'It's just a Movie!' Proposal

I am producing a new horror/slasher film which will be aimed at teenagers and people in their twenties. Also the film’s content and theme’s may also appeal to an older generation. I think that this is a good target audience as horror films have been popular with teenagers and twenty something’s for a long time and research has shown that these are more likely to go to the cinema than any other age groups. The age certificate of this film will be a 15-18 based on the violence, gore and scary scenes that will be present throughout the film.

The plot of the new film I am producing will be;

'On October 29th 2012 two teenagers are at home planning their costumes for a Halloween party that they will attend on the 31st. They watch ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ and joke around wondering what they would do if Freddy came in and killed them while they were asleep. Someone then knocks on the door and they open it after hearing that there are trick or treaters outside. As they open the door they see someone dressed as Freddy Krueger. We do not see their face but they then storm into the house slashing the face of one the teenagers as they do so. The other runs back into the room but ‘Freddy’ stabs them in the back. ‘Freddy’ turns back to the slashed faced teenager and then stabs them in the stomach killing them. ‘Freddy’ then places them in their beds, therefore recreating a death scene from ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’.

The police treat this as an isolated incident but do find the whole murder quite ironic, they watched ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ and end up being stabbed to death in a bed. We are then introduced to the victim’s friends who are left reeling after they learn of the death of their friends. They soon learn that they were watching 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' and they were found stabbed to death in their beds. At first they think it’s quite suspicious and assume that the killer will strike again. The group deal with their loss in different ways. One of the group struggles the most as one of the victims was her sister, with all the drama of being a teenager and the idea of a serial killer on their minds the group find it all too much to deal with. Over the course of the 30th and 31st of October the group is attacked by the killer in different persona's who's also recreating scene's/death's from other horror films. As the bodies begin to pile up they must work together to identify the killer but they soon start to suspect it may be someone amongst them. As they try and out smart the killer by working out which film they will recreate next, they find themselves in a situation where the killer is always one step ahead of them.  But with Halloween now in full swing and the party starting everyone in town is in costume which makes it the perfect playground for the killer to move around unnoticed. What would you do if you were in this situation’?

My package will include:
-Storyboard
-Teaser Trailer
-Theatrical Trailer
-Film
-Movie posters
-Movie billboards
-Magazine Front Cover (Fangoria)

I am thinking of using social networking sites as a way to promote my film as Facebook has an ever growing user count that is well over 600 million people worldwide. Twitter has become as equally as successful as Facebook as Twitter features ‘Trending Topics’ on new upcoming films as well as giving the public an opportunity to communicate with all the people that will be involved with the film.  

Following in the footsteps of another horror film my film’s budget will be around 200,000 pounds, the same budget as 1978’s Halloween. It has been proven with the likes of the ‘Paranormal Activity Franchise’ that lower budget films are becoming more successful especially in the horror genre.  

In the production aspect of the film I wanted to film the project like Rob Zombie did with his remake of Halloween. To use very still mid shots where dialogue is used and to use hand held when there is a killing or when there is action present in the film. This reflects on the modern age of mockumentary such as Cloverfield, Paranormal Activity and The Blair Witch Project as well as making those scenes feel very raw and rough which helps set the tone of the film.  

The distribution company I have approached is ‘The Weinstein Company’. This company is well known as they have had involvement with franchise such as ‘Scream’ and ‘Halloween’ which are films that have influenced this project.

The intended release date for the project is 20^th October 2012, which makes financial and overall sense. It has been known that horror films fair better in terms of box office gross if released near Halloween. The project it self is set on Halloween 2012 so it relates to the time of release.