UCA PROJECT PROPOSAL AND REALISATION

UAL AUTHENTIFICATION FORM

PRE-ASSESSMENT REVIEW

PRE-ASSESSMENT REVIEW OF PROJECT PROPOSAL

Name: James Gallifent

Project proposal Title: Grace horror idea

Context

Project Proposal

1.1  How are you using a range of critical and contextual perspectives within the development of your personal proposal? Give examples.

I think I have contextualised my work by completing in-depth research and incorporating several elements of my inspiration’s work into my own.

In my first proposal, it stated that I would complete the editing of photos to a cinematographic standard. I soon realised this was a much harder feat to accomplish than I had first thought. In order to adapt my ideas, I researched better ways to go about producing the quality I needed. This led me to look up various new techniques, such as the tutorial I used to create mist.

1.2 How are you using detailed analysis and evaluation to clarify the development of your person project proposal? Where is it evidenced?  Give examples.

As mentioned before, I didn’t have the skills to produce edited photographs to the standard I thought I could at first, which led me to ask myself what standard I could produce. This led me to look up various new techniques, such as the tutorial I used to create mist.

Research

Primary and secondary

2.1 How are you using wide-ranging and in-depth research to support the development of your personal project? Give examples.

My first piece of research analyses previous film posters and what common motifs are present, which enabled me to develop film posters of my own. I experimented with different fonts before I found one which was suitable for me to use.

2.2 How are you using analytical and evaluative skills to develop a range of creative solutions? Give examples.

After reflecting upon the work of photographers, such as Gregory Crewdson’s work, I evaluated what I thought was good about the work and what I thought didn’t work. This allowed me to gain a better perspective on what works and what doesn’t in the wider photography community. As well as known photographers, I used to give feedback on my peers’ work for them, which also help me overcome my own creative problems using techniques they used in their work.

After reflecting upon my own work, I noticed several drawbacks to my work, which I then swiftly adjusted- as seen on the reflection page of my blog. This happened with 3 of my film stills and 2 of my film posters. I can be quite critical of my own work, which can sometimes lead to me drastically changing it. This happened with a lot of my drawings before I took any photographs.

Problem Solving

Theory and Practice

3.1 What complex practical and technical problems are you solving within your project? Give examples.

Before starting this project, I hadn’t done a huge amount of photography before, so, nearer the start of this whole course, I had some technical problems with my camera- just because I hadn’t gotten used to using it quite yet. This problem soon became obsolete as I practiced with the camera and improved.

Another technical problem I overcame was my use of Adobe Photoshop CC. Previously to starting this course, I had only used a basic version of Photoshop, years ago, for basic tasks- like creating a logo. I had a limited knowledge of how to use the updated version of Photoshop, but, after watching tutorials on Lynda.com and reading tutorials on DIYPhotography.com, I quickly improved. One such technical problem like this was the mist used in several of my photographs. I had no idea how to create convincing mist, so I took to the Internet and found a very helpful tutorial, which helped. As well as using the Internet to help, I asked my peers for advice on using Photoshop.

3.2 How are you solving complex theoretical problems within your project? Give examples.

Theoretical problems I had over the course of this project, mainly included not having the skill to complete tasks, like the ones described above, which were overcame using a mix of Internet help and peer advice.

Planning and Production

4.1 How are you demonstrating the ability to efficiently plan, organize and produce a personal project within the agreed time frame? Give examples.

At the start of the project, I had a timetable that helped me to compartmentalize my tasks. The Gannt chart I produced at the start of the project was helpful at the start, but I started doing tasks that deviated from its first draft, so I also had a physical diary on my phone of daily tasks I needed to complete. Without this, I would have likely become overwhelmed.

Practical Skills

Refinement and Realization of Ideas

5.1 How are you exploring, adapting and applying a range of practical methods and skills in the realization of your personal project? Give examples.

At the start of the course, Photoshop and, to some extent, photography itself were relatively new to me. They were the techniques I chiefly used in the realisation of the project. I did indoor and outdoor photography shoots. I experimented with props, such as fake blood. The technique to creating mist on Photoshop CC was a new one for me. These things are documented on my blog.

Reflection and Evaluation

Project Development

6.1 How are you maintaining detailed critically evaluative and reflective records of the development of your project? Give examples.

Over the course of the project, I reflected upon and evaluated my own work, with my analytical thoughts being documented on my blog. In addition to this, I received valuable feedback from my peers- also documented on my blog. I created a questionnaire which I used towards the end of my project to great effect. An example of the template I used can be seen on my blog.

6.2 How are you demonstrating that you are using evaluative and reflective skills to make perceptive decisions in support of your project? Give examples.

Final Presentation and Audience Consideration

7.1 What strategies are you considering to use to present your project?

All the work I have completed is presented on my blog. I could also print a select few photographs out onto photographic paper.

7.2 How will you present your work in a skillful and proficient manner?

Give examples.

All the work I have completed is presented on my blog. I could also print a select few photographs out onto photographic paper.

Who is your specified audience and how will you engage them with your work?

My target audience is teenagers aged 15-20, with an interest in horror films, or photography. I want to chiefly engage their attention with an eye-catching film poster that I designed, with the stills from the proposed film below it, or around it.

GRACE INITIAL MUSINGS

INITIAL PITCH
For one of my interviews for university, I was asked to bring a screenplay pitch to demonstrate my creativity. I chose to write a small pitch about this horror film idea, revolving around a girl called Grace who drowned and came back to haunt her old home. The pitch is as follows:

It’s a supernatural horror focusing on the conflict between a newly-wed couple and a vengeful spirit of a drowned girl.

In a semi-rural English town, a newly-wed couple move into a new home to start a new chapter in their lives. They soon discover that the house is not all it seems to be, as it is home to a vengeful spirit of a young girl who is hell-bent on defending the house against its new residents. She was the daughter of a young woman who was left by her husband for a younger girl. This left the woman in an emotionally vulnerable state of mind, which led her to start to rely heavily on alcohol. Her daughter was neglected and mistreated and eventually the woman cracked and drowned her young daughter, whilst reciting the ‘Patience is a virtue, virtue is a grace, Grace is a little girl who wouldn't wash her face’. As she died a violent death, Grace’s spirit remained in the realm of the living to terrorise new occupants of her house. The couple have to somehow find a way to stop Grace, holding on to their humanity and each other as they do so. The more they investigate, the more truths about the house’s history they find. This leads them to believe that they only way to stop Grace, is by killing the woman that originally killed her- Grace’s mother, Heather.

From this initial pitch, I realised that I really liked this idea and, thus, ideas stemmed from this screenplay pitch.

INITIAL ROUGH STORY

From my first brief pitch about this idea, I created a rough outline of what I envisioned a finished film or story about this idea to look like.

A newly-wed couple (Chaz and Brooke Wilson) move into a new house soon after their wedding in order to start the next stage of their life. They are first seen on the road, talking and laughing whilst on their way to the new house. As they pull up to the driveway, those of keen eyesight can briefly spot a girl standing at one of the top floor windows of the house.

The couple unpack and explore the house. Apart from a few puddles of water, everything is fine and this remains so for the first couple of weeks of the residence. One day, as Brooke is taking a bath, she closes her eyes and relaxes into the bubbles. She hears creaking, so opens her eyes. However, she sees nothing so closes them again and starts to relax once more. This is followed by more creaking. She opens her eyes again and is shocked to see a little girl standing in the corner of the room. After the initial shock wears off, she settles down, but is noticeably a little scared. She asks the girl her name, to which the girl replies: ‘Grace.’ Brooke asks her how she got in to which Grace replies ‘I live here, silly.’ This confuses Brooke who tries to tell her that she doesn’t and that she and Chaz live there. This upsets Grace and, as she starts screaming, her face becomes greyer and she becomes drenched in water, with her mouth opening wider than should have been possible.

The camera cuts to Brooke opening her eyes, gasping for breath and sitting up out of the bath. There is water all over the floor and her husband is sitting with her, clutching her hand- clearly concerned. He says that she must have hit her head and gone underwater. Brooke tries to convince him of the little girl, but Chaz doesn’t believe her. She eventually concludes that she must have hit her head, even though, in her head, she knows what she saw. Brooke seems to be the only one who notices some strange things happening around the house and Chaz refuses to believe that there’s anything wrong. This results in a few arguments and puts a strain on their relationship.

As the days go by, both Brooke and Chaz begin to notice strange happenings around the house. They hear a child reciting ‘Patience is a virtue, virtue is a grace, Grace is a little girl who wouldn’t wash her face’ in the night. Whenever a supernatural occurrence happens (such as wailing, belongings flying of their own volition, etc), they are accompanied by the presence of puddles of water- indicating Grace’s involvement in them. The Wilsons call a plumber who inspects the pipes and find nothing out of the ordinary.

After this, Grace becomes more aggressive and starts attacking them during the night. They barely manage to escape and after a few nights like this they book a room in a nearby motel. They start investigating the house’s past and look through county records and old internet sites to try to piece together the history of the house. It’s there that they learn about the house’s sinister past. Earlier in her life, when she was in her early 30s and Grace was 7 or 8, the previous owner’s husband (several decades ago) of 11 years left her for another woman. This event left her mentally unstable and prone to aggressive outbursts of anger. She began to drink heavily and neglected her daughter. One day, she drowned her daughter whilst reciting the ‘Patience is a virtue...etc’ phrase. Chaz and Brooke are horrified and livid at their salesman, who neglected to mention this when they bought the house. They confront him at his office and he is apologetic and points them in the direction of the previous owner of the house- Heather Pastor. The Wilsons decide to pay her a visit in the care home for the mentally ill where she resides. They believe that as long as Heather lives, so does Grace.

Upon arriving at the care home, they discover that the woman (Heather Pastor) is wheelchair-bound and seemingly unable to move. Her mouth is agape and she can only make gurgling sounds (noises one would make if drowning). Upon further inspection, the couple notice a puddle of water around the wheelchair.

Suddenly, Heather’s body jumps up and violently assaults Chaz, all the while wailing in her gurgling voice. Chaz fights back, but is overwhelmed by Heather (who is possessed by the spirit of Grace). The nurse attending to Heather screams, which prompts hospital guards to burst into the room. They pry Heather off of Chaz and try to hold them back as the nurse and the Wilsons make their escape. As they leave the room, Heather tears the guards apart and flings their lifeless bodies across the room. During the fight, the nurse had managed to call the police. The Wilsons run hand-in-hand towards the exit, with Heather in pursuit- levitating off the ground hurtling towards them with one arm outstretched. They manage to reach the exit and fling open the doors. The police, who had arrived shortly before, start shooting- not realising who is coming out. Chaz is caught in the leg and falls. Brooke screams and tries to help him, but Heather reaches him first. Heather claws at Chaz a bit, before being shot in the head by one of the police. (The camera could follow the bullet as it torpedoes towards her head). Heather’s body crumples to the ground and, what seems like bathwater, gushes out of her body- indicating that Grace is finished.

A few close-up camera shots of the shocked police and couple could follow this. A monologue in Chaz’s voices starts in these close-ups.

Cuts to Heather’s room in the care home, where there is blood and water everywhere along with the bodies of the guards. The shot fades and cuts to the care home several days after the ordeal, where everyone is going about their daily business now the Heather/Grace has gone.

Cuts to people gently lowering Heather’s body in an unmarked grave- whilst Chaz and Brooke look on.

Cuts to the couple signing the papers that put the house back on the market.

Cuts to Chaz finishing off writing a note, as the monologue finishes as well. He leaves it on the kitchen table, for the next owners of the house to find. The note’s title read:

‘A warning

To whom it may concern’.

In the monologue, he recounts Grace’s grisly demise and warns of the possible dangers of the house- even though everyone believes Grace to have disappeared.

Back in the kitchen, Chaz hears Brooke’s voice telling him to hurry up. The camera follows Chaz as he leaves the house and meets his wife. The drive out of the driveway behind a couple of mover’s vans. The camera turns back towards the now empty house. Cuts to the front hallway, cuts to the kitchen, cuts to the living room (with each cut, a new room is displayed), as serene music plays. Cuts to the bathroom last. In the corner of the bathroom, those of keen eyesight can briefly see a small puddle of water.

Credits roll.

After the credits roll, Grace’s voice can be heard over the black screen reciting the ‘Patience is a virtue...etc’ phrase. After the phrase finishes, the screen cuts immediately to a close-up of Grace’s face looking out the top floor of the window.

'GRACE' KEY MOMENTS IN THE STORY

The rough outline of the story gave me the opportunity to pick out the key moments in the story.

> Chaz & Brooke arriving at their new home for the first time.

> Brooke meeting Grace for the first time.

> Initial supernatural occurrences, such as levitation & breaking of household objects.

> Grace becoming more aggressive in her acts of the supernatural.

> Chaz & Brooke arguing about the existence of Grace.

> Grace violently attacking Chaz & Brooke, leading them to flee the house.

> Chaz & Brooke researching the history of their home.

> Flashback to Heather drowning Grace.

> Chaz & Brooke meeting Heather for the first time.

> Heather attacking Chaz, the nurse & guards in the hospital for the mentally ill.

> Heather chasing Chaz & Brooke outside.

> Heather getting shot by the police outside the hospital.

> Chaz writing the warning back at the house.

> Chaz & Brooke leaving the house, as Grace looks on from a window.

PROJECT PROPOSAL- SECTION 3

EVALUATION
Outcomes for the FMP will be assessed and evaluated in a variety of ways in order to gain the most amount of valuable feedback, which will help me improve and further develop my ideas. Ways in which the project will be evaluated include:

• Self reflection- this will happen as I go along and will be the first source of feedback.
• Peer reviews- these will take the form of me showing examples of my work to a group of students on my course and asking for their input as to what they like/dislike.
• Tutorials- these will likely be both 1-1 and in a group. These will be one of the more valuable forms of feedback, as my tutors will be involved in voicing their opinions on what they thought works/doesn't work about my ideas.
• Questionnaires- these will be handed to volunteers after they have seen my work and they will then have the opportunity to give qualitative feedback on my work. I will then use their answers to hopefully develop and improve the quality of the overall idea.

Although, the most important thing about the feedback is improving the idea and optimising the quality of it before the final assessment, I also hope that self reflection and tutorials will make me better- as a creative individual.

PROJECT PROPOSAL- SECTION 2

PROJECT CONCEPT
Throughout Stage 3, I hope to achieve an outcome revolving around a horror film idea I have. Using photography, film and possibly a bit of animation I hope to accomplish several series of stills, a short trailer and some short clips from this horror film idea. These skills will be invaluable for the BA (Hons) Film & Television Studies course I hope to progress to.

For one of my interviews with a UCAS university choice, I was asked to pitch a screenplay. It was then that I started to develop an idea for a horror film.

It’s a supernatural horror focusing on the conflict between a newly-wed couple and a vengeful spirit of a drowned girl.

In a semi-rural English town, a newly-wed couple move into a new home to start a new chapter in their lives. They soon discover that the house is not all it seems to be, as it is home to a vengeful spirit of a young girl who is hell-bent on defending the house against its new residents. She was the daughter of a young woman who was left by her husband for a younger girl. This left the woman in an emotionally vulnerable state of mind, which led her to start to rely heavily on alcohol. Her daughter was neglected and mistreated and eventually the woman cracked and drowned her young daughter, whilst reciting the ‘Patience is a virtue, virtue is a grace, Grace is a little girl who wouldn’t wash her face’. As she died a violent death, Grace’s spirit remained in the realm of the living to terrorise new occupants of her house. The couple have to somehow find a way to stop Grace, holding on to their humanity and each other as they do so. The more they investigate, the more truths about the house’s history they find. This leads them to believe that they only way to stop Grace, is by killing the woman that originally killed her- Grace’s mother, Heather. This idea was initially titled 'Grace' (stylised, 'G R A C E').

For this idea, I was inspired by horror films, such as: 'The Ring', 'Ju-on: The Grudge' and 'The Woman In Black', as well as the supernatural, Gothic genres themselves.

PROJECT PROPOSAL- SECTION 1

A REVIEW OF STAGE 1 & 2

When I started the course on the very first day of UCA, I knew little about what I wanted to do or what I wanted to achieve. That changed after I had completed the Stage 1 aspect of the Film, Photography & Animation (Media) pathway. I realised I enjoyed photography and wanted to explore that outlet of creativity more.

Over the course of the last few months, during Stage 2, I learnt how to use various digital software; like, Adobe Premier Pro, Adobe Photoshop CC & After Effects. In addition to this, I also learnt about the basic abilities of DSLR cameras, how to set up and use a photo studio properly and other photography techniques, like 3 point lighting. Prior to this, I had a brief, basic understanding of Photoshop and that was it. I have learnt a lot over the last few months and hope to continue learning throughout Stage 3.

With my new knowledge of photography and my limited knowledge (which I will expand upon), I will achieve an outcome in Stage 3 that will satisfy me.