Research and Planning - Filmed Auditions

Best video auditions:

Matt:

Matt gave a strong audition, although he required a script in order to audition, whereas the others just made something up on the spot related to a general sentence I prompted them with. Matt has the right look, build and voice for my lead male character and so I believe he will be getting the part.

James:

James gave a good audition, his voice and ability to think on the spot after being given a prompt line was excellent, however he is not really the height or build I require for my male lead character and so I have cast him in the smaller role of the murderer instead.

Vikky:

Vikky auditioned for both the male and female role (because she wanted to!) Vikky is a strong actress, however as she is female she is not really suitable for my lead male role and my audience feedback and initial ideas have indicated I should stick with a male lead character. Vikky doesn't have the correct appearance to be my leading female character based upon her short hair. Instead she has been cast as a stand in for test shots and additional filming that may be required for the final trailer.

Research and Planning - Auditions

The auditions for the horror trailer took place on Friday 23rd November and there was a surprisingly good turn out !

Four males auditioned for the male leading role:

• Alexander Hardisty
• James Mills
• Matthew Nicholls
• Christopher Taylor

Two females auditioned for the female leading role:

• Victoria Hind
• Sara Wilson

The auditioning process was lengthy, however it definitely showed who was the most suitable and capable for the leading roles.

Alexander Hardisty 

(photo provided by Alex himself)

Originally, Alexander Hardisty was a very strong candidate for the leading male role as he was the first to contact me saying he was interested, he had an impressive acting CV and is a mutual friend of my partners and mine. However, due to Army commitments, Alex is no longer a suitable candidate for the trailer, as he will be back in service just after Christmas, the time we will really need him for filming. Due to this he didn't attend auditions, even though I have impressed with his acting talent in the past.

James Mills

(picture taken in costume for the part he was cast as in the trailer)

 James had a very strong audition and I know from past media work experience that he is open to trying new things and is not easily embarrassed, therefore filming with him would be ideal as he would not burst into a fit of giggles if we asked him to be chased by dead people! There's a slight height issue with James however, as all females who auditioned were either the same height or slightly taller than him and ideally the male lead has to be a tall dominant looking male. On this occasion James was not cast in this particular role - however he is thrilled to be cast as the 'stand-in' for the role for test filming purposes and will be used as a 'jack the ripper' style vintage murderer in the first few seconds of the real trailer.

Matthew Nicholls

(Photo taken by myself)

 Matt is the best physically for the role as he is extremely tall (6ft7") and slightly older than the rest of the auditionees at age 22. His appearance commands authority and his hair style and dress sense is perfect for the character, meaning I don't have to attempt to give him a make-over, or have to spend a large amount of the budget on a costume for him! Matt was a little nervous to begin with, but after a few practice runs he lost the nerves and proved to be a good actor. Matt was previously a media student and so understands the importance of getting the scenes in the trailer perfect and I feel this will therefore make him work harder and act better! Matt was given the role of the male lead and will begin filming with me soon!

Christopher Taylor

(Photo taken by myself)

 Sadly Christopher was not particularly suitable at all. His bleached blonde hair doesn't really fit with the style of character I had in mind and he is far to short and thin to be a commanding male figure. His audition was good, however the weakest out of all 4 auditions.

Victoria Hind

(Victoria requested not to have her photograph put online)

Victoria had a strong audition and worked incredibly well with James Mills (male audition). I can't help but feel she is far too adorable and sweet to be a female evil zombie type person and her hair isn't long enough for the character I envisioned. Victoria was not cast as the female lead, however, like James Mills, she will be a 'stand-in' for the female lead and used as an extra where necessary.

Sara Wilson

(Photo provided by Sara)

Sara had an excellent audition and revealed she is a drama student (which gave her extra audition bonus points!) Sara has the right look, build and style I envisioned for the female lead character and has worked on a similar project before, giving her good experience. Sara was cast as the female lead, however she lives in Oldham (45 minutes by bus from where myself and my media partner live) which may prove a little problematic for test shots and expensive for her if she has to get the bus to film with us every other day. However, we are sure we can work around this.

Research and Planning - SLR Test Shots

Test shots of possible locations and what exposure/shutter speed on the camera to use to get the best effect. This was in preparation for finding a location and style that I could then place an actor in costume into:

This picture was taken in my bedroom, to see what angle I need to stand at to take a picture of a mirror and its reflection, without ending up in the picture myself.

This picture was taken to see how I could use light coming from different rooms/angles to create an eerie looking photograph which would be suitable for the horror genre.

Research and Planning - Poster/Magazine costume and props list

For my poster and magazine I want the main photograph/image to contain my lead male character and possibly my female lead character from the film trailer.

My male character's clothing for the poster and magazine will be the same as his clothing in the horror trailer. The clothing colours in the trailer may change as the trailer progresses to show the passing of time, as the film is not set over the period of a day, more like a week or month, so the clothing changes in certain scenes need to portray this. The general idea for the male character's clothing is:

• Black jeans/Dark jeans

• Black/Dark coloured t-shirt

• Leather jacket

• Black boots

Whichever set of clothing the male character wears in the most notable and memorable sections of the trailer should be the clothing the character wears for the magazine and poster photographs.

  As the female lead is supposed to be dead, she would not have the opportunity to change her costume, so the costume in the trailer should be the costume worn in the photographs for the poster and magazine. The costume/clothing and make-up for the dead girl/female lead is:

• White slightly discoloured dress, with black marks on it and possible rips, needs to be/look wet (i will modify a dress/nighty like the one pictured below)

 

•  white flat pump style shoes/dolly shoes

• make up effects to make the throat look slit and bleeding

• white zombie style contact lenses

• dark eye make up and make up effects to make the character look deathly/zombie-ish/vampire-ish

I really want to include the mirror scene in either the poster or magazine cover and so I will need a mirror as a prop. I may potentially need a vintage style lantern also. But I want the focus of my photographs for the poster and magazine to be on the characters and the location they are in.

Research and Planning - Test shots

I was messing around with the settings on my video camera, trying to make daylight look dark and tinting the image blue to see what looks good and what doesn't. The test shots are below:

Blue tint:

I really like the blue tint, it looks pretty creepy! My actor in the video is my friend Vikky, who was incredibly cold, hence the 'dancing' to keep warm!

Darkened Image:

considering just how bright today was, I'm really impressed by how dark this image looks. Darkness is associated with horror and fear, so the darker the image the better, however I dont want the image to get so dark no detail can be seen !

Research and Planning - Shot list

Research and Planning - Script

The dialogue used in the trailer will minimal and potentially only two or three lines, one of which will be a sound bridge. The dialogue used as the sound bridge has to be incredibly strong as it will carry the entire trailer and will have to explain what the plot will roughly be whilst being suited to the character and brief enough to sound like a realistic extract from a phone conversation.

My partner is in charge of the sound elements of the trailer, however as I'm in charge of mise-en-scene I feel I need to oversee the dialogue my partner is pitching for the trailer to ensure the dialogue is suitable for the scene it will be used in, the scenes it will be used as a sound bridge between and the character who is saying it. As, for example, the character could not talk in modern day slang if he was dressed in 19th century clothing and could not be shouting loudly if the location the character was in was a library.

The key dialogue will happen in the 'Phone box scene'. This scene is where the lead male character is going to be on the phone talking to a friend about the mystery surrounding the girl who was recently announced missing. This dialogue will be used as a sound bridge over scenes where the male lead is researching the girl on his laptop, walking through the woods and finding the gravestone of the missing girl. This means, like I said at the beginning of this post, this piece of dialogue has to explain the plot of the film, be suited to the character and sound like a believable brief extract from a phone conversation.

My partner came up with the following dialogue ideas for the 'phone box scene':

I'm incredibly pleased my partner has come up with some ideas for the dialogue himself and I'm impressed with how thought-out the suggestions are, however, sadly, there are a few problems with some of them. This first suggestion: "I don't understand... the dead girl... she died 100 years ago... why is the report so recent?" has a real element of confusion to it which doesn't seem particularly suited to a male whose hobby is investigating crime reports and being a crime enthusiast - by my thinking, he will probably have come across similar cases before and so not be quite as confused as this line suggests. Also, the male character is only aware of the girl being missing, not dead, by this point in the film, so he would not say 'the dead girl' in his dialogue as to him she is only missing despite him finding what he thinks is her reported death from 100 years ago.

The second suggestion is much better, really getting across the main plot twist that the girl has 'been dead 100 years' and really puts across the male character's investigative side by saying 'I've got to find out'. However I believe the line needs to be clearer in explaining what is happening in the plot as it doesn't mention the missing girl, doesn't mention how he knows she died 100 years ago etc.

The third and fourth suggestions are similar to the first, the character seems overly confused and I don't believe a crime enthusiast who has been reading crime reports, understanding official crime language and is clever enough to follow and piece together crime mysteries would really say "what's that about?" or "I don't get it".

These lines form a good basis to work from, however I really think my partner and myself need to get into the mind of the male character more and really understand what he would and wouldn't say, taking his crime fascination and investigative backroom into account.

Working on my partner's script ideas, I think the following lines would be more suitable, both for the character and the strength/purpose of the sound bridge:

[Phone box exterior] "This crime report is different...[scene change to phone box interior, male lead character on the phone] the girl pronounced missing a few days ago, I think there's more to this case than the authorities are letting on. [scene change to male lead on laptop in bedroom] I did some searching online and the girl's name and description matches a murder report from over 100 years ago... [scene change to male lead in the woods, finding the gravestone, illuminating the date] I know I said I wasn't going to transfix myself with another investigation... But I just can't let this one go."