Hey Y’all, Max here.
The latest project we ( kind of ) wrapped up recently is the PLP 12 Horror Project, Oh, the Horrors. I say kind of because we’re not really done, we’re pretending we are.
Believe it or nor we started this is September. This feels like it was really two projects because the first and second half were very different. The first part, September to November, was dedicated to research and understanding the horror genre. We read the classic horror novel Frankenstein, or the modern Prometheus, really understood it through literature notes, and had Socratic seminars. All you need to know is that we analyzed the hell out of this book. Anyways.
Personally I found that it’s a great book. I think the majority of people understand generally the premise of Frankenstein: mad scientist creates a monster, monster becomes vengeful, exacts it’s revenge on it’s creator. I know it’s classic, but this was my first time reading it and I loved it.
The second, much longer part of this project would be making an actual horror film. We broke into two film groups ( because one group of 30 would be ridiculous ) and got to pick our roles. I wanted to be either costume designer or screenwriter, and I got the latter. I wanted this role to expand and test my creative capability with writing. Writing a screenplay is not the same as writing a blog post or an MLA-cited essay and I would figure that out in time. All in all it was a multi-week process of consulting with the team ( which had split into sub-groups to plan out the film by this point ) writing the general story, and trying to make it all feasible. This last part really went to my head and at about the 3/4 point of writing this I kind of snapped and wrote whatever the hell sounded funny. It really went to my head. I didn’t think of all of the story but you know what I did write all of? The screenplay. The screenplay was both the best and worst thing I have ever done in PLP; best because I really exercised my creative writing and for the first time ever wrote dialogue and setting in a format I hadn’t done before. It was a fulfilling, albeit long, process but unfortunately I must admit it is almost completely shite. I’ve never written dialogue for characters with their own unique personalities, backstories, etc. and it was especially difficult since these were people I knew, my friends, cast into these roles. Did I mention I was also acting? Being able to write specific things in this film went to my head a bit, and the one thing I will mention that was a complete disaster was the amount of swearing. My rationale was that if you’re about to die, don’t you think you would be worried and anxious and fearful? Most ordinary people would curse or exclaim something, and that’s why I wrote in a lot of f-words and sh-words. Like, a lot. I’ve been told some people had an issue with this.
We went to Loon Lake to film the majority of this. Maybe not the majority, but we were going to Loon Lake regardless and there were some shots we could only film there. It was a 3-day schedule, and I have mixed feelings about it. Loon Lake is a beautiful place to be, and it was fun to basically have full access to the grounds all hours of the day. Especially since a lot of us had cars ( sorry, Mr Harris. ). The only times I didn’t enjoy being there was when I had no real job or when I was unsure of what the schedule was. It seemed like we weren’t all on the same page all the time and as a result I feel like we wasted a lot of time. It doesn’t really matter in retrospect, but there were some uncomfortable, cold, film days. By the end of it I was glad to leave.




So where are we now? Well, our group neglected to get much done when we had spare time so we ended up finishing principal photography over winter break. Literally the day before new years. I can’t even be upset by this point because it was easier to laugh. Everyone had gotten haircuts or wore the wrong clothes, or otherwise changed something about their appearance so the continuity didn’t really make sense. I myself had just come back from Hawaii, and as a result had a tan and also different earrings. It was easier to overlook errors like this when everyone just wanted to get it done.
Even though we started hopeful and optimistic, I can’t say we finished like that. I would link the film but I don’t have it. I’m not sure when it’ll be done but when I have it I’ll link it here.
I’m going to be completely honest I came away from this project with intentions to write my own film. And direct it. And if I can, act in it. I think I really liked the idea of a student film, or of amateur filmmaking in general. Some of my favourite films are small productions, with little budget, inexperienced directors / writers, and a virtually unknown cast. Kids, written by Harmony Korine, and All About Lily Chou-Chou, directed by Shunji Iwai, are great examples of this and two of my favourite films. I actually had a great idea for a kind of surreal film titled the things that may happen to oneself when one tapes their phone to their forehead. I was envisioning a Hardcore Henry type-film, shot in first-person. It would be more like a livestream than a film, simply being a visual experience that both explains and challenges it’s title through a series of interactions with real people, not actors. Steven Spielberg, hit me up.
Anyways, there’s apparently a driving question for this project although that’s like a foreign concept cause we haven’t finished a project since June. The driving question is “Why is Horror such an effective way to reflect society?”
I think horror is great because it’s entertainment but it’s very obvious when it is trying to communicate a message. Horror can even be subtle in it’s messaging. For example, Pearl.
Pearl is a brilliant slasher, about a girls descent into madness due to her responsibilities to her parents fighting against her desire to be free. Beneath the gore and fear, there are elements to consider: her family are german immigrants during WWI, in the midst of the Spanish flu. The film grapples with the destruction of the catholic family structure, the effects of war, and the frustrations of being held responsible to something outside ones control. The climax of the film is the titular characters rage bubbling over and turning into violence. Great film, if you haven’t seen it, and a great film to study for underlying social factors.
If that didn’t answer the driving question then that’s on me, but it’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post and I’m not even sure who’s reading these anymore. I remember back in grade 8 we would do like 6 projects a semester and we wrote a crazy amount of blog posts, but this is the first project we’ve finished since summer break, four months ago, and it just seems like theres not a ton of attention being given to us seniors. I’m not complaining, just saying it like it is.