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Characters

Me (Billy Saxon)

The lead role of my production is played by myself. I play the role of myself, Billy Saxon, a TV presenter, who goes from town to town, county to county, attempting to resolve the rumours and myths that surround the areas regarding paranormal activity and spiritual presence. Where as Billy does not claim to posses any form of a "sixth sense", nor does he claim in anyway to be a "Physic Medium", he does have a interest in the paranormal and is neither a believer nor sceptic and keeps a open mind to idea of the paranormal. So he enrols the help of local physic mediums from within the local areas, to help and aid him in his search
for the all important paranormal side.

Jimmy Beaton (Jimmy Beaton)

The only other character to feature in my documentary is Jimmy Beaton. Jimmy is a "Physic Medium" from the local area of ware. He aids Billy in his search for all things paranormal. He is a proud Scottish national and has been in the paranormal game for years. He is renowned for his Physic powers and has received many accolades from numerous respected spiritual and physic groups alike. So he is the perfect man for the job when it came to finding a "Physic Medium" within the local area to aid Billy in his investigations. However, not even Jimmy was prepared for what a certain location had in store for him, something he wont forget in a hurry and neither likely will the viewers of the documentary... 

Costumes

When it came to costumes, I felt that there needed to be a sophisticated edge to the way I dressed in order for the documentary to be taken seriously from the start. So for this reason I felt that I needed to dress as if i really were conducting a paranormal investigation live on TV. So I took inspiration in the way I dressed from TV "Physic Medium"  Derek Acorah. Due to this I felt it best that I would wear, a smart shirt, a jumper, black jeans/smart trousers and smart black polish-able shoes. However this attire varied from day to day and if there was a lot of movement, such as running involved I decided that Nike trainers would be a better suited form of footwear. Dependant also on the weather I would wear a Harrington jacket or not, but this was a suitable jacket as it still helped maintain the professional look i was going for.

Jimmy, who played the "Physic Medium" in my documentary, was required to dress likewise. He went for a more casual look with a Harrington jacket, grey jeans and Vans footwear, but still looked professional enough but did so that i was at the same time practical, in order to fit in with the attire of a TV Physic Medium other than Derek Acorah.

Locations for filming

There will be 4 main locations of where I will be filming the core of my documentary. There will be various other locations where filming will take place but these will take a minor role within  the documentary as a whole and will be decided as of and when appropriate. The main locations will be where the majority of filming takes place and the "Paranormal Investigations" occur. With the exception of my bedroom where the majority of the behind the scenes footage filming will take place.

 My Bedroom

Thundridge (Cold Christmas Church)

Ware (Presdale Woods)

Ware (A10 Monastery and Woodlands)

Ware (Farmers Fields)

Filming: Day 3 (16/10/13)

Today's filming took place in my bedroom. I had various voice over files to record for the numeros video montages I am going to record in the next few days for my production. These are montages of the local area, dependant on where I am investigating at the time in the production. I did this in my room as it is a quiet location, perfect for filming so that there was no background interference. Along with the voice over recordings, I filmed a few hand held shots of me in my bed giving a "video diary" type shot sumary of the days filming events, a type of beind the scenes video diary. This will add a touch of comical value to the production, as it shows Billy scared of the days events, a contrast to the attitude he initially sets out with at the beginning of the documentary. I had to film these shots at the end of the day to make them look authentic to the time of night it is set to be in the documentary. Yet it will also help add authenticity to the documentary as a whole.These shots have been filmed in advance of the completion of my project and will be put in the documentary at the end of every "documentary day" of filming.

Filming: Day 2 (08/10/13)

On the second day of filming, i went down to the local woods, located near the A10. This was the perfect location as it is in the middle of no where and a fairly derelict location. It has a spooky feeling about it and is situated next to a monastery and church which just adds to the paranormal feel. I was originally going to film a few shots outside the monastery itself, with a good shot with the monastery in the background and over hanging trees, it was a perfectly framed shot. However we had to abort the idea on the day due to the poor lighting, a result of poor unpredictable weather. So due to this I took the decision to postpone the filming of this shot until the weather conditions were more appropriate for the shots on hand. So i moved onto the next shots of the day. Which consisted of reporting on a "Haunted Tree" known as the "Hanging Branch" due to its history, where many of the local monks from the monastery were hanged for sins towards to monastery. I did a 20 second report with the tree clearly set in the background of the medium shot. Once this was filmed I had planned on filming in the woods but due to the weather again, this had to be postponed until the next filming day, where I will film both the monastery shots and the woodland shots that I had planned on filming today. 

Filming: Day 1 (2/10/13)

October 2nd 2013, this was my first day of filming for my media project, The Elusive Side. Where I visit various locations of which are supposedly "Haunted" and attempt to see if there is any truth in the stories. My First day of filming consisted of me filming at my first location, Cold Christmas Church located near Thundridge. I managed to get various shots of the locations which will be put into a introduction montage for the location. With that I also conducted a "investigation" within the church itself, with the help of Jimmy, Max and Billy. Other shots included various shots inside the church and a sequence which involved Jimmy playing the role of a "Physic Medium". Although the documentary is meant to be focused around the idea of a "Mocumentary" I felt that it was essential that it had an element of maturity and professional standard about it, making it seem realistic and relateable to some extent. There were some nice shots of feet running past the church and the lighting on the shots within the church added an element of a spooky haunted feeling to the filming, which worked very well in light of what the documentary is about.

Relevant Media Products

TAPS [Ghost Hunters] (2004-Present)

Presented By

Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson

Genre
TV Documentary

Paranormal Documentary

Starring

Ian Cashmore, Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson

TAPS is a paranormal investigation documentary, in many respects similar to Most Haunted. However unlike Most Haunted, TAPS do not use Physic Mediums on a regular show to show basis. The main aspects from TAPS which I can use In relation to my project is once again the hand held camera investigation style of filming, it adds that extra touch of authenticity to the watching audience. The show also has a certain element about it which takes away from its seriousness, although the audience can tell it is serious and they are professionals, so I feel this approach would work well in my project. 

Most Haunted (2002-2010)

Presented By

Yvette Fielding

Genre

TV Documentary

Paranormal Investigation Documentary

Starring

Derek Acorah, Yvette Fielding, Ciarán O’Keeffe

Most Haunted is a relevant media product regarding my work as it is very similar in many aspects. The main one being the fact that it is a documentary based around the paranormal world and the desire to sight a ghost or some form of paranormal activity on camera. The second aspect being that unlike some respected “Ghost Hunting” programmes, Most Haunted actually uses a “Physic Medium” throughout its programmes, the main one being the infamous Derrick Acorah. So in my work I am going to do the same. Although mine will have a certain aspect of comedy to it whilst still remaining respectful, creating a moderate element of humour, in a sense mocking the work of the “cheat and fraud” Mr Acorah himself. The type of camera angles used, the sounds and the transitions used throughout the programmes work well, I would like to attempt to incorporate those features into my work. The way the presenters and those on the programme dress will also be how I wish the people present on camera in my project to dress, adding a sense of professionalism and seriousness to my documentary.  

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Directors

Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sánchez

Genre

Horror

Certificate

15

The Blair Witch Project is a film about three young adults who venture into the woods on a hunt for paranormal activity on the back of the rumour regarding “Blair Witch” in the Maryland woods. Once they venture in they get lost and then the paranormal activity they were wishing for occurs, thick and fast and they soon regret what they wished for. This is a perfect film with regards to being a relevant media product to inspire my project. The locations, the shots used, the hand held style camera work, all work well with what I want my documentary to be like. However I will be working alone on my project unlike in the film where there are three main characters, in my documentary there will only be one. The location of the woods is where I would like part of my project to be filmed, unlike the majority of it being filmed there as is done in the film. As in the film the characters are very serious, as will be in my project, however when scared in the film they remain serious and frightened and this adds an element of fear and horror to the film, although I want an essence of this in my project I also want add a touch of humour to the project so will not remain serious the whole duration, especially when I become “Scared”.  

A Level Production: Documentary

For my A Level production I have chosen to work independently, this was as last year working in a group proved difficult, we did at the end of the year come out with a good grade we felt that we could have possibly gained a higher grade if the bickering, confusion and difficulty of working in a group was not present. So as a group decision, we decided it was best for us all if we were to work independently this year. But are more than happy to appear in each others productions if needed to help each other out where possible.

For my production, I have selected to produce a Mocumentary style production on the topic of all things Ghostly, haunted and paranormal. My production will follow a TV presenter and various local "Physic Mediums" around local areas, investigating in depth the rumours and myths that surround the area, of the paranormal form. It will be a 5 minute documentary and will be the whole documentary as to being only a short section of the documentary.