Lighting 2

In most scenes, we filmed in dark areas of the school that we had access to. It's assumed almost universally that fear of darkness is the most common fear. Humans have an innate fear of the dark and in darkness is the unknown. That adds to an underlying state of fear for the film to begin with. Add things that you can't see that just pop out and you've got the underlying features of every horror film. Darkness strengthens the effect.
Here are a few instances of where we used dark lighting to create this effect.

 

Lighting Considerations

We knew, from common observation of horror films and trailers, that dark lighting was very essential to the scary, chilling atmosphere of a horror film. There were several techniques we considered to get this picture across in order to get the real effect that conformed to the horror genre. We chose the 'flickering light effect' and included this in our second draft.




Plot outline

The film focuses on five teenagers who are cramming for their exams the next day at their sixth form. One by one, they come under silent attack from a sinister, deranged killer who places them in a desperate attempt for their lives. In a extreme chase that takes them throughout the deepest areas of the building, the night has turned into a night for survival........

Rough Draft of Script - 1st scene

Introductory scene in common room
(Actor 1 is the killer. Actors 2-4 are the fellow students stuck in the school.)

Actor 1: So did you hear about the student who died in this school?
Actor 4: No, what happened?
Actor 1: Well, it happened during World War II, the school had evacuated all the students to a safe bunker.......except one.
Actor 2: No way! (sardonically)
Actor 1: He died in the basement, and they say you can still hear his screams past midnight on a Friday
Actor 2: Yeah, I'm not buying it, man.
Actor 3: Seems unlikely, to be honest.
Actor 1: Alright, if you don't believe me, I dare you to go down there right now. It is Friday isn't it?
Actor 2: (scuff) Alright then, just to make you look like the fool you are.

We will cut this scene to certain parts of the dialogue to conform to the conventions of a teaser trailer.