Redrum Proposal
- 1. Proposal Title of Film: REDRUM Film Synopsis For my film, I have decided to create a film based around the crime/drama genre. Furthermore, as expected, I have also completed a thorough pre-production for the film by completing all necessary paperwork i.e risk assessments, location scouting, personnel lists etc to ensure safety and professionalism. My aim of this short film is to use a variety of single camera techniques to improve my cinematography skills. The main character will be the person who discovers her old camera as she is a victim in the film and is murdered towards the end. The other character in the film is the villain who can be described as some sort of bad spirit / killer as the victim says redrum in the mirror multiple times which is known to attract the supernatural. The title of my film is REDRUM as it spells murder backwards. I liked this name as I thought that it was short, simple and quite fitting to the storyline which would attract young audiences. The film will be around 5 minutes with different shots, angles and twists to keep the audience interested. Furthermore, there will also be very little dialogue in the film to create suspense as the audience will want to know what the characters are feeling and tone the horror music down which will be cut to beat. The Logline My script is about a teenager finding their old camera in a box of items. They turn it on and take a photo and see something in the background of the image - this is the enigma. Over the next few days, the character is in college and thinks she sees a masked / hooded character standing in the room she is about to walk in, facing the door. However she starts to hear a crowd of people walking up the corridor and turns around to face them as they walk into the room where the hooded figure was no longer there. This confused the character alot to the point where she thought that she was hallucinating. After this strange occurrence, at the characters home, there were loud banging sounds - as though someone was banging on the door or walls. The character drops her phone from jumping from the shock and runs to turn the lights on. The banging continues. The character picks their phone up and tries to call 999 for emergency services but there was no signal on their phone. They were stuck. The character runs to their mirror and starts the redrum ritual (they believe in spirits etc). They look away and turn back and REDRUM is written on the mirror with a large figure behind, holding a sharp object. In the next scene the character is sitting on a bench with their friend having a conversation but then the character dissolves so that it is only the friend sitting on the bench (signifying the death of the character). ScreenplayStructure Act 1: Introduction to the main character and enigma. The audience can gather that the main character can see the enigma now and again, almost as though she is hallucinating. Act 2 : The enigma starts to follow the main character around and finds its way to their home.
- 2. Act 3: The main character performs a ritual and the enigma appears behind and kills her. We don’t know this until the ending scene where the other character is introduced and the main character fades away to signify their death. Characters Character 1: The main character who keeps seeing a hooded figure and is murdered at the end. Enigma: The killer of the film and follows character 1 around to haunt them. They are also an unwanted spirit as it brings negative energy to people and places. Character 3: A friend of character 1, who is introduced at the end of the film when character 1 fades away and character 3 seems heartbroken and upset. Background characters: Classmates All characters are teenagers and college students. Film Treatment Character 1 opens up a box full of memories and pulls out a camera. They take a good look at the camera as they haven’t seen it in a long time. They turn the camera on and take a quick photo to see if it still works. As they look at the picture, they notice a figure in the image sitting on the chair in front. Character 1 quickly looks around the room for someone but no one is there so they place the camera back in the box and leave the room. Over the course of a few days, character 1 walks down the corridor towards their class and goes to walk in but stops. The figure is there again but she can see it this time. A group of people walk down the corridor and into the room talking normally as she watches every step they make and then returns their view to the room where the figure had disappeared. Character 1 carries on and walks into the room. A few days later, character 1 is sitting in their room (in darkness) on their phone. Suddenly there are loud bangs on the door and walls which causes character 1 to drop their phone. They get up to turn the light on and the banging continues, character 1 rushes back to their phone and picks it up to call 999 but there was no signal. Strangely, they had a weird feeling that it was some spirit as they believed in ghosts, spirits, witches etc. As a result of this, they thought that the best thing to do was perform a ritual - Redrum. They run to turn the lights off and start the ritual until the lights turn back on as they look up to see REDRUM written on the mirror and a hooded figure behind. Character 1 freezes for a moment as the hooded figure starts to slowly pull out a sharp object. The scene all of a sudden goes dark to limit what the audience can see as it transitions onto the next day. The next day, character 1 is sat on a bench with their friend having a conversation but then they fade away - leaving their friend sitting alone. This is done to signify that the hooded figure
- 3. murdered character 1 and the audience can see the hurt in friends and family of losing a loved one. After being told that character 1 had been killed, the next scene is a title scene saying “NO ONE IS SAFE - R” to seem as though it is a message / threat from the hooded figure which could scare the audience and hope for more of the story to be revealed.