Planning Brief

Production brief
Project name: Escape
Medium/format: British horror movie
Length: 2 Minutes
Deadline: February 2017
Group members: Director: Abubakar Akbari
Cinematographer: Priyais Ariyaratnam
Editor: Hamidah Duffus
Sound: Hamidah Duffus

Genre Our genre is horror and our cross-genre

is slasher horror. We chose this genre
because as a group we thought we
could get very creative with it and as
we are very familiar with the genre it
makes it easier for us to come up with
ideas. Also, the horror genre has a
large audience and many subgenres to
it, which means we can add a lot of
different categories as we wish.
Brief overview of content The protagonist (John Royce) is
suddenly awoken, where he finds
himself on the street. He then proceeds
to enter a building (from flashbacks)
where a psychopath approaches him
where John is forced to flee the scene.
The final scene is when the protagonist
is then in a position where he is caught
again, but this time there is no escape
for him and the scene ends of in a cliff
hanger.
Target audience (age group, gender Our target audience is 15-30yrs of age
bias, socio-economic status and and we chose this as a group because
lifestyle profiling): we decided that those between the
ages of 15 to 30 would have a high
interest in horror films because the
horror films that are usually released
currently are 15 and above due to the
scare and gore that it could include.
Also we aimed for those of the socio-
economic groups being C1-E because
the majority of individuals who are in
this category can relate to the film and
enjoy it more than other classes. We
chose to design the film for both
genders being male and female as both
of them can watch horror films as
equally as each other. Most horror films
do not have any gender bias and we
 chose to stick to that as we dont have
a gender bias and it would make more
sense to promote the film to a larger
audience than a smaller one.
Possible scheduling/publishing Companies such as Hammer Film
suggestions: Productions, Channel 4, Sky and archer
street films would publish our
production. This is because our film is
based in the UK and therefore we need
local companies that would be wiling to
publish and present our films. We could
also be presenting our films in
mainstream cinemas such as Cineworld
and Vue, which are popular cinemas in
the UK.
What comparable products have you As I am the cinematographer of the
researched? group I made sure I researched many
popular horror films that had a
frightening and chilling opening
sequence to learn from it. Some films
that I had been inspired from were
Saw, Friday the 13th and the Texas
chainsaw massacre and what I had
learnt that the combination of mise-en-
scene, camera shots/angles, editing
and sound effects used correctly will
make a very terrifying opening
sequence.
What is the rationale behind this text? The rationale behind our text is to
scare the audience that are going to
view our film and to bring out all their
emotions whilst viewing our film. To
make sure we will achieve this we will
be using great costumes, location, SFX,
camera shots and fast paced editing to
make the film as action packed as
possible and as realistic as possible.
The effect that this will have on the
audience is that they would be worried
and scared when following the
storyline. Our unique selling point
(USP) will be that our protagonist is
going to be very brave as when he is
exploring without no worry as this goes
against the stereotype of a lead
protagonist for a horror film as they are
usually scared and nervous throughout
the film.
What representations will be operating John Royce is presented as a character
in your text? Are these justified? that is in a vulnerable position. The
character will have poor clothing,
 which shows he is from a working class
and also he is shown to have blood on
his hands and body indicating previous
history with the antagonist. The
antagonist is represented as a
malicious killer as he wears a mask and
this is shown to be scary and
uncomfortable for the audience. Also,
the weapons the antagonist carries
shows him to be violent and stronger
than the victim, which is a typical
stereotype of men as being more
dominant.
How will you test whether your product A post questionnaire that we will
is successful? How will you check that distribute will provide us with key
it accomplishes the intended effect? information about how our target
audience thought of our finished
product and if it met the expectations.
Another way in which we will obtain
feedback is through YouTube
comments/stats and our social media
pages, which will all have feedback on
letting us know if our product was
successful or not, such as if our video
has many likes it means people had
liked it, whereas if there were many
dislikes it means that people did not
like it.
What generic codes and conventions Since our production is of the horror
will be operating in your text? genre we had to research the horror
genre codes and conventions that are
typically used in horror films and we
picked out a few to use in ours. These
include things such as the shots used
to make symbolic codes to identify and
present the feelings of the character to
the audience. Every genre has some
codes and convention they use to
make the audience aware of what
genre film they are watching. We used
low key lighting, dramatic music and
extreme close ups, which are general
conventions of horror films as they
show fear in the characters face and
continue to build up tensions and
suspense throughout the whole
opening sequence.
What are the overt messages The overt messages that we will be
incorporated into the text? using in our opening sequence is that
the protagonist is the one that is the
victim who is fearful and emotional,
 whilst the antagonist of the film is the
violent and frightening character,
which is a typical trait of a male villain.
Are there any hidden messages Some hidden messages that we
incorporated into the text? incorporate is in our title even before
viewing the production as the title is
called Escape. We also keep a mask
on our antagonist to keep his identity
hidden, which keeps the audience
guessing as to who it is.
Identify any resource constraints (time, An important factor that can affect out
money, equipment, human resources) production is if our actors are on time
that might affect your production and and are available for the times that we
your hopes for your product: ask for. We had to ensure that our
actors where available for long periods
of time and days so that we are able to
finish the filming process quickly and if
we were to re-film the process would
quicker. As a result of this it would
mean that we have more time for
editing and to finish our paperwork. As
for the equipment, almost all of the
equipment apart from the props and
costumes were given to us to borrow
for filming by the school. This made the
whole process of filming more easy as
there were no costs and time wasted in
obtaining the equipment.
Additional notes: