I find writing these blogs difficult to get into every time and will find most anything else to do first, including cleaning and tidying my house. In which case, why does it still look like a bomb site..?
So I'm currently researching for both my essay and the film I will later direct.
My thoughts are currently on the side of the low-key spooky style of horror rather than the out and out "fx-in-your-face" type of project. TRANSFER has a more out there style and tone, with five main characters, multiple locations and considerable prosthetic (and possibly some CG) effects. It's not a project that is beyond the realms of low-budget film making by any means, but it is reasonably complex. And it still needs drastic rewriting to cut it down to size.
Maybe it's because I was recently blown away by Paranormal Activity 2, but as always, I am favouring the slow-burn, creeping dread, subtle supernatural horror route. Hell, at this point, I'm even considering rewriting THE MIRROR GROUP as my final film, a script of mine which has already been filmed twice by my peers at university this year. None of them seemed to quite "get it" or do it justice, a fact I checked by having a few friends watch both versions and give me their opinions. Maybe it's a flaw in my writing, but as far as I can tell, everything that should be on-screen IS on the page. So why do people miss these things? Beats me, but it's why I have always wanted to become a writer/director; why should I trust my vision to the interpretation of others?
Call me a control freak if you will, but I work hard on plot, structure and all of the other components that make storytelling and scripts as strong as they can be, so why hand them over to people who seem to little understand these concepts, let alone care about them.
But we digress...
So my thoughts turn also to the as-yet unwritten SHADOW PEOPLE project, something that is percolating in my mind and won't let go.
I know already that it concerns Shadow People, the well documented paranormal phenomena of seeing shadowy figures at the periphery of one's vision, only for them to disappear when focused upon. These are supposedly the most common type of paranormal activity (akkk!!) encountered, and are conspicuously overlooked in literature and film. Having been aware of this phenomena and fascinated by it since I was a kid, to see it touched upon in both Paranormal Activity movies was something that touched a nerve in both of them. The only issue now is to weave a solid story about this in a ten-minute time-frame.
So we have the Shadow People phenomena, we have a protagonist becoming aware of these apparitions in his (or her) own home, we have an escalation of these events and finally a switcheroo payoff, which mustn't seem contrived in its execution.
I'm currently also reading up on the literature concerning the supernatural, and obviously consulting the web as a vast resource of paranormal research, and some amount of paranormal bunk. My mind is also turning toward events that I and my family/partner have witnessed. Now don''t get me wrong here, I'm a born skeptic on this sort of thing and being the sort of practical, pragmatic, scientifical chappie that I am, I don't actually BELIEVE in any of this nonsense for more than a second (as me after midnight when I'm alone and the lights flicker and I may tell you something different!). That said, I know what I've SEEN and HEARD in a house I used to own, and I also know what my nearest and dearest have experienced for themselves, and these are not people who pitch up at the Derek Acorah roadshow. There is weirdness out there, and I know of far too many unexplainable things to completely discount this stuff. Yet still, my logical mind refutes it.
And perhaps this is the crux of the tale I wish to tell; one man's refusal to accept and believe and the trouble this lands him in.
Added to this research is my research into low-budget horror movies.
I am reading books on the topic and studying the films and film makers who have come before me. And in all of this, I find myself drawn to the ultra low budget movies and what makes them work, and perhaps more importantly, what effects the lack of money and resources has had on the material produced.
My focus seems to fall primarily on Sam Raimi and the original Evil Dead film - he made this ULTRA low-budget with friends over the space of three years, on the weekends, and with money invested by local businessmen. The technical skill and outright energy that this movie displays is always an inspiration, and some 31 years after it began filming, it remains a fan favourite and genre classic to this day, having been reissued on DVD and BluRay within the last month or so.
The other movies that I am focusing on for my research and as a rough template are 1999's The Blair Witch Project and 2007's Paranormal Activity. Both of these movies are again ultra low budget affairs which eschew obvious special effects for the more effective chills of suggestion and dread. They are products of their time, embracing the latest developments in Hi Def consumer equipment to make their films walking around deserted woods for a week, and within their own homes. Minimal cast, locations and effects sell the verisimilitude of these movies, and work within the contexts of their stories. And the question to be asked is undoubtedly how much the limitations of finance, equipment, cast and crew affected the stories that were told and the films that were produced.
There is something of a chicken and egg argument to these types of films, yet the practicalities of film production will always shape the style, content and narrative of these types of guerilla production. Add to this the social context of when and where these movies are made, and you have a very interesting area of research.
Coming next:
More research, more development, more sleepless nights with the lights switched on...
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