Planning: Treatment For Our Film Opening

Once again, we made a Google Docs document to keep a track of all our ideas for the opening. 

Below are the screenshots of our notes and conversations.

My contribution is written in blue, Immy's - yellow and Emma's - purple.

 

 

Now, we can confidently say we know what we're doing (the overall idea, at least). Our plan for the opening two minutes is to show the killer, whose face is never actually shown to the audience, preparing for the first murder cross cutting to shots of the act being carried out. We're planning to use a series of mysterious close ups and match on action to add intensity to the scene and to never actually reveal the face of the killer or their victim. 

In terms of sound, we are considering non-diegetic piece by Camille Saint-Saens: Danse Macabre (which is a composition from the XIX century, so there won't be any copyright issues) playing during the scene after the killer puts on headphones. When it comes to diegetic sound, we won't have almost any during the playing of Danse Macabre, but before the killer equips headphones we want to use sounds such as very loud footsteps and heavy breathing through a gas mask. 

For the titles, we want to overlay them over the shots, since we will have a lot of footage (or at least we want to have a lot of different footage) to fit into the two minutes. For the actual title of the film, we want to make it a part of the environment. We were considering a wall neon that spells 'Toxic' (or something similar to a neon, since they're so expensive) and filming it flickering as the killer walks past it, to later put it at the end of our opening sequence. 

Planning: Target Audience and Potential Openings

After presenting our 60-second pitch, we (Emma in particular) wrote the synopsis for our film:

Far into the future, in the year 2XXX, twelve influential families dominate the city in which they live. Each one is designated with its own crest, deriving from the Chinese Zodiac Calendar; their adolescent heirs, all close friends, carry their family legacies. However, things quickly take a turn for the worst. One of the friends is discovered as a decomposing corpse in a pool of mysterious glowing toxin, and the only clue to the killer’s identity comes in the form of a fortune cookie. After that, it becomes a race against time. Isolated from any outside help, the friends must put the pieces together and stop the murderer – both their own lives, and that of the next generation, is at stake.

We then realised that feedback from our target audience would be necessary in order to make our piece of the highest possible quality and create an opening the audience would truly enjoy. In order to collect the data we created an online survey using SurveyMonkey and sent it to a group of fellow students from our school. Below is the data we have collected: 

We had a very good ratio of the two genders, meaning we were able
to compare two different points of view. 

Majority of our target audience does enjoy horror, meaning our film
would gain enough attention if it came out. 

Psychological and science-fiction were definitely the most popular
subgenre - good for us, because we planned 'Toxic' to fit
into both of these. 

Some of the suggestions we got were actually very creative
and would make for a good opening. 

The average was about 8.5!

Planning: From Production Company Name to 60s Pitch

After a lot of thought and discussions, we decided our company name should be 'Pluton Productions'. We wanted to use a name related to mythology and Pluto is the Roman equivalent of the Greek god Hades (the fact that he is the god of death worked really well with the focus of our company - horror). Furthermore, death is an important factor of the story we want to tell, so the name 'Pluton' seemed more than appropriate. It's not just 'Pluto', because as Sir has pointed out, it has connotations of children's productions (Disney's Pluto); so we decided to add the 'n' to make it more 'independent' (and additionally 'Pluton' is 'Pluto' in Polish!).

The geometric template.

Final design of the logo. 

We have also worked on the logo for our company - using Photoshop, I have made a geometric template of the planet (which is actually Pluto!) and Immy has added the typography and the little spaceship using FireAlpaca.

We wanted our logo to have a neon/80s/glow aesthetic, that is why we decided to use the fluorescent green and pink overlapping. Additionally, we wanted the logo to appeal to the target audience and make it easily recognisable.

Below are screenshots of our Google Document of our initial ideas (and a little conversation) for the whole film. As you can probably see, we decided to focus on one of the ideas in particular (which will go very well with the aesthetic of our logo).

   
   

The working title of our film is 'Toxic', chosen due to the context and the aesthetic of the production.

The actual animated gif I made! It looks much better here than on
video, as it's much quicker and infinitely looped
but I can work on that later.

Below is our 60 second Pitch for the full film (I decided to extract the audio and make an animated gif of our glitching logo in Photoshop, because not a single member of our group wanted to show are actual faces - the logo just looks better).

The British Board of Film Classification

The BBFC is a non-governmental, independent body which was set up in 1912 (and founded by the film industry) and since then, it has been responsible for classification and censorship of films exhibited in cinemas and video work (such as television programmes or adverts) within the United Kingdom. The organisation makes sure unsuitable content is not shown to certain audiences (such as not 'allowing' young children to watch sexually explicit productions).

Classification is the process during which each film is examined agains the rigorous and regularly updated guidelines. The classification has six main categories:

 U (Universal) - suitable for all audiences
 PG (Parental Guidance) - suitable for all ages, however some scenes might be unsuitable for young children, may contain mild violence
 12A - cinema release suitable for 12 years and over
 12 - video release suitable for 12 years and over
15 - suitable only for ages 15 and over
 18 - suitable only for people aged 18 and over
 R18 - adults working for licensed premises only


The specific guidelines for films ranked '15' are:
 -> Discrimination - the work may contain racist, homophobic or other discriminatory themes and language, but it must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour;
-> Drugs - drugs taking may be shown but the work as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse;
-> Imitable behaviour - dangerous behaviour (for example: suicide) should not be shown in detail which could be copied;
-> Language - there may be strong language, very strong language may be permitted;
-> Nudity - no constrains on nudity in a non-sexual context, may be nudity in a sexual context but usually without strong detail;
-> Sex - sexual activity may be portrayed but usually without strong detail;
-> Threat - there may be strong threat and horror, a focus on sexual or sadistic threat is unlikely to be acceptable;
-> Violence - violence may be strong, but the strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable.

The Importance of Sound in Horror

Music in horror is vital - without it, the genre would not be half as frightening as it can get. Music creates necessary tension and provides build up for the elements of 'spooks' in horror productions. Some scenes, such as the iconic 'shark attack' in 'Jaws' would not be half as frightening if the sound was removed (without the minor chords in the background, the scene looks like some people swimming and suddenly being afraid).

As it is in most cases, there is science behind all the madness - and filmmakers know that very well. Humans have a certain sensitivity to the, so called, non-linear sounds and the production companies use them to unnerve the audiences. A great example is the legendary 'Psycho' by Alfred Hitchcock, where the strings and overwhelming brass are mimicking the sound of panic in nature we simply cannot help responding to. Even just listening to the music without any footage to go with it creates the feeling of danger and makes our hearts pump blood a little bit faster.

It is also confirmed that low frequency/minor sounds make us feel uncomfortable and create an unsettling atmosphere. That is probably why filmmakers just love them - sometimes, even if the production is low budget and not scary at all, the right use of sound can give it a boost. Even the greatest horrors would not be as effective if it wasn't for their soundtracks ( and sometimes the soundtracks become the most iconic thing about a film, such as the aforementioned 'Jaws' theme).

The sound in horror can also be used to exaggerate the action on screen; by synchronising certain movements or actions with the 'peaks' in the soundtracks or specific beats. For example: when a character is running and each time their foot hits the ground, a beat in the soundtrack occurs. That way filmmakers can put emphasis on the action and create more tension, as the audience subliminally feels the importance of what's going on in front of their eyes.

Codes and Conventions of Existing Teen Horror Films

'Dead Wood'

Starting with probably the most intense title of all: 'Dead Wood's' opening sequence does follow some of the most common conventions of horror. It starts off with a soft melody, birds accompanied by sounds of a piano. The audience is presented with a tilt shot of woods (a secluded location - the most common convention in teen horror) alongside the soundtrack, creating an illusion of safety (however the low notes in the music create an eerie aura). The weather is surprisingly good, battling the genre convention (no pathetic fallacy) and adding to the illusion. Also, the lighting is rather bright and warm, being a great juxtaposition to the events that are occurring. However all of the 'safety' is killed by a jumpscare - making it all more effective - of a foot splashing into a puddle (or even a fake scare, since there is not actually any danger the audience should fear - other than whoever or whatever's chasing the character, naturally).
From that point onwards, the pace of the opening picks up and we are presented with the character of Rob running through the woods. Of course, he inexplicably falls over - another convention to add to the list. The camera is extremely shaky, resembling Rob's movements and making the audience feel equally as disoriented as the victim himself.
In the final moments of the opening, there is a quite unusual use of slow motion which creates more tension; the character jumps and for a brief moment it seems like he is going to make it to the other side. Of course, as it usually is, he does not, following another convention of teen horror: someone dying in the first five minutes of the film. After he dies, we are presented with a high angle shot of the tent and the female character inside of it. That shot follows another one of the genre's conventions - someone investigating a strange noise, that someone being Rob's friend calling for him, and subliminally tells us how vulnerable the girl is in the face of the killer (whom we never actually see, as it is most likely they - or it - were to be revealed later on in the film).


'Dead Mary'

Putting the word 'Dead' in the title appears to be a convention of it's own at this point. The opening sequence of this film doesn't use any particularly unique codes but it plays with conventions in a quite unusual way for the teen horror genre. Firstly, not a lot happens; the beginning of the film is very slow paced. Secondly, no-one dies, no-one falls over; there is no chasing in general. Unlikely, to say the least. That obviously doesn't mean the opening doesn't use any popular conventions of course.
The first thing the audience can hear is chains creaking - suggests danger, maybe someone imprisoned - but after a second, it only turns out to be a (broken) gas station sign. In that moment, by paying close attention to detail, we can see that the location is secluded. Another convention the opening falls into is the lack of signal - the girl can't tune the radio nor can she use her mobile phone; that may be significance in the future. Also, the way the girl is dressed explicitly tells the genre of the film - a lot of her body is exposed to the audience, she also acts in a very 'annoying girlfriend' kind of way. Typical, unfortunately (someone could even say conventional)
The weather is not bad (no pathetic fallacy), the bright natural lighting does not indicate danger - there just seems to be no threat whatsoever. That is of course until we see a point of view shot of someone in the woods looking at the girl (the importance of that shot can be told by the music 'kicking in'). There are multiple close ups and extreme close ups and barely any music - the purpose of that was obviously building suspense. Additionally, this opening has a quite nice 'piece' of foreshadowing - the moment when the female lead is holding a flare gun (which is most likely not going to work in the future).
Despite the main character having, well, almost no personality this opening does stand out as pretty unusual - the way it plays with conventions certainly helps it with not being as formulaic.


'Wrong Turn' 

The opening to the last film beings with an establishing shot of woods with an ominous soundtrack in the background, suggesting danger - straight away a secluded location accompanied by an adequate use of non-diegetic sound. The audience is then shown two characters rock climbing - male and female, with the female obviously not being dressed appropriately, of course - from a high angle; implying how vulnerable they are. The male finishes climbing faster while the female acts like the 'damsel in distress'. There is just something about teen horror and set gender roles, both in 'Wrong Turn' and 'Dead Mary'. The weather, just like in the previous two openings, is surprisingly good - apparently pathetic fallacy is out of the genre fashion. However, worry not, there are different conventions to follow, such as: the death of the character(s) within the first five minutes (we can assume the female character meets the same fate as the male), the car being just out of reach or the victim falling over (although I have to admit, it was thought out better than in other films, as this time, it was not the victim's fault).
Some of the sounds such as the  the moving bushes, the male being hit (possibly with a rock) or the rope being cut are enhanced in order to build tension in the scene. Sound, in general, plays a big role in this opening and often synchronises with the action that can be seen on the screen, making the sequence much more appealing to the audience.
The camerawork is also an important technical code (although not as important as the sound) - while there is not a lot of mise-en-scene due to the nature of the location, the shots used fit well with the action. When we are presented with the point of view of the character, the camera is shaky, resembling the disorientation and fear.
Overall, after witnessing the opening of 'Wrong Turn', it appears that it is a next generic teen horror in the sea of the genre. The best part about this sequence is definitely the use of both diegetic and non-diegetic sound: they help to build up the tension and simply make everything more bearable.

The Importance of Opening Titles

Opening titles - they, despite seeming quite insignificant at first, are a big part of each production. They are the opening sequences of a film or a TV show and their purpose is to introduce the production and give credit to the 'most important' people involved in the making. Additionally, they can set the tone of the film/show and give the audience a taste of what is about to come. The use of codes and conventions can significantly affect how we perceive the whole production and even foreshadow some of the events.

Some logos, such as the 20th Century Fox, have become
iconic at this point. 

The  conventions of a typical sequence include: 

-> the production and the distribution company - usually appear before the movie itself begins and can become an indicator of the quality of the production

-> the director(s), the producer(s) and the executive producer(s) - quite often, names repeat (such as Guillermo del Toro in 'Crimson Peak')
-> the cast - usually, the bigger the role the person plays (and the more popular they are in the show business), the quicker the appear

-> people responsible for the screenplay, music, visual effects etc. (only the 'leaders' of the team)
-> the title of the film/show itself - the way the title is presented can heavily impact the perception of the whole production (the codes used)

There is a variety of technical and symbolic codes that can influence the audience's perception of the entire production if used in the opening sequence. They include:
-> Sound - both diegetic (sounds the characters can hear - if the opening includes any, of course) and non-diegetic (added in post production) can set the tone of the film/TV series. For example, an ominous melody can indicate a horror, while a funky tune (like in 'F.R.I.E.N.D.S.') indicates a comedy.
-> Typography - how the text is presented on the screen, the font used, can indicate the genre
-> Lighting - dark or light, very bright or rather dim, the lighting can build tension and play with the audience's eyes
-> Colours - often set the tone and send a subliminal message to the viewers (red - danger etc.)
-> Camera Movement and Editing - they can set the pace of the production right from the start
-> Mise-en-scene - particular objects and settings can foreshadow certain events (however they should never 'spoil' the film/show, as the audience would see no point in continuing watching)

The opening to Hitchcock's 'Psycho' was extremely effective,
despite not using any extremely advanced technology (and
it was still easily readable). 

A combination of all of the above can result in a very effective opening sequence which will encourage the audience to continue watching. The titles of some productions are little pieces of art on their own. However, the people responsible must not only focus on the artistic aspects. Yes, it is important to make a good first impression, but the main purpose of the title sequence is to present information clearly. Visuals are, indeed, important, but if the audience cannot read what's on the screen because the titles are over-complicated, it cannot be called a good opening sequence.

Below are the opening titles to BBC's 'The Night Manager' - a television thriller about a night manager (how surprising) of a luxurious hotel who helps to take down a weaponry trade giant. This sequence has all of the conventions we would expect to see in opening titles - the cast, the producers, the director etc. (maybe not in the conventional order, but that's not important). Luxurious items turning into weapons have clear connotations of danger and the music used goes with that perfectly, adding intensity to the whole sequence. They set the tone of the production, indicate the genre and generally help the audience understand what they're about to watch (all of this while looking absolutely mesmerising).

     

Conventions in Teen Horror

Conventions: they are features (regarding the plot/characters/etc.) expected by the audience in a particular genre of film. This time, I'm going to have a look at the conventions in teen horror:

Secluded location in 'Cabin in the Woods'

-> secluded (isolated) location - often, the action is happening in the woods, far away from any sort of civilisation
-> no signal - phones aren't working, radios aren't working, essentially nothing that could bring salvation is working
-> power is cut - and now, we can't even see the danger
-> fake scare - usually a bird or an animal of some sort

-> the fake scare is often followed by a real scare
-> bad weather - great excuse for the power cut, also, bad things happen during bad weather (pathetic fallacy)
-> the characters forget about threat - "Is this isolated building reported to be the home for many serial killers dangerous? Someone died there last week? Nah, we have immunity"
-> someone runs upstairs instead of outside - "The killer surely won't use the stairs" (often paired with hiding in the bathroom)

A prime example of investigating a strange noise ('Ouija')

-> someone investigates a strange noise - "It's probably just the wind" (hint: it's not)
-> the warning goes unheeded - "Keep out? Pff"
-> somebody dies in the first 5 minutes (usually to establish the antagonist)
-> victim inexplicably falls over
-> characters take a short cut instead of using the longer (and safer) way
-> victim cowers in front of a window of a door
-> victim hides in the closet/under the bed
-> we can travel in time and space - x years before/later (usually establishes the antagonist/the setting)



The trailer for Ouija (I have used the gif from it before), despite being just a trailer, presents multiple conventions even before watching any sort of coherent film footage, such as:
-> it is clear to be seen that one of the characters dies in the first 5 minutes
-> the main characters are teenagers - kind of obvious in teen horror
-> the fake scare (the girl stepping on the board... thing?) followed by a real scare (her death)
-> investigating a strange noise - obviously gets the character killed

The History of Horror Film: A Journey Through Time

The 60s have significantly changed the world – with its sexual revolutions, the loosening of the censorship laws and the creation of a new film rating system by the Motion Picture Association of America. The 70s were a disappointment in a sense – the partying mood of the previous decade has died and it all just went downhill. However, the more and more grim society has created plenty opportunities for the horror industry to blossom and the boundaries of film could be pushed further. 

Count looking rather surprised there.

People started to get bored with traditional Gothic monsters (such as Dracula) and became desensitized. Film makers had to come up with new ideas and step away from the mainstream themes (that is why there weren’t many reincarnations of good old monsters in the 70s) which resulted in the huge increase in the production of gory and graphic horror films – they makers created films noteworthy for their shocking expositions of body mutilation, blood (hectoliters of blood, most likely) and bold use of colour (all the more vivid, because of the realism of films at that time).

The scarily realistic gore in 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'

‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ and ‘Alien’ (which actually received an Oscar for Best Visual Effects) are two great examples of how graphic the visuals could get and how far the 70s have moved in terms of realism.

The 1970s was a pretty grim time – the impact of that can be clearly seen in the film industry. Many horror films dealt with societal issues and addressed genuine psychological fears, which was a great change – horror became a genre not only about  bizarre monsters from faraway lands, but more the intellectual sort of fear (obviously, the genre could be divided into two sub-categories: the one about the deep-seated paranoia or the one all about guts and blood).

Speaking of psychological fears: one consistent fear appeared to be the fear of children (clearly seen in ‘The Omen’ and ‘The Exorcist’ where children were the main antagonists, but also noticeable in ‘Halloween’). Actually, ‘The Exorcist’, (despite the amount of time that has passed since the premiere of the film) has been voted the scariest film of all time (back in October 1999). It marked a beginning of the aforementioned new era for horror, taking its subject very seriously.

Looking at Damien in 1976 'The Omen', it is not surprising people found children rather unsettling.

The crumbling family unit was a source of much fear and mistrust – the danger wasn’t a faceless creature anymore, it could be found in your own house: it was your brother (Halloween), sister (Alice Sweet Alice), husband (The Stepford Wives), son (The Omen). It all links back to the paranoid mood of the decade and the discovering that not only monsters can be spooky back in the 60s.  

The irony in 'The Exorcist' was truly great

Additionally, there is very little humour in the 70s horror (except for the ocassional irony) and also, many of the classics created back in the day were based on books (such as ‘Carrie’, based on a novel written by Stephen King - the original 'Carrie', not the millions of reboots) and the fact is, many of the most successful horror films ever made were actually adaptations of books (‘The Shining’ from the 80s is a brilliant example).

Preliminary Task: Editing and Evaluation

There it is - the final product of our group. It took a surprisingly long time to film it, despite the actual piece being 50 seconds long. At the beginning of the project, we were asked to complete a 12 shot challenge (create a short film consisting of 12 different shots) - in which a character enters a room, sits opposite another character and they exchange few lines of dialogue. In that film, we had to demonstrate a variety of different shots and angles, match on action and the 180-degree rule. 

Firstly, we have created a mind map of ideas, which has definitely helped us with deciding what we wanted to continue with (since we had so many different ideas, the mind map was definitely necessary) - finally, we have chosen the idea I was thinking about for a pretty long time: the secret agents ideas. After that decision was made, we created the storyboard panels of shots we thought work well for presenting that idea. That was most likely the most important step in the pre-production process, as it allowed us to see where exactly we wanted to go with our piece and really focus on the ideas for our shots/angles/movements and props. Then, we planned everything relating to mis-en-scene, including a cast, a filming schedule, a location plan and a shot list (which have some inconsistency, mainly because our plans changed about a 100 times before we got to filming). All of these gave us a really good plan of action for the next step of our task. 

Generally, the filming process went great. We managed to film all the necessary shots quite effectively, despite some of the complications. What definitely helped us with making the process quick and efficient was the planning beforehand - we knew what we were doing. Yes, we did almost run out of time, but the main reason was that we had to change some of our plans, because of the location we were using and the cast problems (the person we have cast to play Agent A did not turn up, so Ashley - who was originally chosen to play B - had to step in to play A and we called our friend Josh to fill in for Agent B). However, in the end, we managed to film everything within the time limit (somehow).  Also, there was a minor issue with our props - the folder, to be exact. We could not lay our hands on  a brown one, like we originally planned, so we had to improvise; resulting in a blue, big folder being used instead. We also had to leave out the establishing shot we planned, as illness and other responsibilities meant no-one in our group was free to film at any point before the deadline (however, I don't think our piece suffered all that much).

The post production was of a huge importance. It allowed us to put all of the scenes in correct order (as during filming we had to change the shot list slightly) and blend them together as one continuous piece. It has also allowed us to get rid of most continuity errors (not all of them, unfortunately) in the actors and props (we did not expect that taking care of small things such as a hand gesture would matter that much!), resulting in our piece being shorter than expected. However, we were willing to sacrifice some footage for the sake of the quality. 

Our film's strengths definitely lie in the variety of shots and angles we have used, some of them being quite unusual (such as the ‘table’ angle when Agent A leaves the room) and the proper use of the 180 degree rule. The shots we used are all appropriate for what is happening in the scene and they - together with the angles - suitably set the tone of our piece: for instance, multiple close ups on Agent A’s feet, instead of showing the whole person, build suspense and somehow dehumanise the character, which is exactly what we were going for. Also, another major strength of our piece: the steady shots. I own a tripod, so we were able to use it while filming, resulting in a piece that looks far more convincing than if the camera was all over the place. The biggest weakness of our piece would be the continuity errors, both in lighting (which, as it was natural light, was beyond our control) and the positioning of props and/or actors. Editing helped minimalise some of them, but since some of the shots were only filmed once (due to the time constraints) we were unable to fix them all, such as the folder closing and opening in between shots. When we get to filming our main task, we will have to make sure that all of our shots are consistent. We also need to make sure we have plenty of time to reschedule filming, as we got to it way too close to the deadline and were not able to find more time when things did not go as planned. Additionally, we should be aware of how long we can use a certain location for, so that we are not put under time pressure (which could lead to some really terrible mistakes) and have time to film each shot enough times without rushing anything.

Preliminary Task: Filming

Our task was predominantly a team effort in all areas. When it comes to camera work, all three of us have contributed, although everyone agreed I had the most experience with the filming equipment (both the camera and my own tripod).
Directing the whole piece was a team effort as well - all of us knew what we were doing and we were really focused on the task. Me and Immy were definitely the most excited about the whole process, running around the location we were filming in (Keystone Youth Centre) and trying to figure out how to use the environment in the best way possible (and talking about the choices with the rest of the group), but overall everyone contributed.

One problem with our filming process was that a member of our cast did not turn up on the day of filming (presumably due to the late notice); after a short group debate on what to do, Emma has solved the problem by calling in another person, Josh, to play the part. Until he arrived, we have filmed the scenes he was not needed in, using our limited amount of time.
Props-wise, we also encountered a problem - the lack of a brown folder - but we solved it by using Emma's folder and making a sheet of paper with a red 'FAILED' on it, in order to make up for the missing prop. The alcohol (which was in fact just tea looking like whiskey) and the glass were supplied by me.
Furthermore, we did not check beforehand how long the location was going to available for, resulting in us almost running out of filming time.


For future projects, we will ensure that our cast members are informed about the filming schedule immediately after we get it sorted out and that we ask the most reliable people possible to help us. We will also ensure we know the availability of the location we will be using, so that we don't have to worry about any time restrictions. Additionally, we will make sure the props and costumes are ready plenty of time before the filming starts.

Preliminary Task: Location Planning

Establishing shot - the big office building on Trafalgar Road, Kettering (there is a possibility of filming from the car park)

Interior corridor & room shots - Keystone Youth Centre, 97 Rockingham Road, Kettering 

Preliminary Task: Filming Schedule

Preliminary Task: Shot List

Preliminary Task: Casting

Agent A: Temperamental, attached to his teammates and extremely loyal. Agent A is distraught by the news of a failed mission - meaning one of his teammates has died. He will be played by Sam Thomson, who will be a great physical and emotional actor from what we have seen when working with him in our Drama class.

Agent B: Reserved, drinks to escape, and secretly emotional. Agent B has to inform Agent A about the failed mission and death of their close colleague, then deal with Agent A's outburst. He will be played by Ashley Paddick, who is also in our Drama class and is skilled with morbid acting.