INITIAL IDEAS
Initially after getting into my group we decided to brainstorm . We settled for a horror genre as we found we had a large variety of ideas for what we could do. We planned out possible characters, who we had available to play their parts. We also considered a variety of locations that had the potential to carry out a horror story-line.
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From our initial notes we decided to work on a story-line incorporating loads of different ideas. We also looked at things such as sound effects and short clips that could add flow to the trailer.The storyline follows a young child that has unfortunately passed away in an 'accident' whilst the father is missing too. The mother then somehow bring the 'boy' back to her world. However it's only later on in the story that she finds out whether he is her same little child.
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DRAFT STORYBOARD
CHARACTER PROFILES
Our main protagonist is a divorced mother of one, her 6 year old son died in a tragic fire which is shown at the beginning of our trailer. At the start she is seen as a quiet depressed individual which is the result of the loss of her child. As the story builds up however she will come across as a more curious brave and determined young woman as she seeks the truth over her sons death.
This character is being played by Avani as she fits the role. We see similarites with our protagonist and 'Maria' from 'The other side of the door'.
The main villain is the cult leader who is in control throughout the whole trailer. He has the most screen time out of all the cult members and so is assumed to be in power and be more dominant. At first the audience think of this character as the main evil entity. However as we learn more about the storyline we realise that he is in fact just a follower of the main demon, the 'Baphomet'. Since this character carries around a skull usually we can link his character with death. Villain - Other follower / Cult member This is one of the other members who shares the same look as the other two cultists. They are also followers of the cult but not that supreme compared to the villain above. They play more of a background role just showing the audience that the 'Baphomet' has multiple followers to maybe 'resurrect' him or keep making sacrifices for him. |
PHD Researcher - Dr. Klein
This is the doctor that researches demonic cults and is helping the main protagonist solve or simplify her problem. Since this character has a lot of knowledge on cults and who/what they worship, he plays a vital role in this trailer. He gives us and Avani a little information we/she need to start to breakdown this mystery. Bold, knowledgeable and knows his things. We see similarities between Dr. Klein and 'Professor Jonas' in 'Sinister'. News Reporter The use of a news reporter was beneficial to our teaser trailer as he informs the audience of what has happened. After this scene we see the mother depressed so it is assumed that whatever just happened has affected her greatly. This became a way of connecting the story line straight away to show the audience of what has happened so far. |
COSTUMES
We had the main villain who was the head of the cult, wear a mask and carry a staff so he stands out compared to the rest but we also tried to cover up as much skin as possible to make it seem like the villains tie in with the supernatural. We had our cult wear black capes, hoods, and trousers black to create a dark atmosphere around them and to make them seem more malicious.
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Our main protagonist, Avani, had three different looks throughout our trailer. On the left is an image from the funeral scene where she is seen to be wearing a simple black dress, coat and her hair tied in a loose bun. This is a typical outfit for funeral events and thought so we thought it would express her distress effectively.
The centre photo shows Avani wearing a simple grey hoodie. She paired this with blue jeans and some running shoes and tied her hair in a firm ponytail for the forest scenes. We thought this sporty-like look would show her activeness in her attempts to discover the truth about her sons death. As she was following the cult in a forest we thought it would make sense to put her in a comfortable outfit as she would theoretically be moving around a lot in the process.
On the right Avani is wearing a simple cardigan over a plain T-shirt as well as a messy bun. This is set in the beginning scenes where she was mourning over her sons death. As she was home we thought she best suited a relaxed style. Furthermore her messy bun reflects her feelings in that particular moment where she had little care over what her appearance was.
The centre photo shows Avani wearing a simple grey hoodie. She paired this with blue jeans and some running shoes and tied her hair in a firm ponytail for the forest scenes. We thought this sporty-like look would show her activeness in her attempts to discover the truth about her sons death. As she was following the cult in a forest we thought it would make sense to put her in a comfortable outfit as she would theoretically be moving around a lot in the process.
On the right Avani is wearing a simple cardigan over a plain T-shirt as well as a messy bun. This is set in the beginning scenes where she was mourning over her sons death. As she was home we thought she best suited a relaxed style. Furthermore her messy bun reflects her feelings in that particular moment where she had little care over what her appearance was.
LOCATIONS
INSPIRATION LOCATION : 'Enfield Poltergeist' : 284 Green Street, Enfield, North London:
This location as it is claimed to be the 6th most haunted place in London - which inevitably links to our genre as well. Furthermore, the story behind this haunted place is based on two girls that are possessed by what seems like a paranormal experience. As the young women start seeing objects being thrown around from one side of the room to the other. Supernatural events have occurred here and we felt that we could incorporate the name of this location into our trailer. This was also on many newspapers and so we thought we could show this in our trailer to bring a backstory into the plot. TWICKENHAM FOREST We needed a forest in a quiet area where we were unlikely to disturb the public but also a forest from which we could create a spooky atmosphere. As this forest is quite large we were able to find an area secluded from the trail where we could film. This area has a triangle of trees which we would decorate as a base for the cults worships. It also has many single trees around in the distance which we plan to use as a 'hiding' spot for our main character as she keeps a close eye on them. HOUSE SCENES We need a house in which the mother and missing son would live. So we will use two houses with two files of footage to determine which house seems to have better natural lighting. We will choose the slightly darker house since our story line is also dark. The mother being the main character will have a few shots in the house; remembering her sons funeral, researching the cult, investigating and finding out more information. BASEMENT SCENES Our first location was the school's basement. We were given permission by the school to record here and will be filming many creepy shots here including shadows for effects. We will also film flickers of light for this scene as well as presenting a dead body which is being dragged by someone, a clue to the story line. We are planning on putting photos of random children around the basement linking to the clue that maybe the cult sacrifice children. |
PROPS
This pinboard investigation idea was developed by us as a group. We had seen this take place in various mystery and horror films for many different reasons. We used this as the main protagonists is trying to solve this mystery and so she links all the clues she has found together. This was made with; string, a map with our symbol on it as it pin pointed to other places where similar events have happened, a few pictures of burnt places that may be related to this mystery, questions, phone numbers, coordinates, dates and names. In the end we decided to keep one point free to show where the cult would strike next.
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These props were used in the basement scenes; one is dangling and the other is has shattered glass on it. We felt like the dangling frame connected to the supernatural whereas the broken one connoted to death. Since both portraits are of children, this linked with the whole idea of the cult sacrificing children. |
This mise-en-scene prop skull is a sign of death. The main cult member has this skull attached to a staff in the trailer. This is also used in the magazine and poster. This highlights the fact that the cult connotes to death. Therefore creeping out our audience more. Like the symbol this prop also creates a link in our package and so when the audience see this across all three products, it stands out by binding them together. The skulls was just a regular halloween prop that we bought. Luckily we filmed around the halloween season and so many of the props and costumes we bought we available almost everywhere
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This was one of the most important props that we needed to use. We created this using Microsoft Paint. This is something we used across our package for all three products; trailer, magazine & poster. The reason for this was that the symbol links to the cult as it is their 'print'. Since our cult worship the 'Baphomet', we researched different symbols relating to him and we were inspired by the following symbols; the sigil of the Baphomet and the inverted pentacle.
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