Evangeline Our Film Pitch by Sophie, Olivia and Sam

The film.The genre- Mystery-thriller (hybrid)

Who? What?..A group of teens studying for a project about witchcraft discover something unusual and

when they question it/look into it further they find out that the truth is far from what they could imagine causing secrets to be revealed and pasts and before lives to be relived.

Where? When?It is set in modern day following a group of friends on their terrifying discovery about

witchcraft. The opening scene will be set in a school either in the library or on the school stage in the middle of the day.

Why would the target audience like it?The target audience is 12-25. I believe they would enjoy the film because it is full of mystery, tension, supernatural

occurrences and terrifying moments. However I believe mostly teenagers will engage with this film because the main characters in the film are teenagers. This film is rated 12 because we found a few thriller films to have this rating (including ‘The Woman in Black’)and it may be too scary for children. Children may also got lost in the tension and mystery side of the film so may become confused or uninterested.

Film plot (overview)

The basic narrative of this film is very confusing and almost hard to get your head around. It is set in modern day and based around one girl and her group of friends. They are working on a school project researching the 1800’s when they discover a shocking website about witchcraft of the time, looking more into the sinister looking website they stumble across a photograph. The scene then cuts to one of the girls who is yet to come to the meeting walking across the hall (you don’t yet see her face) the scene is then cut back to the group who are studying this photograph in greater detail then we see the girl we were just following walk in. the room goes silent and tension is built. The girl is confused and asks what is going on, one boy hands her a folded piece of paper but before replacing it asks her if she knows a girl called Evangeline Bancroft, to which she replies no. she opens the paper revealing an image identical to herself but in older 1800s dressed in old clothing. She is shocked and wants to find out more so the group then hesitantly continue to look into it further. Resulting in Eva's past being revealed along with her shocking future, for she is the girl in the image, but her past is blurry. As the film progresses we discover that as a child Eva/Evangeline had been cursed causing her to never live past the age of 18 but dying and being reborn over and over again. Her 18th birthday is coming up and she is yet to find out about what she can do to release the curse or yet prevent it. The film follows her and her friends discovering more about her past and trying to avoid fate causing terrifying things to happen.

Opening scene…Logos of production/distribution companies we have used will be shown at the beginning.

The film will begin will Eva walking outside, along streets then she walks through a graveyard on her journey to her friends. The colours will be limited and there will be an effect to make it look slightly dark/overcast. Titles will slowly fade in and out for a few seconds individually on the screen. While she is walking, the shots will keep cutting back to the group of friends researching witchcraft for their school project. During the shots where she is walking, except the very first one, the friends’ speech will still be heard by the audience.

As she gets closer to the library (where her friends are) tension is shown to be rising- shots lengths are shorter, their speech gets louder/more shocked/argumentative…

As she walks past the grave that is when the friends find out how Evangeline looks exactly like their friend Eva. As the camera is focusing on/zooming in on the grave, the friends gasp and then there is silence for a few seconds while the shot is stationary on the gravestone.She then walks into the library where her friends are sitting around a table, Eva is happy but says sorry for being late.

They are all shocked from what they just discovered so show her the picture of Evangeline. She looks at it and is shocked/ lost of words. The last shot of the opening to our film will be an over the shoulder shot of Eva looking at the image they have found of Evangaline which looks exactly like her. The camera will zoom into the photo she is looking at very slowly and pause on it for a few seconds.The screen will go black and the large main title will be shown.

Opening continued…

As Eva walks past a graveyard she passes a gravestone with her name on:

‘Evangeline Bancroft (also known as Eva Jones)…A beloved young girl who will be forever in our hearts

1856’

Eva does not notice this gravestone as she walks past it. The camera is following her but as she walks off screen it pans back and focuses/zooms into the writing on the gravestone. We will hopefully achieve this by using a green screen. We will capture an image of a gravestone she walks past and use this as the background of the green screen- this allows us to edit the correct text into the gravestone.This is a way of letting the audience know that Eva is linked to Evangeline but the character in the film does not know, which makes it feel more like a film opening and less like a trailer because it shows that the film has a lot to lead on to. It also leaves the audience asking questions such as ‘what is the link between Eva and Evangeline?’, ‘is Eva secretly a witch?’ etc

CharactersIn this film opening there would essentially be 6/7 characters shown. These would all be good

friends who are working on a school project apart from one more unusual character (Evangeline). She is the girl the group discover on the internet after doing their research on witchcraft.

Eva Jones – the young teenage girl. The majority of the film is based around her- she is genuinely an outgoing, strong willed person.

Alexis Swift– she is the best friend of Eva she is very loyal but slightly ‘dazed’ most of the time.

Peter James – he is also a really close friend of the two and he is a very strong character in the film due to his leading nature and ability to tell right from wrong.

Jack Mathews – he is slightly older but still in the same year and working on the same project.

Faye Blake – she is very smart and witty and her relationship with the group develops within the film.

Marco Armstrong – the more mysterious boy who tends to keep himself to himself yet always listens and always knows exactly what to say.

And finally Evangeline Bancroft – the strange and unusual character that never comes into contact with the main group but is spoken about continuously as the film revolves around her existence.

(Eva and Evangaline will be played by the same actor)

Visual moodboardThe Woman Who Came Back1945 horror mystery.After a bus accident, a woman comes to believe that she's actually a 300-year-old witch.

The ExorcismA lawyer takes on a negligent homicide case involving a priest who performed an exorcism on a young girl.

The Blair Witch ProjectThree film students vanish after traveling into a Maryland forest to film a documentary on the local Blair Witch legend, leaving only their footage behind.

These films relate to the supernatural

Se7enThis film relates to ours because it is a drama-mystery-thriller

PsychoThis film is a horror-mystery- thriller

The Third ManThis relates to our film because it investigates a mysterious death

The Sixth SenseThis relates to our film because it involves communication with spirits. It’s a drama-mystery-thriller.

Institutions

We are going to choose Warner Bros. to produce our film because they have made thriller films before. They are also part of the big six so are very popular and wealthy. They produced ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ and ‘Intersection’ which are both thrillers. Warner Bors. distributed ‘Sherlock Holmes’ which is a 2009 film about mystery.

Paramount pictures could be used to distribute our film because they have produced a famous thriller film ‘The Godfather’.

We could also use New Line Cinema to distribute our film because they produced a drama-mystery-thriller called Se7en. They are also a merged company with larger sister studio Warner Bros.