Equipment (& Costumes & Special Effects & Budget)

Equipment (for filming)
Canon cameras and lenses
Lighting equipment
Tripod
Monopod
Props (e.g Rock, can)
Fake blood
White Balance
Microphones


Equipment (for photoshoots)
Canon cameras and lenses
Lighting
Tripod
Black sheet background
Balloon

The budget for this film would have to include all of this equipment, and some other things, such as the mac to edit on.
Camera + Lenses- £2000
Lighting- £150
Tripod + Monopod- £300
Props- £0
Fake Blood- £5
Sound Equipment- £70
Mac-£1000
Total- £3525

Costume Sketches

For this film, right from the beginning,  I knew that it would heavily feature a homosexual relationship. However, I did not want to portray this with the stereotypical camp gay man, who would often wear bright and tight clothing. Instead I wanted to show them as normal people, and would not immediately be assumed to be homosexual.

For Sarah's costume, we had at one point considered it to be rather ghostly, when she reappears. She would wear white and consider using make-up to make her look pale and perhaps quite gothic. I decided against this as, like most of the film, I wanted it all to be a little more subtle.

Before the filming could be carried out, we needed to know what sort of costumes the characters would need so that we could either acquire them, or ask our actors to bring them. Here are some sketches we did:

Locations & Crew & Character Descriptions

When looking at my script, it is clear that the location is not actually something that is very important. Sometimes the entirety of a plot can revolve around the location, which becomes a very important ascpect, like the titular Island in Shutter Island, the hotel in The Shining, or even the dystopian environment of A Clockwork Orange. My film does not require a specific location, rather it can take place in any location at all, from an alleyway off a busy road, or in the middle of a desert. For this particular narrative, location is completely irrelevant.

In the script I have defined the location as a 'Street'. I looked at a range of different locations, most of which were very close to the College, for ease. I am also looking at Cotehele house, which I have got permission to film at. However, this may not be done as it is not particularly close and could cause logistical problems.


Here are the main locations we looked at:

These three images we took from Google maps, which is primarily what we used to easily and quickly look around the area.

The location we ultimately decided to use was a little further down the first image, in an area called Green Lane. We decided to use this small rural pathway the ran near the school. This was an easy location to get to, and the whole cast and crew knew where it was. At the times we were using it, we also knew that it was not very busy, which is another reason as to why we used it.












Crew Members

Because filmmaking is a collaborative effort, it means that to make the film, Deluca, there must be multiple people working on it. This is particularly helpful when they all, or mostly, work in creative positions.

Alexander Prynne (Myself): Director & Writer & Primary Camera operator

Ryan Clark: Producer, Boom Operator, Script Supervisor

These are the easiest ways to describe our roles, however, there was crossing over and additional roles we each took on.

Originally, we had an third crew member. Unfortunately, he dropped out.

Character Descriptions

When writing my script and talking to actors, I felt it important to know exactly who the characters are. These are the descriptions I wrote for this situation:

Peter Deluca/Edward Stevenson

A pained teenage boy with two lovers, Hugo and Sarah. He is the central character who, in his mind, forms many realities and shifts time through them. He is not particularly strong, nor is he weak. He is an average late teenage male, not really following any stereotypes related to his sexuality.

Hugo

Another teenage male, about the same age as his lover, Peter/Edward. He is the one to convince Edward to kill Sarah. In anger he is murdered by Edward. Although not shown in the narrative, he is a character formed in the mind of Edward, who does not exist in the true reality, of which there is no clear one.

Sarah Fitzwarin

About the same age as the two males. She is Peter/Edward’s true lover and does, in reality, exist, though not in any of the ‘realities’ we are shown. She is murdered by Edward/Peter and takes him to heaven. She does not really follow any stereotypes and is an average teenage girl. She does where a white dress in the ‘heaven’ sequence. 

Feature Article

When writing the article for my double page spread, I decided it would be best to do a review. I looked at other examples before writing my own. This is the first draft:

Deluca is a stylistic look at the dark side of a teenage mind. It delves into the confused world of Deluca, a character whose confusion is effectively brought out by the film’s star Ryan Hearn and the writer/director, Alexander Prynne. Although the film is only short, it manages to cram in a great deal of story, told with only three characters. The titular character is the only one who comes into contact with both, his two lovers, Hugo and Sarah, both of whom create just as much confusion for Deluca as the other.

The violence of Deluca would not be of the interest of many, though the brutality is mostly only shown in the eyes of Deluca. It is a film shot in such a way as to make this recurring theme of confusion clear, but to not put the audience in this same position. Narratively, the film hinges its success not on the characters, some of which are not quite given enough time to really be developed enough, but on its themes and their execution. The characters in the film, Deluca particularly, thrives in his mysterious state, in which nothing is ever really learned apart from what is given to us by Sarah and Hugo. These characters reliability of existence and information though casts more doubt and mystery over Deluca as a character.

The film’s stars are also great upcoming talent, all of whom add to the dramatic power of Deluca. Not only does Ryan Hearn give a quality performance as the titular character, but Rose Harris and Callum Starr, also give performances of equal power as Sarah and Hugo, respectively. 

The film is edited together it what could be described as a continuous piece, though it could also be described as being made up of scenes that flash back, and forwards, and possibly through realities.  This is not the only thing, however, that may not be warmly received by the wider audiences when the film is finally released. The creative decision was made to burn a bible. In our conversation with Alexander Prynne, he said that this decision was carefully made with ‘no intent of offending anyone’. He said that the decision was only made as it ‘fits perfectly with the story I wanted to tell’. We feel that, whilst this may very well anger many people, particularly a Christian audience, it is still an important aspect to this film that adds to its uniqueness as a story and a stylistic, creative piece.

Deluca is a brave film with its risk of controversy and its complexity in such a short runtime, though it shows some of the finest work of its writer/director Alexander Prynne. This is defiantly a short film that everyone should see at least once in their life, defiantly as it is only five minutes long it is pretty near essential in fact.

I then went back to it to write a second draft, this is it:

Deluca is a stylistic look at the dark side of a teenage mind. It delves into the confused world of Deluca, a character whose confusion is effectively brought out by the film’s star Ryan Hearn and the writer/director, Alexander Prynne. Although the film is only short, it manages to cram in a great deal of story, told with only three characters. The titular character is the only one who comes into contact with both, his two lovers, Hugo and Sarah, both of whom create just as much confusion for Deluca as the other. This confusion is really brought to life by the editing that is a clever weave of scenes that flash back, and forwards, and possibly through realities. 

The violence of Deluca would not be of the interest to many, though the brutality is mostly only shown in the eyes of Deluca meaning there is some strong drama in this psychological thriller for those in the audience who do not thrive on violence. The violence is not the only thing that may not be warmly received by wider audiences when the film is finally released… The creative decision was made to burn a bible. In our conversation with Alexander Prynne, he said that this decision was carefully made with; “No intent of offending anyone and when you see the film you will see that it fits perfectly with the story I wanted to tell.” We feel that, whilst this may very well anger many people, particularly a Christian audience, it is still an important aspect to this film that adds to its uniqueness as a story and a stylistic, creative piece.

Narratively, the film hinges its success not only on strong characterisation but on the performance of the actors who quite frankly at times I would have liked to have seen more of in order to really get to know their characters…but the restrictions of the genre meant this was no possible. This said, the young cast certainly brought to life their characters and made emotive the harrowing themes of the plot. The film’s up and coming stars all add to the dramatic power of Deluca, Ryan Hearn gives a quality performance as the titular character penetrating audiences with his mysterious stare while Rose Harris and Callum Starr give powerful supportive performances that take the viewer further into the world and torment of the protagonist as Sarah and Hugo, respectively. 

Overall, Deluca is a brave film with its risk of controversy and its complexity in such a short runtime, though it shows some of the finest work of its writer/director Alexander Prynne. This is defiantly a short film that everyone should see at least once in their life.

Titles Test

For my film I made a first test for the titles that may be used in the film.

Casting

When I was writing the script, the only thing I really knew I definitely wanted in my characters was that they did not follow classic stereotypes. I tried not to make my female character a helpless victim, rather there are some stronger aspects to her. I also did not want the stereotypical camp homosexual characters. I did not, however, have any specific physical ideas for my characters. I purposefully left this completely open. I feel, however, the actors that were chosen well represent the characters they are respectively portraying.

For my film, I knew I needed three people who were particularly strong actors.
For this I found some people I felt were good for the role and got them to read through a scene of the script, being the strongest, most important one for their characters. This first video shows the roles of Sarah and Deluca as the actor for Hugo was not available at this time:

The final cast list for my film is:
Edward Stevenson/Peter Deluca- Travis Brown
Sarah Fitzwarin- Rose Harris
Hugo- Ryan Hearn

Our original actor for Hugo was another person, called Callum Starr. Unfortunately he was not able to shot due to an injury he received from sport. Because of this, we had a last minute change to Ryan Hearn.

Camera Tests

Before going onto start the filming we first did some tests with the camera. The first one we did was looking at how Aperture and ISO effects the light in the film. 

Aperture:

ISO:

Representation

This video shows a comparison of scenes in which females are being victimised, being shown as helpless, screaming victims.

This video shows the conventions of the horror movie, whilst my own movie is not technically a horror, it is a psychological thriller that follows many of the same conventions. The video also shows how the genre follows Mulvey's theory of the male gaze in which many of these are being sexualised as well as being victimised.  In my film it opens with a woman being victimised, though it also shows males being victimised at the same time, challenging such conventions. My film, also, does not really sexualise any characters, and particularly not the female character, Sarah. Although as said by Edwards, 1997, says that "the sexual objectification of men has increased in the media" This does not directly follow what is being shown in my films as none of the characters are particularly being sexualised or objectified, and my film is not, primarily, targeted towards women and homosexual men and so this is not really a requirement. Hugo being victimised by his murder, and Edward/Peter arguably becoming victimised by his weak mental state and Hugo's use of him.

Whilst my film does also include homosexual characters, it does not really follow any of the 'queer' theories. None of my characters are being portrayed as 'screaming queens' as talked of by Medhurst, 1998.