My Production Companies

PRODUCTION productions is a British large conglomerate that owns multiple smaller companies such as FILM, Company, etc. It has a similar company structure to Paramount Pictures. Being the co-creator of my film, alongside FILM, it provided for my film financially and resourcefully. PRODUCTION also had a lot of involvement in the cinematography and selecting the cast.

FILM is an ex-independent British production company and is now a subsidiary of conglomerate, PRODUCTION productions. FILM previously produced films primarily of the psychological thriller/horror genre on a low budget and was thoroughly culturally British. Now with financial support from PRODUCTION productions, they are able to broaden their audience and bring in actors outside of Great Britain to portray different cultures from different regions. Also working with a larger budget gives them the resources to create a better-looking film. FILM and PRODUCTION’s relationship is similar to Working Title’s relationship with its owner, Universal Studios.

Film Schedule

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.

Locations

This isn’t a completely accurate photo of where I will be filming as this version is slightly dated. However, it still shows how the area is quite closed off and secluded which is ideal for my film.

It was all down to the angles to try and film the house without getting any of the surrounding areas (the school building in the background) in the shot. Most of the shots outside of the house will be tightly fit in, excluding as much of the background as possible as shown in these screen caps. 

Although we chose a ‘home-y’ setting to film in, we still wanted to capture that air of uneasiness and discomfort to foreshadow the events that will take place in the house. To suit our main character’s disposition, we needed to give the house a structured and uniform appearance while still possessing the atmosphere of a home to a certain extent.

To try and achieve this, we put aside all of the classroom’s furniture and used a plain white sheet of fabric to cover the filing cabinets in the background as this was the best we could do due to poor time management.

My Audience Profile

My film would predominantly target young adults of the age range 18-25, the reason being that this age group is drawn to fast-paced storylines and graphic content which is typical of a thriller of any subgenre. However, I wouldn’t exclude the prospect of an older audience taking an interest in my product. My film’s mature/violent nature and evident themes of psychological issues would be unsuitable and disturbing for the younger viewers.

My target audience isn’t restrictive on gender, as the conventional psychological thriller is appealing to both sexes. However, the male-dominant cast and gore elements in my film would be expected to attract the male audience. Looking at the demographics of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Saw VI, the audience is male-dominant as these films heavily focus on the violence and gore aspects.

  

Challenging the conformities of male superiority in thrillers, we appeal to the female audience with influential and domineering female characters. Although the cast is male-dominant, this is counteracted with the strong presence of the females. This way the female audience can engage and identify with the characters.

The characters in our film is culturally and socially diverse so appeals to pretty much anyone within the ages of 18 – 25. Following the structure of the National Readership Survey, the social classes we primarily focus on is A, B and C1 as these are the ones we address in our film. The theme of a psychological conflict could be appealing to the higher classes as the academic aspects are challenging to them on an intellectual level. My film could also appeal to class DE as we also portray characters of this group. The characters within this class are the most relatable in terms of being an average young adult.