Short film coursework - current progress

Idea:

I want to do a psychological horror short film, based on someone becoming trapped in a small room/store room.

Genre - Horror, this will mostly be driven by sound effects and maybe some other elements of horror like blood. I'll use sudden cuts in the editing to increase tension and the actor will need to be appear scared to terrified throughout a lot of the film.

Representation - I want to just have one character in my film and at the moment I'm thinking of it being a girl who's 17-20. The setting represented will just be a corridor and then the room, however I want them to give a slightly creepy feel even before other elements come in.

Audience - The audience for my film will be slightly older as it's a horror and I think it would be received best by people 16 and over.

Narrative - I want it to be a linear narrative, which follows Todorov's theory to an extent, however the twist at the end will go against the theory. What I want to happen is the character will go into the room, get trapped, attempt to escape, being experiencing hallucinations/more horror elements, escape, but then they will discover that they're still trapped in the same room and that's how the film will end. Therefore the equilibrium will be them outside the room, the disruption will be them becoming trapped, the realisation will be them panicking, trying to escape, the climax will be the character experiencing hallucinations etc before then escaping, creating a new equilibrium. However, this will turn out to be a false new equilibrium as they will be brought back to the adjustment and the film will end unresolved.

Mise en scene - The character will appear normal, potentially dressed for work/school depending on the location I find, with no extreme hair/makeup or costume. However, in one part I might use fake blood for special effects makeup. I want the setting to be ideally a store room as I think it gives a creepier feel and I can experiment with depth and different camera angles more as I want there to be an amount of clutter but not so much it's too difficult to film. The lighting I want to be quite harsh and I want to have the lights turn off at one point and a torch used ideally for a sequence. Neon lighting is also something I really like the aesthetic of in films so if possible I would like to include it as it could also allow me to use colour symbolism. For character expression/movement I want them to be visibly scared, moving erratically and looking frightened and apprehensive.

Cinematography - For the cinematography, as most of the film is in one setting I need to use as many camera angles and shots as possible to add interest. A sequence of shots that I have decided on is the end few. I want to close shot of them walking out the door, pausing, and turning around looking shocked before a long shot from the corner of the room (like a CCTV camera shot) to demonstrate they're still trapped. I also want some low shots and tilting POV shots from the character's perspective, for example if they're using a torch. Symmetry is something I find very visually appealing in films as well so I'd like to include it.

Sound - As I want to take a slightly subtler approach to horror, I don't think I'll have a non-diegetic soundtrack, although this might be something I change my mind on in the editing process, depending on how far I take the horror elements. Instead I want the focus to be on ambience and diegetic sound effects to increase tension. I am planning on using foley to add to this in order to manipulate the sound as much as possible. I want a sequence which is in complete darkness, meaning the only element I can rely on is the sound and therefore I want to use the character's voice and foley sounds to build up what's happening and allow the audience to infer what is going on. There'll be little dialogue in the film due to there only being one character, however I'll have them screaming for help etc.

Editing - I think that the editing is very important to move the film along as, due to there only being one setting, it could be easy for the audience to get bored. Therefore, I want to use shots that last quite a long time for effect but also short ones for building tension and the pace of what's going on as well. As the film is linear, there will need to be a sense of continuity between shots, however there will be time skips too so I may need to incorporate fading transitions for example to illustrate this. For the last shot, I want to use editing to make it appear to be a CCTV shot, lowering the quality and potentially making it black and white. For the credits sequence I then may have that shot continuing to run on screen until eventually cutting out when the credits do, revealing the title.

- Walking along corridor into room, door slams shut
-Searching around in boxes? looking for something (shot from behind a box, depth of focus)
-Find what they're looking for, wide shot walking towards door, try it and it rattles.
-Shot from behind, they keep trying the door, close up of their hand on the handle and then close up from the floor showing the door rattling.
-Medium shot, they start pacing looking stressed, reverse zoom shot where it seems like the room is closing in on them
-Hear them beginning to breathe heavily, panic and then start pounding on the door, shouting for help, again some different close up shots etc, maybe one of their eyes, tilt shot from below?
-Time skip, it suddenly cuts out from them pounding on the door and reveals them slouched against it, sitting on the floor.
-Suddenly there's a sound (like rats moving? maybe squeaking building up) and they look alarmed, maybe go and investigate what it is, quick sequence of shots from different angles of the room, various depths etc, builds up to a climax, they're terrified, zoom of them backed up against the door and they suddenly turn trying it again.
-The lights then cut out, sounds continue and they find a torch from somewhere and turn it on. Pan shots following the torches beam and they move it upwards to then see something shocking, I'd like to film them on the floor maybe with blood on them and then turn it upside down to make it look like they're on the ceiling and have a sudden shot with the torch on them if possible. (If needed to fill the time there could be quite a long sequence of things happening, falling etc building up to this, maybe a shot of them looking at their hand covered in blood before looking up) I may include a dripping sound of blood as well.
-The character screams and then the lights flicker on again, (I'd quite like neon lights at this point if possible or if the lights were already neon the colour of them changes) everything appears normal again, but they're freaked out.
-However, they scramble along the floor to the door and this time when they throw themselves against it, it bursts open.
-They're seen from behind, very out of focus, the door slams shut and as they turn they come into focus (medium shot/close up) looking shocked. I'll have to use a transition which allows me to film them going through the door but then reappearing potentially near the back of the room.
-There's then a shot of them looking at an empty wall where the door just was from behind before it cuts to a CCTV shot of them still trapped in the same room, a glitch effect potentially and then the end credits come on. Could have a juxtaposition of very abrupt, cheerful music at the end (maybe alluding to being trapped or something repeating) To further push the twist ending as the credits end there could be a shot of someone watching them on a laptop and somehow controlling what's going on?