ALBA DIAZ GRACIE
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Vanished
VANISHED
My role
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For the short film production Vanished my role was of the Producer. I was involved in the creative and the logistical aspects of the film. Vanished was produced by 3 students from The Small School, Hartland. Hugo Landman (Director), Harry Wills (Cinematography) and myself (Producer).
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Locations
Bursdon Moor, Hartland, Devon.
In the pre-production stage I searched for a location which was appropriate for a period drama, this meant that we needed a location that did not have recognisable features from this era. The location used is Burdsdon Moor, Devon.
The scenes shot on Burdson Moor occured over various days. As we were filming in the Winter months we heavily realied on the weather and specially on the light. I arranged the shooting days so we had a cloudy sky, no rain and no sun, therefore I checked the weather forecast for each day of shooting. We wanted big clouds to add to the eerie atmosphere that we wanted to achieve. As we filmed in the Winter months I took an extra coat, scarve and hat for the actors in case they were cold during takes.
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Production still, location Burdsdon Moor. Taken by Alba. Right to left – Reuben, clapper. Hugo, director. Harry, cinematographer. Paul, sound. Eleanor, actress. Roger, actor (in the car).
For continuity purpuses a mark was made for Eleanor to always stand in the same place at the start of her takes.
Kiss Me Deadly, 1955
The opening scene from Kiss Me Deadly was influential in the opening scene of Vanished. The atmosphere is very different, in Kiss Me Deadly it is of tension while in Vanished it is of menance and mistery.
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The order in which the shots of the girl in Vanished are shown are the following; feet, head, teddy bear and then finally we see her from the distance. This was a very concious decision as it builds tension and curiosity.
Another visual reference is the use of contrsting harsh light in the Night of the Demon, 1957 was an element of the mis-en-scene which inspired the way that the scenes of the car in the moors were shot for Vanished.
Night Of The Demon, 1957
Interior location, Loveland farm, Devon.
The interior and the exterior of the houses we used were Jeff and Karina’s house, we chose to use the corridor and the toilet, it was ideal as it matched the exterior we used. The interior was chosen as it was plain and not clearly indicative of a specific time period, it is obviously a contemporary house.
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The toiled used in the final scene needed a lot of cardboard boxes, to give the impression that many more teddy bears were stored in the boxes and therefore to imply that the event that happened again and again. I was in charge of asking local shops for the boxes they did not need, I did this for about two weeks previos to shooting the scene as I wanted to make sure we had enough boxes on the day. As to the teddy bears I asked a few people at the school, parents, students and teachers if they could lend us teddy bears for the film. Fortunatley one teacher (Frances) had a collection of teddy bears and was kind enough to lend them to the us. When it came to the shooting day I was in charge of continuity, making sure the actress (Hermione) had the bear in the same hand for each shot and that her dress and hair were in the same position. I also helped with the lighing, holding the white sheet for colour balance and general housekeeping, like making sure the people in the house knew when we were shooting so they didn’t make noise.
The Matrix, 1999
We used a scene from The Matrix, 1999 as a reference, from it we took the idea that by showing the same object repeatedly it suggested that the event that lead to such objects has ocurred again and again.
A picture of Frances' teddy bear collection in her house.
From these teddy bears a selection was made. We excluded the ones that had odd colours or if they were a panda bear.
Exterior location
Actor Joss Ackland kindly allowed us to use the exterior of his house for the film. When it came to this shooting day I held an umbrella over the camera as it was drizzling that day. I did the clapper board and I also made sure everyone was warm by providing hot drinks, blankets and coats. I also brought snacks for the cast and crew.
Hair, make up and costumes
I was in charge of selecting and buying the hair, makeup and costumes on the very small budget of £70 for the entire film. Most of the budget went on petrol as we needed to get to locations that required a car, the equipment also had to be safely carried.
The character of the ‘girl’ is suppose to be from the 1920’s, therefore the costume and hair had to match this era. The other two characters, the ‘driver’ and the ‘mother’ live in the present, in the 1970’s. It was my job to find appropriate costumes that would fit the 70’s era.
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Eleanor Jones (girl) – The character of the girl died in the 1920’s and therefore her ‘spirit’ wears the clothes which she died in. In the story she is walking back from school when she is ran over by a car, therefore the team decided she should wear a school uniform. I found a long skirt and a small tie in a charity shop, together with a white shirt which I borrowed from a friend. I chose the tie because it had stripes on it and it was remisent of a uniform tie. I asked everyone I knew and searched in the charity shops for shoes from the 1920’s. Sue who worked at the School happened to own a pair and was happy to lend it to us for the duration of the shoot. The character played by Eleanor is meant to be a ghost so I used a white skin pain to make her look paler. I covered her face, neck, hands and legs using a dabbing sponge with water so the paint would spread easy on her skin and to give an even layer. The body paint was bough online.
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This is the type of car that initially the team wanted for the production, which is a model from the 1970's. However as this was difficult to find we used a car from the 1960’s. The model is a 1963 Rover P4 110.
This was not an issue for me as in real life people don’t own everything from just one decade, our houses are full of objects and furniture from different decades and the same happens with cars and other valuable goods.
The type of car that the team initially wanted to use. This is such a photograph found online which I used in my sketchbook.
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The car used in the film was found via The North Devon Sports and Classic Car Club. The owner, Evan Boardman kindly let us use the car for free in exchange for tea and chocolate biscuits.
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The car used in Vanished, model 1963 Rover P4 110. Photos by Alba.
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MUSIC AND EDITING
I also had some imput in selecting the music for Vanished. I did this by searching on different royalty free websites such as Audio Network and selecting a style of music, the process was to listen to as many tracks as I had time to and make a note of any that could be appropriate for the film. I would then share the tracks that I had found with the team and we would all take part in deciding if we wanted to use and more importantly if was the right fit for the style of Vanished.
The track 'Guardian Angel' by Oliver Ledbury was a track that for the start it was very clear that it would be great for the opening sequence. We arranged to meet after school to plan the opening sequence. We listened to it and gave ideas of what shots we thought should correspond to the changes in the song.