H.P - Concept Development - Location, Costume & Props and Effects

Location

Our intention is to create a sequence with a slightly gothic, and certainly period atmosphere. For this we have chosen a few possible locations:

• A run down local church in the day
• A field at twilight/at the golden hour
• A spooky house or overgrown garden at night

So far our favorite possible location is the church, and we have already begun looking for possible locations and creating draft emails to send to owners. We wish to use electric lighting and a fog machine to help create the gothic atmosphere, so we are trying to keep our search narrowed to locations with power for the time being.

• Our ideal location so far is St. Thomas' church in Capel. It is local and has a very creepy and run down atmosphere.
• The church is owned by a conservation trust and has a section on their website dedicated to filming in their churches, however they quote large prices for TV and Film companies so we are proceeding with the knowledge that this church may not be a viable option and may just serve as a basis for the type of location we would like.
• We are also taking into consideration the fact that filming a horror sequence in a church, especially if it is a working church, may not be a possibility for us as we are no-budget film makers. We are trying to adapt our plot concept to the other locations stated above as backups.

Costumes and Props

We would like to set our opening in the past to give it a more authentic look. Our ideal time period is the late 19th century as we feel this will help contribute to the gothic feel of the sequence. We figured that if we are able to use our ideal location that will already cut out the majority of modern objects and sights that will ruin this atmosphere, so to seal the look all we need to do is find appropriate costumes and props for the era. Ideally these will consist of:

• A plain cream/white Victorian style dress for the protagonist.
• A Victorian style neck choker/Mourning Choker necklace for the protagonist.
• A period style pen/quill or pencil.
• An A5 sheet of worn, poorly kept paper with writing on both sides going horizontally and layered on top going vertically. This will be used by the protagonist as she sits in the church.
• A traditional style sepia portrait printout of a possible family member, used to suggest she is at the church to visit someone who has died.

Acquiring the props will be easy as they are items that we can make ourselves. The costume pieces however may prove to be an area we need to compromise on. Thankfully I know of a couple of people that we may be able to borrow or rent these costumes from so we have a starting point of where to look.

Visual Effects 

There are a number of pro-filmic effects that we intend to use to show the paranormal presence in our opening:

•  An unknown force knocking down a candle stick on the front altar. This shot will have the background blown out of focus, instead focusing on the protagonist. The candle will be in the blown out area, allowing us to have fishing wire attached to it to pull it over with without it being visible on screen. The focus will be pulled to the background as soon as it has fallen, sealing the protagonist's reaction to it.
• The paranormal presence pulling strands of the protagonist's hair backwards, small clumps at a time. Again we would like to try and create this effect using fishing wire attached to the clumps of hair. We will then use after effects to mask out the area the wire is visible in if it shows up on camera, and replace that area with a clean slate which we will film at the same time. 
• Blood on the protagonist's head after having it smashed into the pew in front. We will use fake blood to create this effect, working it into the hairline of the actor to obscure where the gash should be so that we don't have to spend a long time creating a realistic cut wound. 
• The protagonist being dragged down the aisle by the paranormal force. For this we intent to place the actor on a small skateboard and drag/push them down the aisle. The camera will be at a high angle to hide the gap between the actor and the floor and the actor's performance in her reaction to the pulling should hopefully seal the effect and make it appear real.

In addition to these effects we intend to use some key pieces of kit to help give our opening the appearance of a moderate production value. These include:

• A fog machine to soften the tones of the building and help give a HDR look to our footage. This should also create some impressive light streaks from the windows if the weather is bright enough.
• Multiple clamp lights to help bring out the actor from their surroundings and encourage the audience to focus on them.
• A camera slider to give some subtle motion to some of our still shots to make them more dynamic.
• An external microphone and boom to pick up high quality audio so that we can include the diegetic sounds we record.
• A reflector or bounce board to make sure there is a moderately even light tone on the actor's face and to help avoid harsh shadowy areas.