Deciding on the genre,approach and successfully pitching the idea

Deciding on a genre, it was thought the best possible one, that could achieve a realistic filming experience and wouldn't create unnecessary small budgets would be a hidden Footage film. As these films tend to cost little (unless private locations are needed, like the house scene in Blair Witch) and  form a reasonable story line, it was seen as a good way to establish an interesting opening film. Since we had all the props and locations available to us on demand, and a small cast, it would be a perfect genre. Following the example of camping films, like The Blair Witch project, and Troll Hunter, by using supernatural elements and shaky camera footage rather than Paranormal activity would be a more reasonable option. Since Paranormal activity contains horror elements, but is filmed at a fixed point in the corner of a room. Sadly, the effects achieved in PA, are far too hard to recreate with no budget whatsoever, so this wouldn't be a good film opening.

    To begin with the how the opening was going to start, the idea of a campfire and a ghostly creature, killing folk was used.Soon realising that the shooting of the film in the dark wasn't great, as you could barely see anything, and we couldn't afford night vision tech. Also, going straight into action was a bad idea as it wouldn't cause any suspense for the rest of the film, like Hidden Footage films achieve  and it would make the film seem like it was getting cheap frights in exchange for an actual story line.
   Dropping any death within the opening and developing an unknown force in an isolated area was the next best bet. As we were close to a witch haunting location (Pendle Hill) which itself can be  isolated, misty  and quite eerie. This would be perfect for the Hidden Footage genre, which required spooky sets to cause most of the frights. Creating a story line of a normal everyday History project concerning the Pendle Witches, where a group of students would investigate, eventually things going wrong, seemed like the usual opening of a Hidden Footage film.

By purposely using bad camerawork, unrehearsed lines for authenticity and not knowing exactly where to go once arriving at the location, would help create the perfect realistic atmosphere needed within the film.