In my pitch, I said I wanted to creative a narrative following a young student who had died suring her first week of University. It was from then that I started to come up with ideas as to how this student may have died, whether or not the protagonist would be male or female or whether or not the death was an accident or a murder.
The death
In my pitch I also suggested that the death of the student might be the cause of a freshers week prank inspired by the film Sorority Row. One idea that I had was that the student experimented with some kind of drug after a night of heavy partying and drinking eventually causing a fatal overdose, another suggestion was that the student was not a particularly confident person leaving them to be excluded from their roomates and fellow students. Upset and alone they would commit suicide due to their lack of involvement in the University culture. Upon pre production investigation into real life cases, another idea that also appealed to me was that the student would be murdered by their roomate. I liked this idea as, living out in University can seem like such a huge change in a young persons life and how awful it would be if you were living with the room mate from hell. Through no fault of their own the roomate would poison them and no arrests would be made leaving a sense of injustice on the murdered student.
Male or Female?
As I wanted to aim my film at a larger male target audience I was undecided whether or not to choose a male or female student as the main protagonist as ultimately you want your audience to feel as though they have some sort of similarites with them. However whilst conducting textual analysis, I realised that the majority of Supernatural horrors feature an attractive female protagonist whether it's The Unborn, The Uninvited or Paranormal Activity. This is probably due to the fact that in the past, demons and spirits had always invaded the body of a young woman or child, leaving female audiences to develop a emotional bond with the character. However for men, the protagonists before they are possessed or haunted they are often young attractive women, providing some screen visual appeal for a male audience.
Setting
After being allowed to film in a friends student halls I then wondered where else would be effective to film on campus, for instance would I show the protagonist partying at a Freshers week nightclub to show that the characters finally involved themselves within the culture, or would I delve deeper into their University life by showing them running (The Uborn), attending class (Sorority Row) and visiting their family to allow the audience to feel sympathetic towards them.
Time
Even though I knew I wanted to set my trailer in the present day, I wanted to establish that the students death had become so publicised and well known that the reports of sightings had almost become a myth. One idea I had was to set the protagonists story in the mid nineties where the 'freshers week' craze really took off. Another suggestion was to set it between 10-15 years ago to establish a period of time for Police investigations to take place and to use the latest in technology for the film crew to use.
I essentially wanted my trailer to be aimed at young students between the ages the ages of 18-24 who are maybe at University or are currently in a creative profession utilising their skills gained from University. They'll be able to relate to the culture of University and possibly be able to empathise with the protagonists as most of them would have had the similar experience of leaving home to move into their own flat/halls and truly understand what it is like away from the comfort and protection of their families. They'll enjoy the scare factor amongst the narrative as the themes within it will strike a chord with their own personal experineces.
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