Shall I call it Macbeth 2.0? The least scariest movie in horror history? Or a complete and utter failure. For this horror unit we were tasked to create a horror movie as a class project, and we only had a measly timeline of two weeks, with people working restlessly both day and night, to complete it.
Leading into the final project of the horror unit, we read two horror novels, Frankenstein and Bird Box, and we also learned all about the elements of aversion, both absence and presence, that many horror film directors and writers utilize in their work to create mesmerizing fear in their audience.
As an assignment we had to write a synthesis essay comparing the common horror elements in both Frankenstein and Bird Box, and how absence and presence is used to affect style in both pieces of writing. We also learned all about American horror film history and how horror has evolved over time. Then we watched both “The Exorcist” and “Halloween,” and we were tasked to write two separate movie reviews talking about how horror was used in each film, and why it appears so realistic and scary to the viewer on screen.
On the first few days of in class time that we were allowed to work on the project we applied for certain movie production positions, and if we were lucky we got the job we asked for. There was everything from script writers, actors, directors, producers, story boarders, cinematographers, props, costume and make up, editors, and more. Basically everything from pre production, where we’re just working with ideas and a vague story line, to post production, where we’re moulding and mending all the footage to create a completed final product.
Luckily, I got the role that I applied for and I was appointed to be the main actor in the film. Up to that point I’d never been in drama and I had pretty much no experience with acting, but for some reason, after watching our Macbeth production and my small but significant scenes in it, I just knew that I could appear realistic and emotional on screen, and being an actor was what I wanted to do
From left to right, Michael Fourie, Gabi Rossignal, and myself, dressed in character for a scene in our Macbeth production.
My character’s name in the film is Brad and he’s portrayed as your stereotypical, self centred high school “douche.” The other characters in the movie are Leah, Eddie, and Damian. Leah, played by Alanah, appears be an innocent, good girl from her exterior, but her character is actually really mean and judgemental throughout the duration of the film. Eddie, played by Jayden, is a sheep and a follower that longs for nothing more than acceptance from his peers, but everybody else finds him extremely annoying and rejects his desperate efforts to be friends. Damian, played by Spencer, is portrayed as a mysterious creep that arises Immense suspicion from the other characters throughout the duration of the film.
After the first few days of in class time, we had a full storyline and script ready, and we were slowly starting to film a couple of the scenes that had already been storyboarded. However, things were going a lot slower than they should be because the directors weren’t following the storyboard closely, and they were being very meticulous and indecisive, so it was starting out as a disaster just like our Macbeth Production. We only had a 17 day timeline to be completely done and we were wildly behind schedule after only our first day of filming, so it kind of set the tone for the rest of the project.
When we were filming we had to use various locations all around Seycove to our advantage through doing strategic cuts from one hallway to the next. We also had to get the janitors to turn off certain banks of lights and to unlock restricted areas in our school to give us access to affective scenery. In many of the scenes we had about four people, in weird contorted positions, surrounding the cinematographer to create effective lighting, and other scenes, such as Leah’s murder scene and Damian’s murder scene, required immense preparation in both the acting and make up departments. Throughout the movie about 10 different people, myself being one of them, played the roles of the cult murderers, and almost every single scene was shot several different times from several different angles.
The scenery for Leah’s death scene.
A mid shot photo of the three masked cult killers, from left to right, Spencer McCoach, Teva Zanker and Anatolia Floe.
Spencer McCoach getting prepped for his brutal, boiler room death scene. Make up done by Brianna Teagan.
The two production diaries below can attest to my massive contributions on this project and what I learned throughout the creation process.
1. So far from being a main actor I’ve discovered how hard it is to appear realistic and emotional on screen without it looking scripted and corny. I’ve also learned that in order to create a good movie and to perform to the best of my abilities that I have to memorize all my lines and adopt the role of my character when I’m practicing. So far we haven’t done any filming so I’ve been trying my best to make myself useful and help in other areas. So far I’ve directly contributed many ideas that went into the plot and murders of the movie, and I’ve also been helping out the storey board group, pitching ideas and shots from a creative outside point of view.
2. Over the past week I’ve dedicated a lot of my time both in class and outside of school to be filming. So far I’ve learned that no scene is ever a one shot take because we constantly have to be looking for different angles and creative outlooks. Another thing I’ve learned is that we can manipulate continuity by strategically using different locations around the school to our advantage. One last thing thing that I learned this week while filming is that we need to stick to a very strict time schedule in order to get this project done, and often times I’ve been the one to crack the whip and push people to stay on pace. So far I’ve dedicated many many hours of my time to this project, I’ve been at every single filming session, and I’ve contributed a lot of ideas for how the scenes should be filmed. Also I’ve been really vocal in trying to keep people on task because the end goal is what’s most important to me. I’m working extremely hard to get this project done and I’m honestly exhausted, but I know what I signed up for and I know what has to be done, and I’m prepared to do it.
Covering the murderer masks in blood in preparation for the death scenes.
A behind the scenes shot of scene 7 being filmed.
Alanah (Leah) getting prepared for her death scene, make up done by Brianna Teagan.
A few other contributions that I made towards this project that I want to make sure to mention is the fact that I came to every single outside of school filming session that I was able to attend (pretty much all of them), giving up any and all free time that I had, and I was often the third director in many scenarios, directing people on what to do and offering my creative outlook for the making of certain cuts and scenes. I also want to point out that I came up with the title of our film, “Locked In,” I made up my own costume for the movie, which wasn’t even my job, and I always made my best effort to crack the whip and keep people on task, even the directors and the actors that I was working with on a daily basis.
Me dressed up in one of the murderer costumes, goofing off and having a bit of fun after filming.
Though we finished our movie on time for the due date (barely), there were many many long, frustrating days, where we stayed at the school from about 3:00 – 7:00, that we had to endure to get it done. As a main actor and an essential part to the continuity of the film I literally had to spend every single day after school filming for almost two weeks, and we almost always went over schedule because the directors were indecisive and people would talk in between each shoot. As a main actor I was one of about 7 key people that stayed almost every single day, and it was extremely frustrating to just sit there for an hour, ready to film with my lines memorized, as the directors tried to figure out each and every specific angle while everybody else just talked. However, what was even more frustrating was how, after filming for several hours each day and putting in my maximum effort, basically running myself into the ground, Willemse and Hughes would just utterly destroy any progress we’ve made on the movie and make us feel terrible about our ability to complete the movie on time and to do it well. They would always make extremely sarcastic comments that were the complete opposite of motivating, and they would constantly allude to our failure on the Macbeth Production, which made me feel even less confident about the daunting task at hand.
When it came time for the debut of our film we were all extremely nervous as to what Hughes and Willemse reactions would be. However, on the day of the grand unveil I was away at a choral festival at UBC, so I have yet to see the accumulation of all our hard work put together, and I only have second hand knowledge as to what they said. From what I’ve heard from other people, Willemse and Hughes were so disappointed in the movie, claiming it not to be scary, that they refused to even comment. However, my honest response to that is why? After giving us an almost unachievable timeline of 17 days and after how many countless hours we put into it you really have the audacity to say that’s it’s so bad that you don’t even want to comment on it? If you really think I’m going to accept that after how much work I put into this project than you seriously don’t know me, and you seriously don’t know the value of good work when you see it. Find any other group of grade 12 students that will commit over 40 hours of their own time to a school project, coming in after school and on weekends, and find any other group of grade 12 students that can film and produce a movie that’s even remotely close to the quality of our production in only 17 days. If you do I will give you $1,000,000 solely because I know it would never happen. Obviously I know we didn’t fully exceed the expectations of this assignment, but that doesn’t mean we handed in any old piece of shit movie, and that doesn’t mean you can just undermine our work and label us as incompetent students. I’d honestly love to see you come up with a horror movie in 17 days, and I’d love to see your reaction when It turns out worse then ours, and I just laugh in your face like you did to us. You’re lucky I’m even in this program still because I’m honestly done doing massive movie projects like this where we can never seem to meet your sky high expectations, and I’m done being your guine pigs just so you can show our work off and brag about how good the PLP 12 class is. I hope you don’t take any offence to this, but these are my honest thoughts on the matter, and I seriously don’t think you should ever do a project like this again because it’s pure torture devoting all my spare time trying to please your unrealistic expectations just for you to practically spit in my face. You could’ve at least said good job and acknowledged all our hard work, but even that was too much praise for you to muster up after we just put our heart and soul, and absolute best effort into this project.
Anyways, our movie is called “Locked In,” and I hope you enjoy it because it was seriously not worth all the time and effort that we put into making it. Reflecting on the movie as a whole, this was the worst project we’ve ever done, but, despite what anybody else says, I’m honestly extremely proud of all the hard work we put into it and how well we came together as a team to get it done on time.