Costume ideas

We wanted the style of the costumes to be a similar style, to link the younger and older version of the girl together, and also be casual enough to appear realistic.

Protagonist's costume ideas

Darker tones, mostly greys and blacks to give her an almost black and white appearance.

Younger version of the protagonist costume

These are a similar style, to add to the resemblance between the two, but the younger's girls have much brighter colours, to reflect her happier state.

Shot List

• ·      Close up on eyes opening
• ·      Long shot of girl rolling over and getting up
• ·      Close up of feet as touch ground then walk away
• ·      Camera inside cupboard as doors open –Girl’s eyes become visible over rail as she moves hangers and takes a piece of clothing out then walks away with it
• ·      (Alternatively long shot of girl taking clothes from behind if cannot get camera in cupboard)
• ·      Mid shot of girl brushing her hair while looking in the mirror
• ·     Long shot of her walking towards and out of her bedroom door
• ·      Long shot of her walking down the stairs then towards door
• ·      Pick up letter from the floor (in long shot)
• ·      Close up of envelope opening, then drawing
• ·      Close up on face reaction
• ·      Long shot of girl holding letter –Mum asks “What’s that?”
• ·      Girl says “Nothing”  -Mum says “Ok have a nice day”
• ·      Close up crumples up the picture/puts it in bag
• ·      Long shot walks out door
• ·      Long shot walking out of the front door
• ·      Long shot of her walking down the street
• ·      Long shot of her entering park
• ·      Long shot of her walking through the park
• ·      Long shot of her waling past playground
• ·      Close up of girl’s face as she turns towards the playground as she hears disembodied sound of child laughing
• ·      Long shot of her walking towards swing (as if in trance)
• ·      Close up of her touching swing
• ·      Long shot of her sitting on swing
• ·      Close up of her face
• ·      Close up of her hand touching chain
• ·      Flashbacks of child laughing on swing
• ·      Spirit’s hands, ominous and in black gloves, appear in shot pushing the child on the swing
• ·      Close up of girl’s face looking shocked/scared
• ·      Long shot of her walking quickly away and out of playground
• ·      Mid shot girl shudders once and keeps walking
• ·      Long shot of her back while walking, approaching tunnel
• ·      Mid shot of her from the front as she stops walking
• ·      Long shot of tunnel with toy in the middle of the arch on the floor
• ·      Long shot of her walking towards the toy
• ·      Mid shot of her bending down next to toy, from the side
• ·      Close up of her touching toy
• ·      Close up of her face looking confused/scared
• ·      Looks up to end of tunnel, when hears child laughter,
• ·      Long shot with child standing at end of tunnel
• ·      Close up of girl’s face as hears loud noise and turns away
• ·      Long shot of tunnel –Child is gone
• ·      Long shot of girl
• ·      Cut to black –Child’s laughter

Graphics and Title Ideas

We liked the idea of our title having a childish aspect to it, so could look like a child's handwriting or be reminiscent in other ways, such as similar to a story book font. It would also be nice to continue the art theme, as our ident is acrylic paints.

The title we decided on is The Path of Shadows, as most of the film is centred on the idea of unseen things haunting the protagonist, like a shadow. It also uses simplistic language, reminiscent of a child's lexus to reflect the focus on childhood memories coming back.

Location Scouting
Sunray Gardens

Location Scouting
Shillington Park

We decided the protagonist's walk would go through a park, which is where the playground with the swing, and possibly the tunnel would be. I took pictures of Shillington Park, at 7:30 am so the park can be seen in the early morning light, which is the time we want to set our opening at.
The exception to this are the bottom left and bottom right, which were taken at 12am, as a contrast.

Ident
Filming and Editing

After filming the smeared paint, we increased the saturation of the colours slightly to make them brighter. Then put in a title to appear in sync with the movement of the pallet knife. I used the style shock, to give it character, and the font .

Ident Design

We decided our production company Acrylic Productions, so for the ident we decided to smear paint across the screen, and have that reveal the name.
We initially smeared the paint across a glass pallet, but found we preferred the visual of the paint on paper, and decided to use a pallet knife, as the spatula we used the first time was covered in dried paint.
We tried multiple colours and ways of spreading the paint, before deciding we liked putting the paint on the pallet knife so it appeared on the paper, rather than putting the paint on the paper first and just using the knife to spread it.
               

  

 

Character Design and Casting
The Figure

We did a final series of photos to represent the figure/ spirit. These have the lowest saturation and are almost entirely in black and white, due to the paleness of her skin, and the darkness of her mourning clothes. In the Opening she is supposed to be an un-seen, corner of the eye, faceless being, so would be primarily represented through hints and shadows, and her hands in the child's memories.

Character Design and Casting
Young Girl

We did a second photo shoot for the young girl character. She is represented by bright colours, and all the images have high saturation, to project her brightness and joy as a child. However in many of the images we also wanted to convey a slight sense of menace lurking out of sight, with the empty swing next to her, the shadow over her crayons, the strange figure in her drawing, and what she is looking at and following her in the lowest pictures on the right.

Character Design and Casting
Main Character

I took a series of photos to reflect the main character, and establish who she is. Children's drawings are an important part of the film, as a symbol of the past coming back, and I wanted to show that she is still artistic. I used images with very low saturation or black and white reflecting the haunted feeling to her character. And showed the tormented and victimised part of her character by taking photos of her screaming, and using walking shots of her that leave her looking small compared to her surroundings.