Investigative Report (outcome)

HNC Communication with Media
Graded Unit
Learning Outcome 1
Neil Dinsmore

Here Today…Gone To Hell - Investigative Report

The project I am undertaking for my graded unit for this Communication with media course is a short film entitled “Here Today…Gone To Hell”. The purpose of this project is to bring to fruition my idea for a short horror film which tells the tale of one man and his experiences in what could be his own personal afterlife. This project will involve three main stages; planning, developing and evaluating. For the initial planning stage I have drawn out and perfected a storyline, obtained the required equipment, acquired the people who shall play the roles of the film’s characters, scouted for locations to shoot at and acquired editing facilities. I have already written a treatment for this film and have had it posted on my project’s blog but have since taken it down and will not post it online again because I do not want to run the risk of anyone stealing my ideas.

The audience this film is aimed at is people who hold an interest in short films, horror films but in particular older style horror films from the first half of the twentieth century. Hopefully this will be achieved through the style of both story and the way the film is shot and edited together upon its completion. The reason for undertaking this particular project and aiming it at this particular audience is simply because it is a topic I am interested in and makes sense to work on something I have greater interest in than other things.

My objectives regarding this project are to plan, film and edit “Here Today…Gone To Hell” and then to evaluate both the finished product and the process of bringing it from an idea to a completed short film. The deadline for completing all of this is the end of the term for this HNC Communication with Media course.



Resources:

Film
I shall be shooting this film in black and white for around 90% of the film and colour for the remainder, the film in its entirety will be in a widescreen format, the reason for this is that in my own opinion I personally think short horrors, specifically ones made on a low budget (and this is below that, this is budget non-existent) look better on screen in this style. I feel that black and white masks much of the cheapness which may come across if it were in colour throughout. Also the storyline of this film goes perfectly with the majority being in black and white and the opening scene and end scene being shot in colour. The camera I shall be using is a Sony DCR-HC37 with Carl Zeiss lens. I also have a tripod for use in stationary shots and was planning on using a simple step ladder for whenever I require an otherwise unobtainable shot.

Audio
This film will feature minimal sound effects and virtually no active dialogue (by that I mean characters speaking as their lips are moving). Instead for the most part I plan on having the main character narrate at points throughout the film. This is relevant for two reasons; the first being it will work better for the reality/surrealism of the plot. And secondly it will eliminate any need for boom microphones etc during filming which would have been quite a problem to acquire, especially where I have planned on filming.

Location
For this film I will be shooting in three specific locations; a forest, an isolated shore and a town/city centre. I shall be filming these in locations within the rhins of Galloway.

Soundtrack
The opening scene of this film will be present the viewer with a harsh prolonged guitar chord held in the same key. It is not ‘music’ so much as it’s a sound effect, I’m undecided with what to use exactly for this scene, my current choices are between Fleshpaint’s Empty Rooms and Eyes Adrift’s Pasted. Without uploading sound clips I cannot accurately describe exactly what it is that I mean, but it does fit in perfectly for the scene (or how I am hopeful it will turn out at least). I have also been looking for some public domain ambiance to use at specific scenes throughout this film and have already obtained some scores from the online public domain website Archive.org. These include the Blackshift Mode Project led by Mikoli Weaver from the music group Sonoprint.

Cast
I will not give the names of the people who will portray the character in this film just yet as there could still be a risk of people backing out. Hopefully that will not happen but just to be safe I will leave it until filming is complete before I give details of the cast. The characters in the film however I will mention. The main character is the main that has just passed away and is experiencing what he perceives to be hell. Other characters include friends and relatives of this man, the assassin, police officers, members of the press, a car or bus driver and many onlookers for a crowd scene at the end.

Editing
For this project I plan on editing this film myself as I have a background in video editing already myself, I also feel I will be better able to achieve my desired outcome if I edit this myself as opposed to giving instructions to someone else to do the editing for me. I will be using Sony Vegas studio 8 and Nero Vision 4 for editing facilities. Once this is all done it will be burned onto DVD disc and I plan on designing a unique menu and DVD covers for this film as well, even if it is not required of me. I want this project to be absolutely complete once it is done.