This is second part to my second film opening sequence, this contains all of our final ideas and the finished product.
Final Idea
The idea we finished with was a less chaotic adaptation of our horror movie idea in the previous post. This featured a man packing up in an office and, as he travelled home from work, he was being stalked by two ghostly little boys that he could not see.
It would begin with footage of a man typing on the computer, which is the method we will use to present the credits - the man types out the titles. He would then shut down his computer and begin to pack up his things and leave. This will be shown through a compilation of different shots. Before he leaves, he picks up a newspaper and the camera briefly focuses on it before it is thrown in the bin. The newspaper features an article titled, 'Two Boys Butchered', which is about two little boys being murdered in the city.
It cuts to the man making his way down a rural path, which is enclosed one side by trees. As he walks by, the audience will notice two boys, caked in mud and blood, watching him from afar. The two boys are ghosts, and this is conveyed to the audience by having them partake in loud and obvious activities - such as a game of tag etc. - but the man does not acknowledge them as he walks home. The opening finishes with man walking off camera and the two boys staring at him as he moves out of the way of the lens.
Final Characters and Casting
Our film will feature only three characters: two ghost boys and a man.
Man
Not much will be learnt about the man during the two minute opening. Just from his appearance, the audience can guess his age. He will be returning from an office - suggested to be his workplace - and the audience knows that he's in an office based occupation but it won't be hinted as to what exactly he does. The man has no dialogue and his performance will be very plain so no personality traits are suggested. The man will be played by our group member's dad, who looks the role as he is an appropriate age. Moreover, he can help the other cast members feel comfortable acting around him as he is related to them.
Children
The two people we decided to cast in the project was our group member's cousins, as they were the only people who could fit the age boundaries who were also willing to perform the role. They were brothers, so they suited the image of brothers that we had in our head when conceiving the plot, therefore they look similar and the concept of twin brothers has a more eerie appeal, as opposed to the comedic look to two very contrasting looking characters. Not much is revealed about the children's characters. It is suggested that they are ghosts because the man doesn't notice them despite them performing such loud and blatant activities. Moreover, they have a quite sinister appeal to them because they're constantly watching the man, which appears quite intimidating because they don't break their stare. At the the same time as giving off a scary aura, they also show that they're playful and cheeky - just like normal boys their age would be. This is because in some shots they're seen playfully wrestling each other. Moreover, it shows their cheeky disposition because of how close they come to the man, which is quite daring as well. This may suggest what they were like as characters before they died, as it doesn't fit with the intimidating vibe they eject when they keep themselves hidden while staring at the man. I wanted the occasionally effect it creates when they play together to show that there still is past characterisations in them despite being ghosts. There's a portion of their natures they had when they were alive ebbing through.
Final Location
The final location we chose was merely because of convenience. The location in which the office scenes were filmed were inside of our group member's home office. We couldn't get hold of the Norwich offices and didn't want to risk relying on the school offices just in case they weren't available or didn't fit the aesthetic we had in mind. Moreover, the home office was a more comfortable area to film in because our actor was completely familiar with the area and therefore could perform more naturally as they were completely in their comfort zone. Another aspect is that when I filmed in a school office in my preliminary task, it created the issue of space. The offices are small so its hard to achieve a desirable angle and manoeuvre around while not being in shot of the camera. The only issue we had with the interior location was that it didn't fit the professional, clinical appearance of a bland office denoted from the word 'office'. However, this didn't affect it too much as it still looks moderately professional and could pass as a workplace, and the list of mine-en-scene elements did not specify what type of office we had to use anyway.
As for the outside films, we mutually and immediately agreed to use Kett's Park, as it was open and therefore easy to manoeuvre, and had a long path spanning across its entirety that looked like a believable route home. The park is very large and therefore the deeper we travel into it, the further away the noise of the town would be and therefore, if we decided to keep the original audio, wouldn't mask the audio. It's very open so we weren't confined to a small area in which its hard to achieve good angles. There is a small collection of industrial buildings behind the park, so it looks like he's walked straight from work, and on the other side of the park is an abundance of houses, therefore looks like he's walking home. This establishes the location as the route home to the audience, without directly defining it.
Costume
The final costume for the male lead would be basic office wear clothing, as it looks professional and therefore more believable that he has just come from work. As for the children's costumes, they will have blood and muddy hands - this messy appearance would make it look like they had been victims of a crime, and therefore was appropriate. On the other hand, we still wanted to maintain the innocence as they were very young, this was shown through their general attire. Wearing casual children's clothes makes them look their age and therefore channel innocence. It also suits the shots in which they are playing because there is still a side of human left to them and we didn't want to make them entirely intimidating.
Prop List
As for props, the only one required was a newspaper. To construct this, we formatted a fake newspaper (containing references to other films) with a story on the front and a separate stories advertised around the edges. We folded it around a real newspaper, to give it depth and make it realistic looking. Other props we included was a computer and office style objects to make it appear more like an office.
Final Lighting Plans
As for lighting, we had to incorporate both artificial and natural into the production. The artificial lights were coming from the room lights of the office - this made the footage visible and therefore higher quality. Another artificial light we used was the light of the laptop, which was featured prominently at the beginning when the credits are being typed out. These were just subtly included - they weren't too intense and therefore opened more opportunities in post production as it didn't completely distort the original footage.
In terms of natural lighting, we filmed outside during the daytime and had quite sunny images, particularly when the boys were playing which has happy connotations and suited it. However, the sun in other images in which the boys weren't playing would look quite odd, as horror wouldn't often be associated with happiness and light - instead dimness. This was the only difficulty the sun presented us.
Final Video
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