The construction of the set was inevitably always going to be difficult. Our group came across many challenges during the process of design and construction.

The main issue we had with set was figuring out how to keep it together but being able to take away wall panels for camera angle shots. We needed the houses to remain fixed to the base however we needed to take certain walls apart to allow camera movement. After careful consideration we made the sacrifice of that idea and instead only used two wall panels and made them fixed together but not fixed to the base.

We ran into smaller issues such as hiding the screws at the front of the house, which we covered with the wall texture.

Problems such as keeping the houses stuck down to the base but them also being able to move when needed was quite difficult to figure out. However, we have marked out its position and used thin rolls of blue-tac stuck to the bottom of the houses to keep them secure.

Due to the time period and location of our story we had to change some of our props to make them more appropriate to the time. Therefore, instead of the original round trash can we then decided to make a more British style dumpster.

We found that we had to consider the smaller details to allow the whole process to run smoother. I’m sure as we progress more, we will still come across more issues and then have to decide how to solve them.

Since teaming up with fellow colleagues Arif and Cristian, our ideas and storylines were discussed and eventually combined to create one short storyline with an ending insinuation a reoccurring event. My initial ideas, being iterated from A TellTale’s Heart, included a psychopath put into isolation, and rather than hurting the people around him my iteration shows the aftermath of how a person may feel from bottomless guilt after committing a sin (or in my characters example; mass murder and torture). My colleagues iterations were both similar, as they were of the text The Pale Green Pants. Their storylines were somewhat similar in terms of using the green pants themselves as a character, more so the antagonist. As a collective we decided that we can merge elements of each story together, and we developed this:

Basic plot:
– It’s raining, on the brink of thunder. Kid 1 (main protagonist) runs towards shops. Along the road, he notices stray pair of pants on the sidewalk after commencing the shop, decides to leave it alone. The pants make a strange roughing sound off camera, kid 1 looks behind and see’s it’s standing up right, floating in mid air. Kid stops and stares, pants fall back to the ground. Kid 1 picks them up, lightning strikes and reveals silhouette of old scrawny man (ghost of psychopath). Kid looks inside pants to see a dark abyss.. eyes turn white and becomes possessed. He pulls his eyelids, rips his flesh, goes crazy, as pants begins to swallow him whole. As he struggles, he disappears into the pants (like a black hole) and the pants hover for a moment, and drops. Rain calms down slightly, music stops, and kid 2 walks by and notices pants. He walks up to the pants, screen cuts to black.

Characters:
– Kid 1
– Kid 2 (re-purposed kid 1)
– Psychopathic silhouette

Set ideas:
– village cottages
– Shop (optional)
– Sandy brick colours, sepia tone
– Pavement
– Grassy sidewalk with trees

Big shots:
– lightning reveal for psychopath
– Closeup or dramatic high angle shot of kid 1 getting swallowed
– Pulling eyelids and latex ripping (skin) after being possessed
– Closeup of eyes changing colour (use Beverly from IT chapter 1 as reference)
– Long shot of sidewalk after pants swallows kid 1, and kid to appears (cut to black)
– Listening and reaction mid shots between kid 1 and hovering pants

Set Location:

• Street with Alley Way
• 2 Shops/Houses with an Alleyway in-between
• Graffiti on walls
• Bins and rubbish spread out around the street
• Street Lamps
• Bushes and minimal trees

Materials:

• Buildings: MDF with Foamboard to cover.
• Paint
• Cling Film (Windows)
• Pens with LED Lights (Lamps)
• Foliage (Bushes)
• Paper (Posters)
• Glue
• Tape

Set – Think about doing just a forest or a street rather than both…keep it simple

Puppets – Use 4 strands of wire to make it sturdy. Biro pen plastic to cover limbs and allow joints to move

Focus on the ‘temptation’ aspect:

• Sweets in the pocket of the pants that persuades the kid – “Reach into my pocket, there is sweets there”
• Have a reason for the kid to be intrigued
• Possibly make it weird and ‘pervy’