This is the sad tale of two kids who didn’t listen to their parents and left the forest path. They played all day in the forest running and screaming until nightfall. As the light faded to darkness they started to feel the cold dampness of nights in the forest. They soon realised that they were lost. The cheer faded from their round faces as they ambled through the forest looking for shelter. To their amazement and surprise, in what seemed to be the deepest part of the forest, they stumbled upon a huge Victorian house surrounded by crooked leafless trees. They rang the bell, hoping the owners of the house would be nice enough to help them find their way back to the outskirts of the forest. No answer came, but the door opened slowly to the dark interior of the house. Looking back towards the forest the kids decided to enter, the house would surely be better than the menacing forest. As soon as they had entered, the door quickly closed itself behind them. Spider webs covered the ceiling and the old crooked furniture towered over the kids menacingly as they entered deeper in the house. Suddenly a tall old man appeared out of the shadows behind them laughing. The kids jumped in surprise and started running away from the frightening figure. The unlucky boy wasn’t fast enough and the man caught him by the ankle. Meanwhile the girl had time to escape and hide in a small trap on the floor. The old man shook the little boy to empty his pockets and threw him across the room into a cage whose door closed on the poor child. The old man then started looking for the girl he had seen run off. Looming over the trap door he looked around the room, searching every corner, until the unfortunate girl let out a small whimper of fear. The old man then turned around, the smile growing wider on his face. He moved to the trap door and extended his arm towards the girl grabbing her and throwing her in the cage with her brother to suffer an uncertain fate.
Treatment: The film would be done with shadow puppets. All characters and sets would thus be all black shadows moving on a coloured background. The background colour would change according to the setting and the time of the story. The scenes in the forest would be filmed from afar and in the house the camera would find itself on the ground. This would make everything in the house loom ominously over the viewers creating a sense of anguish and using the dome to accentuate the feeling of fear the children have. I would film this with a mix of puppetry and live action on a green or blue screen. The sets would be created through image compositing in After Effects.