Treatment

Introduction;
My short film will last approximately 10 minutes and will contain just the one actor. I will be performing the majority of the production crew roles including the director, camera operator and chief editor.

Outline;
- Concept
    - A family day out turns into a family tragedy when Holly and her family are involved in a horrific car accident. After tragically losing both her parents and her little brother, Holly is left to fend for herself, living with close relatives that help to her to grieve for her family. Even after a year, Holly is still reliving the accident in her dreams, causing her to lose sleep and fail in school. When the one year anniversary of their death comes round, Holly chooses to go and visit her parents at the cemetery. After leaving the cemetery, going for a walk is thought to be the best idea to clear her head. Walking through woods and fields, Holly is taken away in her thoughts, thinking about what her father used to say to her and all the fun times she used to have with her mum and dad as a family. Using a voiceover, it will be like Holly is in a dream. Like she is dreaming about her family being back with her and all the good times they had together. Going back home, laying down in bed after a long day, a picture of her and her parents is shown to end the film.

Budget;
Every production has a specific budget to stick too and as I am working on this project myself, I had the task of coming up with a realistic budget to stick too. After thinking this through, I believe that £20 will be enough. With this small amount, we will be able to afford minimal travel prices if needed to get to locations and if we need to buy certain elements such as props, I will be able to go to charity shops to buy them or even save some money and borrow them from family members or friends. As I will be closely collaborating with South Essex College throughout the entire process, I have been given permission to use their facilities for free. This will include equipment hire and also the use of the college campus as a potential location. I thought that this will be a major help as it will reduce my budget a lot and I won't need to make the budget a priority throughout.

Personnel Involved;
There are usually a lot of different people involved when it comes to making a short film. As I will be completing this task as an individual, I will be undertaking most of the main roles needed in a production team. The director will be one of the easiest roles to undertake as I like to have control over something that I am passionate about and they are also one of the biggest roles throughout the whole production. They are involved in all 3 processes (pre - pro - post) and have the last word about all ideas and changes that will happen. The camera operator will film all the different shots and is involved in more of the pre-production and production stages. They can have an involvement in the editing stages and I think because I will be filming as well as editing, it will come as an advantage to me because I will become familiar with the structure of my shots and the order they go in. Hopefully this will speed up the editing time as well. The other roles such as Art Director, Health and Safety and Editor will be undertaken by myself but will be sorted throughout the process. These roles aren't my priority but they will always be a part of the production process.

Contingency plan;
My contingency plan is very basic and clear because I know what I am going to do if something goes wrong. For example, if a piece of equipment breaks, I have planned to have a backup camera which will have the closest quality I can find to the previous camera. The location may become unavailable on the day of shooting so I have planned to have a second location that is very familiar to the first in place as this is liable to happen. As my actor is a close friend of mine, I know that I will be able to rely on her not to let me down but if it comes to it, I have 2 understudies who will be able to step in and take the place of my original actor. As one of my locations is outside, I have to be careful about the weather. If this does become a big problem, I have already decided another idea without using the location outdoors. Weather is common to ruin potential filming days so this is going to be one of my priorities on the day of filming.

Research;
During the initial ideas stages of this process, I completed a lot of research as I knew what I wanted to include in my short film. Knowing that I wanted to use a voiceover and that I wanted to be impacting and rememberable, I wanted to use some quotes that have impacted me over the years. Working with films that I love, I found a famous quote from the popular film 'Titanic'. The quote goes as follows; 'Now you know there was a man called Jack Dawson, and that he saved me. In every way that a person can be saved… He exists now, only in my memory.' I like this quote because it really relates to the past, missing someone and really committing to someone that died a long time ago. I think Holly could relate to this because she is saying that she is still committed to loving her parents even though they are not with her anymore. One of my favourite films, 'The Pursuit of Happiness' includes a really inspiring quote where Chris (Will Smith) is explaining to his never to give up on his dreams, no matter what people tell him. The quote goes like this; 'Hey, don't ever let someone tell you, you can't do something. Not even me. Alright? You gotta dream, you gotta protect it. People can't do something themselves, they wanna tell you you can't do it. You want something, go get it. Period?' I think this quote is very inspiring and it is something that any parent would say to their children. Making sure they don't give up on their dreams, making sure they don't fail in lives. This quote will fit in very well with the genre of my film and make it more impacting to the audience as it can hit home as most parent have said stuff like this to their children and children have probably heard it from their parents.