Planning - Target audience

The important thing we had to consider during the planning of our film was the nature of the content we included. This would help to determine which age rating the film would get if it was to undergo classification. As we wanted to make our trailer as realistic as possible we knew the rating would be high, as if not it would not include stereotypical thriller conventions.

There is a list posted by the British board of classification (BBFC) which states what is allowed in a 15 film:

• Strong violence
• Frequent strong language
• portrayals of sexual activity
• Strong verbal references to sex
• Sexual nudity
• Brief scenes of sexual violence
• Verbal references to sexual violence
• Discriminatory language or behaviour
• Drug taking

There is also a published list by the BBFC which states what is expected to be seen in an 18 rated film:

• Very strong violence
• Frequent, very strong language
• Strong portrayals of sexual activity
• Strong horror
• Strong blood and gore
• Real sex - in some circumstances
• Discriminatory language and behaviour

The BBFC can also ban films that they think show anything worse than this and should not be seen by the public. Or they can make them R18 films, which means that they are kept hidden from the public audience and can only be shown in licensed cinemas.


Looking at these lists, we knew we wanted to make sure everything in our film was suitable to be viewed by 15 year olds, as this was an audience we wanted to target. This meant that our film could include horror themes but nothing too extremist. It also means we are targeting a larger audience, so our film is likely to be a bigger success.

Planning - USP

After deciding on an idea and creating a basic plot we wanted to find a unique selling point (USP) of our film before planning it all and realising it is very similar to many films and therefore would not be an ideal film to make.

We tried to think how we could make our film individual and original and came up with the idea of setting the majority of the film up from the attackers point of view, and therefore rarely seeing him. If he was seen on camera then it was in the shadows or from a very long distance so his face was not visible.

This idea would also create a sense of mystery which creates fear and suspense within an audience.

Planning - business deal - Idea 3

After discussing the second idea further, we were trying to work out a way to produce this idea. Knowing we already had one actress in mind to play a lead female role, we tried to base a more detailed plotline including this character. We really struggled to find a plot line that we had the ability and equipment to film, and make look realistic. We found this really difficult as these sorts of storylines, involve blood, and gore, such as people cutting limps off, or drowning eachother. These types of scenes need an incredible amount of special effects and involve a very large risk assessment, and therefore we would not be able to film this, in a way that looks realistic enough to be believed by an audience.

Because of this we began drafting ideas again to adapt them as much as possible to make them realistic, and as high quality as possible.

We tried to look beyond the Halloween idea as we realised that although this seemed like a good idea as it is a frightening night, there is a limit to what can be related to this due to the supernatural being the main association.

We looked at the idea of a hostage situation again, therefore we would be able to use the female actress we had in mind. Whilst brainstorming ideas we thought we finally came up with one.



Firstly, a business deal occurs between two men, one does very well off of this deal and the other does very badly and looses everything, including his house, his business and his family. This man wants revenge on the other man as he blames him. He begins stalking his daughter, as he think this is the best way to get to him.

Whilst watching the daughter he hears her parents are going away for the weekend for their anniversary, and takes this as the perfect time for his plan. We thought we could use some parts of our first idea here, with the doorbell being rung and no one being there and the girl ringing the police.

He finds a way into her house and their is a series of scenes where she is trying to hide from him, before he eventually finds her. This then leads to him catching her and holding her hostage.

Her parents keep ringing her from their weekend away and can't get hold of her so end up leaving their holiday early.


As a group we really liked this idea as a whole, we liked how simple this idea was, which led to the narrative being a lot clearer, however there were still different little plots happening throughout! We also like the idea of using some of our original ideas as they are what we related to a thriller immediately.

Planning - Idea 2 - Trick or treat game

Whilst discussing our idea we realised that we may find the trailer very difficult to make for a variety of reasons, which included that it was no longer Halloween and therefore to get a range of houses for trick or treating that we could decorate well enough to fit the theme of the film would be very difficult, we also realised how difficult it would be to get a large enough range of young children who were able to be in our film. However, as we liked the idea so much we continued with the ideas bur brainstormed how we could develop them so that they would work better.

We loved the Halloween idea so wanted to continue with this, we looked at the films we had researched and tried to look for inspiration from these. Alice, a member of my group had watched a film called would you rather, so we all went away and watched that ourselves, to form our own research. We all thought using the idea of a group of friends playing a game that turns sinister could be interesting. As we were using teenagers and still wanted some individuality we thought the game could be Truth or dare, and there could be a point where one of the friends says a dare that is much worse than the others previously used.

By doing this we were loosing our idea of a stranger being involved, and we liked that idea, so we thought there could be a knock at the door, which is a stranger who somehow gets into the house, even against there denial for him to get in. He could join in the game and make it much more sinister.

We originally thought that the game did not have to take place inside a house and could happen in a public place such as a park. However, when we thought about this idea realistically we knew we do not have the equipment that would benefit this, as it would need to be filmed after it was dark, that way there would be no children in the park and it would be more scary as the darkness sets the scene, so we would need a camera that could pick up clear images even in the dark. But also, if we were filming outside The diegetic sound, such as dialogue may be affected by the wind, which would impact our film massively.

Planning - Initial ideas

When we first tried to plan a film in the thriller genre we had many ideas to brainstorm and try to form together into a film.
These included:

• A girl being kept hostage
• A Halloween based idea
• An emergency call being made to the police
• Trick or treating

Planning - first idea - Trick or treat

Grouping our ideas together seemed to be quite easy at first.

We decided we liked the idea of trick or treating on Halloween as this is known to be a frightening night, which would start to set the scene immediately, however we thought we would start our trailer with young children dressed up trick or treating. This would make the theme seem happy and fun and then frightening themes would be introduced later. The trailer would focus on one 16/17 year old girl and how she was home alone for the weekend as her parents had gone away. Her doorbell ringing at first would be different children knocking, and then would be the a strange man knocking repeatedly  but this would develop into no one being there when it rings again. She would then realise that he has somehow got into her house. This was always an idea of our film as we wanted a hostage storyline to occur. The girl would then make a phone call to the police claiming there is someone inside her house.

Throughout the next part of the film there would be a chase between the strange man and the young girl, before he catches her and keeps her hostage inside her own home.

This idea relates back to my research as the phone call to the police is similar to the call, which I watched the trailer of. It also links to When a stranger calls, as this film plays with the idea that a stranger terrorises a girl with phone calls, before he makes his way into her  house and attacks her. This is similar to our film, however we liked the idea of Halloween as we think this makes our film more original and individual and therefore this could have been our USP.

Planning - Forming a group

Knowing how important this piece of work is I wanted to ensure i was working in a group that I knew would work well together, as well as be able to produce a piece of work that we could be proud of.

Having worked in a group together last year,  I know how Alice and Peter work and how we all work together and I know we can all work well together. Zoe is an easy person to work with and therefore we knew she would fit into the group dynamics straight away.

Before starting anything serious we spoke about all our ideas and any things we knew we wanted to do to ensure there were no major controversial ideas that would cause problems further down the line in the production of our trailer.