By Alex Lucas

The Spooks Apprentice/Number 13 watery lane

My first idea was to create a short fantasy/horror film and I am a fan of books and have read quite a few so I decided to base my film on a book. I was given a maximum of 10 minutes so I decided to do a film about a specific chapter in a book.

I had several ideas in mind such as Harry Potter or Stephen Kings IT but I had struggle deciding.

Recently I had read a book called The Spooks Apprentice by Joseph Delaney. There was a chapter that would make a good short film and didn’t need to much back story too explain the idea of the film.

Initial ideas

I started my research by deciding what my target audience would be for this film and what films of that age range involve.

I also watched a few fantasy films such as The Lord of the rings and Willow. I then began to watch short fantasy films such as The hunt for Gollum and The Allegory of Aron Godfrey that I found on the internet.

I also did a bit of research on the seventh son which is an upcoming film loosely based on the Spooks Apprentice.

I then decided to do a focus group where I get a group of people who could be my target audience and ask them to watch a short fantasy film and read the chapter from the book. I then asked them questions about these products.

Research

Before I asked the questions I already knew that as long as I stuck to the idea as best I could the story would be alright because all of the people I questioned enjoyed the chapter but didn’t like the short film so much. Out of the questions I asked at my focus group these are a few: What did you dislike about either of the products? What would you have added to either of the products if you had ability? Would you expect to see blood and violence in a fantasy film or would it depend on the

storyline? When reading the chapter in the book how old did you imagine each character was at the time? What clothes did you imagine each character was wearing? When Tom is at the house would the scene work without the rain and thunder or do you think

that the rain is a too big part of the scene?

By doing this research I know more about what I should put in my film and what I can leave out such as the majority of my focus group said that it would depend on the storyline whether there is blood or violence involved and they said that if I didn’t put the rain and thunder in the film it would ruin the atmosphere.

Research results

I chose chapter 3 from the Spooks apprentice which is called Number 13 watery lane. In this chapter the Spooks apprentice known as Tom Ward is set his first task which involves him staying in an abandoned house over night and at midnight he must enter the cellar and face whatever is lurking down there.

Throughout the chapter many strange things happen such as strange noises coming from the cellar and people knocking on the door that aren't actually there.

As soon as I thought of the idea to make this chapter into a short film I wanted to do it and I knew it would be a challenge but if It was possible I wanted too.

The Chapter

Mood Board

Now that I know what I am doing I can start sorting out everything to get this project finished by the deadline.

I will start by getting actors and sets for my film so that I can just start filming when I need to.

I will find my actors by first thinking about who I know that could play the parts. I will then ask people I know whether they know any one that could play the roll. Then when I have a group of people I will give them a copy of the script and interview them and decide which person can play the part best.

For my sets I will find and go to places that might be suitable and take pictures of each place to compare and find out which place would be best.

What I need to do now!

I will need some clothes and props for the actors in my film.

As I said before I asked questions to my focus group about costumes and using those answers and the other films I watched I know what sort of clothes each character will be wearing. The Spook will wear a long dark cloak and Tom will wear a white shirt and brown trousers.

I will need several different props such as a candle, a staff, matches and a number 13 either a metal door sign or scratched onto a piece of wood.

What I will need for my film?

Budget/Basic Plan

If my film was to be shown on TV it would either be shown on one of the BBC or ITV channels at about 5.00 o’clock just before younger children go to bed.

but it could also be shown on a channel such as Shorts.TV which mainly shows all sorts of short films of any genre and is shown in many different country's across the world and would probably be shown at about 5.00 o’clock also.

Where and when would this film be shown on Television?

Any Questions?

The End