Hey everybody, I'm in the process of putting together a short fantasy film with my friends. Its going to be extremely low budget, but I've got high hopes and would love any advice and feedback you care to provide. I should say that I'm in England to, as this will obviously effect locations and culture.
The plan is to make a 20 minute film over about 6 months, with minor use of special effects and horror/fantasy plot that draws inspiration from The Dresden Files and to a lesser extent Buffy. If we can get this to a point where I am satisfied with it I'll put it up on youtube and begin trying to attract a small amount of funding for more episodes on Kickstarter, I don't want to make any money, but would like to be able to finance some location trips and special effects.
I've just completed a basic outline, lined up a group of friends who are willing to act and purchased a semi decent digital camcorder at the moment so we are in the very early stages.
The Outline
Scene 1:
Young landscaper digging a pond for an little old lady, under the supervision of her little toy dog hits some sort of ancient vessel (a chest, or an urn, something of that ilk). Colored smoke leaks from a crack in the vessel and enters the man and the dog. The man manages to shake off the influence - considering showing against black background and representing him warding it off in his mind somehow - and does not notice the dogs eyes glowing briefly red as it is possessed. He tells the little old lady he is not feeling well and he'll be back tomorrow.
Scene 2:
In his living room, dark outside, he sits watching Catchphrase - a U.K gameshow - and tries to jokingly use the force to get his can of beer, it works and the can slides across the coffee table to him. We are introduced to his girlfriend, and he tells her he is going out for a run. In the window we see the little dog with its glowing eyes for a moment.
Scene 3:
He goes running down an old railway track - long disused and more like a wide path where people walk dogs, etc. We see a number of mostly small dogs move onto the old railway track behind him, their eyes glow. He runs up to an old railway tunnel and into the dripping darkness inside, then he begins to hear growls and howls and sees glowing eyes racing towards him. He rushes forward and uses "the force" on the lead dog as it runs through a shaft of moonlight in the middle of the tunnel - there is a chimney thing - buying himself enough time barely to reach the other end and slam the metal gate their shut. Dogs growl against the gate, glowing eyes he legs it.
Scene 4:
His girlfriend leaves the house and the old ladies dog emerges from the shadows and approaches he, she greets it and goes to pet it and gets possessed.
Scene 5:
He enters the house and she attacks him with a knife, they struggle for a moment with her possessing unnatural strength and lifting him up by the throat. He uses his new powers to grab a book from the bookshelf and hurl it at her. The Children's New Testment hits her in the head and sizzles colored smoke leaves her mouth and she collapses.
Scene 6:
In a cheap rather grotty office several unusual looking people sit at desk while in their midst another man stands before a circle of salt. He summons a fairy, and he asks her if there have been any magical incidents in the Midlands - he seems very blaize about this as if its something he does every night. She tells him that the Demon - insert demonic name here - has been freed two new Wizards have been born, then produces a mirror which shows our hero and his girlfriend in it. We see the office sign which reads L.A.M.P, League of Allied Magical Practitioners.
To be continued.
We would continue by having the characters introduced to the L.A.M.P, and being assigned as Wardens - is there a better term, bit too close to Dresden, perhaps something that plays of L.A.M.P?
I'll be using a Canon T2i to film. I'll need to figure out how to create glowing eyes. "Force" effects ought to be relatively simple to execute with careful camera work. Hopefully the dogs will be relatively simple, since I can just use glowing eyes in the darkness and sounds effects for the chase, otherwise they are just moving onto the track, sitting still, and coming up to the girlfriend with a wagging tail.
The two main parts are cast and have some acting experience, I plan to keep shooting until we get something that looks good.
If we do manage to attract a bit of funding on Kickstarter for a second episode I would like to create some more special effects for the wizards powers. I don't want everyone using the force. The idea would be that every wizard can use raw magical power, for rituals, low level telekinesis, etc., but they each have a specialty like fire, telepathy, divining, etc. I'd prefer to use real special effects where possible, as opposed to CGI since I think it generally looks a deal less cheesy when done cheaply. Give me Labyrinth over Primeval anyday.