voiceover. It then cuts to two girls kidnapping their friend, the scream queen killing her using a gobstopper, while the final girl tries to stop her. They realise she's dead and quickly attempt to dispose the body, forgetting to properly cover up their tracks while burying her in the forest. To transition to the main film, they are seen in school the next day talking of the crime. 

Audience: Our primary audience would be females aged 15-24, and our secondary is male and female aged 25-44+

Setting/Location: Our sets would be the girls room (exposition and keeping to teen audience), the school (teen audience) especially the lockers (false scare). The forest would be used for the digging/burial scene and the car would be used for a boot shot. 

Costume: Our costumes are mainly inspired by Heathers (1988) with the colour theme and matching skirts or bows, we also want to create a teen movie feel so we would replicate the styles they used at the time. 

Props: Our main props would be a shovel, a gobstopper and schoolbooks. We would try and keep the props limited and focus on the mise-en-scene instead. 

Feedback and changes:

- our opening shot will be the scream queen stepping over missing posters

- use missing posters instead of a radio voiceover

- include a stalking scene (slasher convention and false scare)

- include a party as a plot point 

- blur the roles of final girl and scream queen by having the final girl die first instead

- create narrative enigma with the burial scene and not explicitly show her friends burying her 

- not use a gobstopper but have her drink being poisoned (easier to shoot) 

FINALIZING OUR IDEA:

We tried many scenarios to make our idea more feasible. The party idea was simply unrealistic, we wouldn't be able to get this amount of extras. The idea of a prank going wrong would be to hard to execute, we were thinking of filming the action scene in the girls bedroom but that wasn't the best way to do it. We started exploring the ideas of a classic forest chase. We really wanted to go with the Heathers idea. We tried many different scenarios: we were thinking of making it Halloween, everyone would wear costumes, the boyfriend would wear a Jason mask and jumpsuit for intertextuality and our main thee girls would be dressed as the Heathers, another idea was to incorporate the colours of heathers into their outfits. We decided to scrap it and just stick to the idea of the scream queen acting immorally, dressed in a vulgar outfit, and the final girl being innocent.

FINAL PITCH:

Working Title: All the Boys Loved Jennifer

Genre: Slasher. Our main influences were Jennifers Body (2009), Scream (1996) and All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006). 

Synopsis: A girl is walking to a party when her boyfriend jumps out and scares her. The two go deep into the woods but the couple don't know they are being followed. The couple hear some strange noises and the boyfriend goes to check it out. The two get confronted by a murderer and the girl get's killed. Her two best friends try to solve the mystery of her disappearance. 

Opening: The opening shot is an MLS of a girl walking down a dark street. We see her drinking and smoking. She gets a message from her best friend asking when she is arriving to the party. Her phone background is a picture of her and her two other friends. There is a best friends bracelet on her wrist. There is an eerie atmosphere, she feels like she is being followed. there is a false care of her boyfriend jumping out. The two go deeper into the woods. There is a noise of a branch snapping. The boyfriend goes to check out what it is. The girl thinks that the guy is pranking her again. There is a shot of her getting her throat slit. The identity of the murderer is ambiguous. We see a shot of a dark figure burying a body. There is a shot of her skirt being covered in dirt and match cut to the inside of the locker the following morning. Her two best friends are discussing her friend not arriving to the party the night before.

Audience: Our primary audience would still be females aged 15-24, and our secondary is male and female aged 25-44+

Setting/Location: The forest would our main setting and be used for the digging/burial scene. A street with a street light for the opening shot. A school corridor for the conversation.