Ollie Tristram

These are the four main characters of the film. None of them are any more or less important to the narrative than the others.

Warren
Played by: Sam Myddleton

Warren is a third year student on a Sports Science course at the University. He is a very confident individual who has a lot of friends who are equally as confident. He comes from a rich family who live in Herefordshire and is used to having his own way. His favourite activites are socialising, which he does to the extreme by going out partying every week and playing a variety of sports. He is known by most as arrogant, self-obsessed and vain but to those that don’t know him; he can come across lively, chatty and friendly. Another reputation he has is to be quite a stud with the ladies, and this is actually why Warren accepted the invitation to take part in the experiment because he quite fancies his chances with Sophie. Warren’s masculine persona is purely just a front, because the time spent filming in the haunted place gets too much for him and it is soon clear his original persona does not reflect his real feelings.

Peter
Played by: Josh Parker

Peter is a second year Music Technology student. He is quite laid-back and is a well-organised person. Peter’s main attribute is that he tries to make light of any awkward sitautions by telling jokes. He also tells jokes in front of new people he meets to try and impress them, sometimes they are genuinely funny, but other times he tries too hard. The joke telling comes from a low self-confidence that people that know him can’t really see because he is the kind of person to bottle up his problems. He has grown up living alone with his single mother so there is a side to him that is very fatherly and he would be kind of guy you would go to for advice. Peter is very sceptical of ghosts, so his reason for accepting the invitation comes down to the fact that he doesn’t get out much and having been invited by someone to do something quite important he feels obliged to. There is also a small side of curiosity inside him because if he was to see a ghost, he may just believe.

Martyn
Played by: Andrew Bradford

Martyn is a first year Human Genetics student. He is very much the opposite type of person to Warren as he is shy, quiet and studious. He is quite the geek that studies hard at University, comes back to his flat and plays World of Warcraft. He is not a complete nerd though, Martyn does have quite a large group of friends and regularly goes out for casual pints at the pub. One of Martyn’s favourite television programmes is Most Haunted and he has a fascination of ghosts. So when he heard a student was inviting a select few students to spend the night in a haunted location he jumped at the chance, so he can experience what the people experience on the show. Martyn’s overall personality sees him as one of those people who get straight A’s in exams, but is actually quite a nice guy who is easy to get on with.

Sophie
Played by: Steph Dawson

Sophie is a good friend of the Psychology student who is conducting the experiment and is only taking part to do him a favour because no other girls would do it. Sophie did have a past encounter with a ghost when she was younger so she is quite intrigued into the experiment anyway, but when it comes to the night she will be very scared and probably scream quite a lot. She is a third year Theatre Design student. Her personality is typically girly: quite loud, slightly confident, very little common sense and concerned of her image. She likes to keep up with the latest fashions and make-up and reads magazines to learn all the latest tips about fashion and ‘guides’ on men. She has a boyfriend who is not in the experiment so she has no interest in Warren.

I have changed the narrative of the film. It is now this:

A third year psychology student is conducting an experiment called An Observational Analysis of Behaviour and Effects of Prolonged Time in a ‘Haunted’ Environment. For part of this study there will be video data collected which will be my film. It will still be shot in the style of a documentary and introduced by the student himself, and act as a sort of diary of events. The student has advertised around University for students to take part in the experiment, but with very little response the choice of students has not been ideal. Although there will be an introduction to the students and location, the main emphasis of the film is now on the night itself and the interactions between the students.

This (pretty much final) idea is a mockumentary on the Most Haunted-style TV programmes.

Narrative/Theme

A TV show, which features different groups of people every week and takes them to haunted places to the spend the night, has this week chosen a small group of students from a the university’s paranormal society. The students will also act as the presenters of the show.

Pre-production

The program will be scripted although I do want some of the scenes in the building to be improvised to add a more realistic feel. Also, apart from all the usual pre-production that is expected (character studies, recces, health and safety, etc.) I plan on having the actors and I spend a night at the haunted location for us to experience the same situation the characters in the film will be in, therefore helping the actors understand their roles better.

Structure

• Introduction by students on this weeks show
• Introduction of the location
• Tour round the location in the day with site owner telling stories
• Students spend the night at location
• Next day, students reflect on the night and a scientist gives his opinion on what occurred.

Characters

There will be 4 main characters of 3 males and 1 female (as we want more humour and less screaming). There is also a secondary character of the scientist.

• Character 1 (male): Cocky, cynical and outspoken, but when it comes to the night, is actually a scared little girl.
• Character 2 (male): Average, laid-back and curious. The character most people would relate to.
• Character 3 (male): Fairly sceptical, tells jokes and makes light of most situations. Will act as the main source of comedy.
• Character 4 (female): Typical girly-girl. But really wants to see a ghost because of a past experience with one, so a strong believer. Gets scared easily.
• Character 5 (male): Old man aiming to disprove any ghost theories.

Setting

• Outside University
• Inside and outside haunted location like pub.
• Interview room/computer room for scientist analysing footage.

Cinematography

All interview sections will be done using Sony Z1 on a tripod. As will the tour section, but probably be handheld for that. During the sleepover there will be a small, handheld, night-vision camcorder to film the haunted antics.

Post-production

The film will be edited using typical clichés like creating atmosphere using video effects to make the locations look darker and scarier than they actually are. There will also be fast cuts and direction changes in camera to add a disjointed feel to some shots, particularly those outside and inside the ‘haunted’ location.

Audio-wise, I plan on producing the title and/or credit music myself and using royalty-free atmosphere sounds and noise samples to add to the scary tone of the film, which is another cliché.

It's been a while since a post, but I thought this video was worthy of a Blog post. It is very cool.