Costume & Props

Script

*At Anthony’s house*

Two well-dressed males, Anthony and Mitchel, are sat at a table planning the structure of their evening.

Anthony goes over Mitchel’s instructions with him for the night so it all goes accordingly.
Under close supervision, he sends Mitchel to prepare the items for the night’s following events before his guests arrive.

Mitchel hastily arranges and cleans the items. Anthony impatiently observes and smacks Mitchel as punishment when he finds his work performance to be unsatisfactory.

As the time for his guests to arrive quickly approaches, Anthony starts to sort his hair and adjust his clothing, stressing over small details, asking Mitchel for reassurance and becomes more agitated when he doesn’t get a response from his mute accomplice.
Mitchel stares blankly at him, then walks over to the window as he hears a faint chatter.

The group approach the house and knock on the door.

-cuts to black-

Anthony laughs

-cuts to black-

Jude sits in a dimly lit room, hunched into a corner. A shadow towers over her as she slowly looks up at the figure, afraid.

Synopsis for 2 minute film opening

ANTHONY is an introverted, reserved child with few friends and has decided to host an overnight get-together at his house in an attempt to develop their friendship further. He decides to test the loyalty and the strength of the group’s friendship. The group anticipates the usual night of games and casual talk, an innocent affair, but Anthony has other things in mind…

Anthony and his lumbering accomplice, MITCHEL, begin to prepare for tonight’s events. Mitchel arranges and fiddles with an assortment of items on a table. Anthony becomes anxious and irritable; Mitchel receives the short end of it. 

The group arrives at the house. A strange, crippled man with a haunting face and a disturbing silent nature greets them (Mitchel). Anthony reassures them that it is nothing to worry about. As the night takes off, Anthony asks if they want to play a game. He warns that it is not the most traditional of games. An enthusiastic ANASTASIA is excited to start and offers to take the first go. The others start to develop an uneasy feeling as Anthony becomes fidgety. She is offered two shot glasses, unaware one of them contains a lethal dose of poison. She must pick one and drink it and offer the other glass to a friend of her choice. She chooses JEREMIAH. As Anthony expands on the sickening details of his game, Jeremiah attempts to back out, but the suspicious doorman appears & points a gun at his head. “It’s participation or elimination.” says a smirking Anthony. A sudden wave of fear and panic sweeps over the room as they come to the realisation; it’s going to be a long night. Anastasia, still oblivious to the situation, picks up one of the glasses and downs it. Jeremiah hesitantly picks up the other one and drinks it, his throat closing with fear. He chokes, thinking he has met his grisly end. However, Anastasia’s lips turn a shade of sickly blue and she begins to tremble. She falls to the floor, foam bubbling in her mouth. A puddle of urine forms underneath her as she chokes on her own saliva then stops breathing. Jeremiah hurriedly leaps towards her checking for a non-existent pulse. He stops, hands falling to his sides as Anastasia exhales one final breath. Anthony is amused by the sordid performance, applauding them.

The group realise the severity of the situation, IVERSON heads for the door, threatening to call the police, but is met by the strange figure refusing his exit with a loaded gun (Mitchel). Everyone else sits in silence, frozen with fear. Anthony is un-phased by Iverson’s attempt, almost encouraging whilst he again mouths “participation or elimination”. As the night progresses, the group become wary of KELSIE; she seems to take her disturbing interest in the games as an advantage to fulfil her twisted fantasies. This causes panic and the group decide to take action, which results in Anthony’s accomplice, Mitchel, shooting Iverson in the head. As silence falls onto the room, everyone sits down and proceed with the games, suppressing their emotions in a desperate attempt to stay alive.

By the final game, it is down to Kelsie, Jude and Jeremiah. All still shaken from the previous rounds, and the sheer exhaustion, they readily accept the next game. Kelsie grabs Mitchel’s gun and shoots Jeremiah in the face, eager to prove that she is devoted and will be victor. Jude, at her last tether, mustered a whisper 

“Shoot me”.

Storyboard

A rough outline of my two minute film opening.

Sound & Music

Night of Chaos – out of all the audio tracks I used, this one is strongest in the musical aspect; the main instrument that is heard in this track is the soft, slightly muffled sound of an acoustic guitar. As this track contradicts the look of my film, it creates an eerily tranquil atmosphere. An arrangement of a few notes is played, and then the ending note is sustained for a couple of seconds; the effect of this is makes my film opening quite thought-provoking.





Redletter – This track begins with a deep, low humming then it builds to a rough-sounding crackle. There are also sounds of ripping/something dragging along a rough surface that is played near the beginning; it’s quite uncomfortable and unnerving to listen to, putting the audience on-edge. This compliments my opening film sequence well as it is foreshadowing the film’s upcoming events. It gives my film the grit and grunge I was trying to achieve.





Anxiety – There are no predominant musical instruments being played here as the focus is on the spine-chilling, sinister noises and sounds. I used this track for its disorienting arrangement of extremely high pitched noises.

I used all three tracks; they overlap to create an almost overwhelming sense of chaos and generate disorientation within the audience. I had to adjust the levels and volume so the tracks complement each other well. The music begins quite soft and low in volume, it then builds as the images start coming rapidly, the music keeps in beat with the transitions. Then I added the track, 'Redletter', which has a harsher tone to it, effectively building tension. I then added a more noise/sound based track, 'Anxiety', which provided the fear and discomfort to the music and overall tone of my film opening.

When editing, I tried to match the dips and changes in the sounds/music to the images and text. For example, I cut then added the ‘Anxiety’ track at its highest pitch point to play as soon as the title of my film ‘A Demon within Us’ appears. This sparks the attention towards the title. The effect this has is to create a fear of what is to come. This also creates an enigma within my film; what and/or who the demon is, keeping the audience interested to watch more.