Outside Production Blog 1: "It starts. You think you know a guy."

So this is my first post where I will try and chronicle current and future productions within and maybe eventually, outside of the academy. I can't guarantee photos or media but I can guarantee bad spelling and grammar, which may well become the main selling point of this. It all sounds quite pretentious but I'm more interested in doing this for myself as a reflective/progression log than for anyone else. Though if other's get a kick out of it, that's cool.

The first production (post-assessable blog), is Outside (I think this is still a working title) which is a short horror based around a girl who enters her bathroom, uncertain of who, or what lies outside. Now on paper, you're not even going to read that over twice to make sure it WAS as dull as you thought it but our intention isn't to have an enthralling premise.

The genesis of the idea came from my own mind (some of my ideas often do) and stemmed from my wonderment of why it was that no-one makes short horrors. Richard had shown us the opening to Scream and while I knew it inside-out and I believe that I have become invulnerable to most horror conventions, I still knew it was terrifying and built tension very well. Like the Bond films, the intro to Scream is almost a short, self-contained story in itself and if I had to see that one scene as a short film I think I'd be quite impressed.

So my thoughts continued, "Why isn't anyone interested in doing a horror?". My final thought (Jerry! Jerry!) was that no-one is interested in making one because of the terrible stigma stuck to them. Horror, traditionally at least, is thought to have low production values, lots of jumps, be needlessly gory, have big boobed, barely dressed ladies and poor writing. Some of which, I believe, are as important to their genre as the iconography of any other genre. I could talk and talk about it but I'll skip the rest of my one-sided discussion.

I then thought how could I do a short horror and one which could be shot in a day or a weekend with minimal locations and minimal actors. My first thought, was that I set it entirely in a bathroom, a room in which we all spend significant parts of our lives and in our home environment, this is somewhere we also feel very comfortable in. The bathroom has also become a staple of the horror genre, EVERY horror has one (the good one's at least) and every film also has a scare or two in there as well. This first thought was the one I pursued though we have no cliche'd cabinet door closes in this.

Now, who is the person inside the bathroom and more importantly, why? It seems a very obvious issue, but why does everything have to be complicated? Since we were telling a short (2-3 minute) story, the character had to progress fairly quickly and while it would be great to go against the grain, the character had to be female. I guess it's sort of sexist, but I'm following the genre signposts in that the strong-willed woman, even with the tears and distress, is the only one who can face and often survive the situation. Even in the 70's, which could be seen as the height of horror, women were in these sorts of roles when most other films made where casting their leading ladies as damsels in distress. Though that might just be my weak excuse for sexism. Since the initial script, a background has been created for the character, though we plan on working with the actress on developing the character rather than painting an overly specific background.

The why was always going to be the biggest problem, since everything has been done. There's no way you can have an original antagonist in horror so I guess the best thing is to go with is what I would find scary. Something which you'll have to watch the film (or read the script) to find out about. And no it's not essays or maths equations.

So there it sat, a basic premise with very little reason for going anywhere but soon, as our scripts began to progress with Richard, our class assembled to talk about extra-curricular ideas. At this, we discussed our ideas (of which there were 20+) but only a few have since been developed. One was ours, obviously, though understandably it wasn't the one that everyone gravitated to. You remember the premise don't you?

I've referred to this as "our" idea throughout and while the genesis is all my own, I haven't been alone. On facebook chat, a little while back, I spoke to Michael about both of our scripts for Richard and we considered developing the "Bathroom Horror" together as a trial run for Michael directing his horror script. I'd love to direct but at the same time, I'm quite interested in the idea of someone else directing something I have written as a test within myself to see how well I can collaborate on a creation, rather than helping hand level. Michael agreed to direct and after the meeting (it was instantly minuted), we started to bounce ideas about between each other.

Sometimes, when your confident in your own ideas, you get a kipper to the face which somehow winds you for a moment or two. The script I was working on for Richard didn't make the shortlist and everyone who didn't make it was no doubt a little gutted (as Adolf himself has publicised) but after the tears, sobs and nights spent rocking myself back and forward in a dark room with a lone candle while cradeling a small firearm, I was motivated. Motivated to have something I authored be made this year. All too often I'm a tech person and as much as I enjoy it, I had it in my head that no-one was interested in seeing, or taking an interest in a story I had originated. I doubt I'll get the chance to do it on an academy scale but I'd like to at least have a few things I've written get made and no-one is going to fix that besides me. As my mother always said: "Stop crying you little sissy and go get some work done before I whup you with the rolling pin". To be honest, I don't mind dealing with rejection, it grounds you a little and forces you to fight a bit better next time.

So one massive failure (I'm over-selling it, but sometimes things read better when they're over-dramatised) led into a massive motivation, and to quote Chumbawamba, showed that "I get knocked down, but I get up again." Ok, poor use of that reference but the song suddenly popped into my head and it was slightly relevant.

Myself and Michael bashed out a script in a few days and then sent the script to the powers at be and eventually got approval. Which is sort of where we are just now. Pre-Production has begun and after a short chat, it looks like I'll be producing as well. I've wanted to give producing a bash just so that when I'm told by a producer how difficult their job is, I know EXACTLY what they're going through. Then I can quickly remind myself why I don't want to do it. If that makes sense. So now I'm writer/producer/DoP. Can I handle it? We'll see. It's only a small project, how hard can it be?

"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully."
George W. Bush