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. 

Inspirations

We took inspirations from other films, of similar genres, such as The Woman In Black, with the idea of the faceless ghost in mourning clothes. Insidious as it also involves children at the heart of its plot and features a lot of children's drawings. And The Girl on a Train, as we liked that it was set in an ordinary neighbourhood, especially the railway bridge which we really liked as a setting.

Prelim Task

I did a prelim task to practice using camera equipment and film techniques, the ones used here are shot reverse shot, match on action, and the 180 degree rule. And to get used to the idea of the idea of establishing intrigue, and tension in a short space of time.

Research Interviews

We did a series of interviews, asking people about thrillers and the concept for our film, to expand on the ideas we found in our survey research.

Research















We made a survey on Survey Monkey to gather information on what people are interested in, in a thriller. We found that our age range is interested in thriller/horror films. This survey also showed that the most popular ones when asked to pick an additional thriller in this survey were Shutter Island and Silence of the Lambs. And that many people were happy to do extra interviews.

Official Film Opening Proposal

We decided our original idea was too fast paced and complex for an opening and felt more like a trailer in the end. So we decided to slow down the sequence so that it felt more like the start of something, focusing on building plot ideas and an ominous atmosphere.

Therefore the opening will start with the main character waking up and going about an ordinary morning, but with repressed memories coming to the surface, giving the idea of the past coming back and foreshadowing something terrible soon to come.

This will feature the girl getting ready and walking to school, with the memories resurfacing when she sees an odd drawing that has been delivered to her, passes a swing set she remembers, and touches a small toy. These prompt flashbacks from her childhood, but lurking in the background of all of them is a nameless, faceless figure dressed all in black.

Film Pitch 2

The film is a crime thriller, and typical to the genre it differs to a crime film, as it follows the story of the perpetrators not the police, focusing on the protagonist who committed the unknown crime for unknown reasons and his distress as he is unwilling pulled deeper and deeper into this bad situation and the criminal underworld of London.

The opening focuses on two very different characters and cuts between the two as travel to a meeting point. The opening starts with a of shot of a corridor outside the door to a flat, run down, dirty setting. Crashing sounds and then a loud scream are heard from inside, then a man/teenage boy runs out of the flat, slams the door and then runs down the corridor. He is visibly distressed, shaking and frantic. His pace is rapid as he leaves the apartment building, paces down the street, goes into the tube station, onto a train, out of the new station, onto the street, then arrives at the meeting point. There are frequent close ups on him, throughout his journey; his face as he looks at the people around him as if concerned they will know somehow what he has just done, his hands.

This is interspersed with the journey of a contrasting character to the same meeting point. A woman/girl picking clothes out her wardrobe, then leaving her house calmly, walking down streets in bright sunlight, petting a cat on the street, picking a flower that she then carries with her.

Interspersing the two character' journeys builds a sense of fear for the girl as it seems clear they will meet. And there is a strong sense of peace and happiness surrounding her and a more menacing feeling to the guy as he has clearly just done something bad and is in constant frantic motion, making him appear unstable

When the two meet the girl is holding the flower waiting for him, she looks up when he approaches. He stops walking but does not cease his frantic motions, he appears distraught, finally he chokes out "I did what you wanted", a pause while he looks around, becoming even more distressed, close to tears, then "she's dead". Close up of the girls mouth as she smiles. Then says good and walks away. 

My certificate would be 15, aimed at adults and/or teenagers depending on the age of the characters. As it would feature violence, and extreme emotional/ psychological distress. 

The characters would be established and built up throughout the sequence to be the opposite of each other. And in fact opposite to their true characters. The guy would be wearing dark jeans and a hoody He would be in darkness, and the shadows, with a lot of shots of him descending downwards, into the tube and stairs out of the building, mirroring his moral situation. Whereas the girl would be wearing bright colours, smiling a lot, walking outside in the sunshine, showing her as a positive kind person. 

The sound would also add to the atmosphere of fear as it would be ominous chords, that would create an odd juxtaposition with the girls actions and slowly create fear for her, but fit in perfectly with the guy's narrative.  

They would both start out in quite normal neighbourhoods, but his could be a lot less pleasant and more run down than hers, creating the suggestion of possible economic reasons for him doing this for her. Their journey would take them more into the centre of London so that the meeting point could be suitably dramatic and aesthetically pleasing.

Film Pitch

Genre of the film is a psychological or horror thriller based on the concept of an imaginary friend gone wrong, set in a normal neighbourhood in London with an ordinary family. I would start the opening sequence with narration of a girls voice and an eerily slow children's lullaby playing. The narration and shots would explain the story line of a little girl who had an imaginary friend no one else could see, like many children do, but something went wrong with hers. She started doing alarming things endangering her life and possibly injuring a family pet. Her mother decided to seek help and got her a therapist who taught her to "lock" her friend away in a box, so that she couldn't talk to her anymore, as an attempt to help her develop more normally and keep her safe. This worked and she has grown up living a normal life; until today. A disturbing children's drawing of the two of them has arrived in the post, her younger sibling and/or her mother is missing, she is back.

My age certificate would be a 15, as it would become increasingly disturbing as the film went on and would feature violence. My target audience would be teenagers and adults who enjoy horror films.

The imaginary friend returns seeking vengence for being locked away for over ten years, and wrecks havoc on this girl's life, tormenting her, making her think she is insane and hurting those around her. She is eventually beaten when confronted with a young child, who has done nothing wrong and confronted with this feels the urge to protect instead of destroy. She leaves, so in a way the protagonist wins, but she takes the child with her.

I would create an atmosphere of fear and suspense, by having the imaginary friend just out of sight right up until the end of the film. I would make the film atmospheric by using dulled colours, giving it an almost black and white feeling, to reflect the protagonist's feelings of hopelessness and contrast the bright colours usually associated with childhood. I would also make it creepy by featuring typical images of childhood made disturbing, such as drawings, toys, and by playing children's lullabies, slowed down and ominous. I'm interested in films that inverted childhood imagery to create a sense of fear within the story, such as the Woman In Black.

The characters that would feature in the opening would be the girl as a small child, her as a teenager, her mother, and the imaginary friend. The girl as a young child would appear to exude happiness, in a way that many children do, but here I would use this as a bad omen as she would be happy and laughing in disconcerting circumstances, such as while endangering her life or in suspicious circumstances. She would be dressed in bright colours and look like a typical child.
For the older version of the girl, she would wear only monochrome colours, possibly have dark hair and pale skin, so her character would visually lack colour, as a representation of her emotional state. This paleness could become exaggerated throughout the film as she goes slowly mad not knowing if what is happening to her is real or not, so she looks visibly sickly.
The mother would not feature heavily in the opening, but should look ordinary, pleasant, and appear caring.
I picture the imaginary friend as dressed head to toe in black with trailing skirts and a veil, like traditional victorian mourning dress. She would be a dark, mysterious figure, reserved and slow moving due to her attire, and a constant omen of death, with her actions and the mourning clothes. This old fashioned looks would create a creepy, ghostly vibe, and would also hide her face from the audience to add to the fear and strangeness of her.