Remember the absolute atrocity and madness of the Macbeth Movie project? That’s right! The movie project that was filmed with our entire class. The movie project which took weeks of immense frustration and dedication. With a final outcome that not only didn’t please us, but failed our teachers. The thought of attempting something of such extent for a second time brought nothing but dread to me. Lucky for me, our teachers decided that this past October was the perfect time to revamp a project of such extent. This time, we had only seventeen days to complete it. The teachers had expectations of greatness, trusting we would learn from our past mistakes in the Macbeth production.
In this blog post, I will go into detail on every element that lead to the complete failure of this project, along with the intense stress it brought me personally.
Our class was given a form in which we filled out our choice of which role to play in the movie. Options ranged from producer to artistic director. I spent some time pondering on which role I would suit best. It came to my realization that one of our largest mistakes during the production of Macbeth was a lack of story board. This significantly slowed the production of the movie, as each scene had to be planned on the spot. One of the roles which we could sign up for was the role of Production Designer. This person would receive the script from the writers, and design each scene. I decided that this role would work for me. I wanted a role with power, one in which I could show leadership and knowledge of the text. A big fault in which I discussed in my Macbeth blog post was about how late I stepped up as a leader. I waited until the movie had already began to fall apart before stepping up. I wanted this to be different, so I applied to be the production designer.
On the day we were given our rolls, each student was called out of the class to discuss with the teacher. I was called up along with Stanfield and Maria. We sat in front of the teachers as they informed us that we would be the Production Designers of the movie. I was given the role of being directly responsible for our team. To me, this meant I would lead the three of us to create great story boards which could be used by the directors to film at a significant pace.
The filming began quickly, as our time frame to complete the movie was extremely small. I was working immensely hard to produce good quality story boards. My goal was to include angles for every single shot of the movie, including how the camera moved and how the actors moved. I spent countless hours everyday creating these storyboards, improving each one as I went along. I found that I was creating a majority of our storyboards, as for every three I created there was one or two coming from Maria and Stanfield. This upset me a bit, but I continued to assign the two of them with work. I was sure that these story boards were going to be put to great use, and because of this I dedicated my time while the class filmed to create more. On the second day of filming, I discussed with Nash, the cameraman, and a few actors. I learned something from them that confused me greatly.
While I was slaving away at home creating story boards for the filming, the class was working on the production at school. Instead of using my story boards for each shot, and filming at a fast pace, the directors were making their own decisions on shots. The first scene had taken more than two filming sessions to complete. This was a scene I had clearly mapped out, and believed it should have only taken a half hour to film. This really upset me, as I had been prioritizing the story boards creation over all of my other classes. There were times where I created story boards for scenes that were to be filmed the next day instead of studying for calculus. Learning that my hard work was not being put to proper use took a large toll on me. I was in class the day after hearing this, when nash approached me. He asked me to help finish filming scene one, as the process of filming that scene had been restarted twice. I walked with him, story board in hand, and proceeded to direct the class. I strictly followed the story board I had created, and the filming went extremely smooth. We finished the entire scene in class, something that had not been finished in two filming sessions prior. Even Teva, the producer, gave me credit for helping.
The filming proceeded over the next week and a half. After directing the one scene I had directed, the directors took over to finish the movie. I continuously heard from actors, Nash, and others that the story boards were never being put to use. Although this greatly frustrated me, I just continued creating story boards. I co tinted to direct Maria and Stanfield in their work, and produce my own work. The filming process was clearly failing, as nothing but bad was being spread around the class. On one day, I walked into class and got called upon by the teachers. They brought me to the library, and informed me that the directors would be fired. They had failed to direct the movie, and the teachers wanted me to step up as director. This excited me, as I felt that my hard work was being recognized by the teachers. I accepted to become the director.
Filling in as director brought a mental toll on me greater than I had ever expected. There were four days left to finish the entire project, and I felt as if I had been thrown into a storm. This was a position I had not signed up for, but was willing to take the challenge. Being the only director, every student came to me with their questions. Despite being director, I was still creating story boards at night when I got home from filming. These last four days of the project became my entire life, as I was engulfed by stress and nerve. The fear of letting the class down, and failing the teachers, ate me from the inside out. I felt that I did a good job directing the actors and camera man, as I was stern and fast. This was counteracted by the reaction I felt from the teachers. There were times where we would film, and I would explain the scene to the actors that we were about to film. I would look over to the teachers after explaining, and see doubt in their eyes. While filming scenes in the drama room, I felt is if my ability to direct, and my ideas as director, were being undermined. I felt as if my opinions as director were being degraded, as the stress of letting down my class only built upon my shoulders. I had real nightmares about this project, in which I woke up feeling stressed and dismal. To make matters even worse, other students informed on about how the teachers spoke behind my back. I heard that they spoke on firing me as director, despite all the effort and time this role required from me. They explained to students that the only reason I was not being fired for the position was because nobody else could do it. I am not one hundred percent sure if those remarks truly happened, but two different people informed me on them. This truly took a toll on me, as I felt that my hard work was for nothing. Even writing this now, one month after completion, I feel the returning anxiety this project brought me.
The day arrived in which we were to present this project to the class and teachers. On this day I was away from school, as I was participating at the BC Swimming Provincial Championship. What I heard from the people in class enraged me. The teachers refused to comment on our work that was presented. I understand that it may not have reached their impossibly high standards, but to not even speak about the project completely undermines us as students. I felt I worked to my greatest ability, as I one hundred percent doubt any other student would have been able to handle the stress of two positions, both being DRI’s, the undermining from others, and continue to dedicate hours into work without any appreciation from others. I sincerely hope no other class as to endure a project of this extent. Here is our movie.
The driving question for this project was: “How does horror reflect and comment on our society?”. Throughout the genres history, reflecting and commenting on societal beliefs has been a very important factor. To induce true horror into the audience, horror focuses on present day beliefs and issues. This creates a relatable environment for the viewer, drawing out real true fear. Our aim in this project was to focus on todays digital society. Although it may be hard to realize from the movie, the plot focuses on four high school kids who share a scandalous photo of “Rachel”. This leads them to be put in detention. The horror in this exposes the extreme effects of sharing photos, as they almost all die. In modern society, our technology is so advanced, and everything we put online stays there forever. In a way, this is truly horrifying. Our aim was to display this horror on our movie.
I think we failed on displaying this societal reflection in our movie for a various set of reasons. Through many plot holes, inconsistencies, and confusing segments, the movie fails to draw horror from the audience. The premise of the scandalous photo was never properly explained. This left the audience confused on what the photo was, why it was spread, and how it was wrong to spread. This confusion draws on throughout the entire production. The killers who wore masks were never properly explained, and the audience does not correlate their murders with the spreading of the photo. The inconsistencies in the movie, such as different lighting and background noise throw off the audience, but this was something we did not have control over. With such a tight schedule, it was virtually impossible to find time to film where the school was completely empty.
Horror has many different elements of aversion that draw out fear from the viewer. We incorporated as many elements as we could into this production. Elements of the unknown, the unexpected, the unstoppable, helplessness, urgency, and intensity are all present in our production. These elements have been present throughout the genre of horror for centuries, as they bring terror to the audience. These principle elements are key for a successful horror, and I believe we incorporated them successfully in our movie.