2. Initial Responses and Idea Generation
Log your initial thoughts
regarding the set brief in this
document
What stories could you use?
How do you feel about the
different potential formats?
What are the positives about
this project? What could be
some difficult aspects? Etc
Use the format on this
document to guide this
response – some are set as a
question on one slide, but you
should look to add further
slides as necessary
3. Which stories have you
researched and looked at as
potential starting points?
In the slides following I have put all my potential stories I
may use for my final product
4. Fresh Phantoms
• York has a high incident rate of modern
ghosts reported. Amongst them are the
smart-casual man in modern beige
clothing has been reported in Bootham
Bar, and the Blacksmith’s Arms at
Huntington boasts two.
• It has a man in an orange T-shirt who
leaves through a door even if it is shut and
locked, and a “handsome and friendly
man” with long dark curly hair and blue
overalls, who sits smiling at people.
• I have also gone to chase a member of the
public out of Haunted who was in after
hours, they turned a bend in the stairs and
vanished – they were wearing jeans and
trainers.
5. Stonegate
• A six-year-old Victorian girl who fell to her
death on the staircase was said to have
haunted this building during the twentieth
century.
• One story says the ghost is a doctor's
daughter and dates to when the building
was a private residence. During one of the
doctor's dinner parties, the curious girl
emerged from her top floor bedroom and
tried to peer over the banister to see who
was in attendance when she lost her
balance and fell.
• The girl could be heard ascending the
staircase and was seen sitting upon a shop
counter when a tearoom operated on the
site.
6. College Street
• During one of the outbreaks of plague in the city, a
married couple contracted the disease and died, but
their only child, a young daughter, remained uninfected.
• The little girl shouted to passers-by for help, but no one
would believe that she was clear of the disease.
• Their doorway was bricked up to prevent the plague
from spreading, with the young girl and her dead parents
still inside.
• It’s said that the girl's crying could be heard for days,
until the house fell silent. The girl had eventually starved
to death.
• Now people have reported seeing the child looking from
the window, and the cries of a young girl heard emerging
from the building, even though it is empty.
7. Bloody Mary
• Perhaps the most famous modern myth, this tale suggests
that if you are to look in the mirror and say "Bloody Mary" a
specified number of times, something will happen. It's the
what that legend disagrees on. In the earliest versions, an
unmarried woman would see the face of her future husband
in the glass or a skull if she were destined to die before being
wed.
• This evolved into something more gory – groups invoking a
bleeding spirit or witch called Mary. Some links have also
been made to Queen Mary I as she suffered multiple
miscarriages during her reign.
• The story has been hugely influential. Mirrors and reflections,
a regular fixture in uncanny literature play parts in Clive
Barker's The Forbidden, which went on to be the film
Candyman, while Ringu, by Koji Suzuki, substitutes a mirror
for a television set. The X Files and Supernatural directly
tackled the Mary myth on screen.
• This year sees not one but two novels retelling versions of
the legend: my own Say Her Name and an American version,
The Summoning.
8. Slenderman
• On May 31, 2014, two 12-year-old girls in Waukesha, Wisconsin
held down and stabbed a 12-year-old classmate 19 times. When
questioned later by authorities, they reportedly claimed that they
wished to commit a murder as a first step to becoming proxies for
the Slender Man, having read about it online. They also stated
that they were afraid that Slender Man would kill their families if
they did not commit the murder. After the perpetrators left the
scene, the victim crawled out of the woods to a roadway. A
passing cyclist alerted authorities, and the victim survived the
attack. Both attackers have been diagnosed with mental illnesses
but have also been charged as adults and are each facing up to 65
years in prison. One of the girls reportedly said Slender Man
watches her, can read minds, and could teleport.
• A truly modern, modern myth, Slender Man started online as
part of a competition to Photoshop pictures to include a
supernatural element. User 'Victor Surge' added a suited,
faceless, unnaturally tall figure into two black and white
photos which were copied and distributed virally over the
net.
• Since then, millions of authors, mostly online, have shared
and spread the story on websites such as Creepy Pasta .
The Slender Man's MO is to abduct people, often children
who seem to willingly go with the figure never to be seen
again, making him a terrifying version of the Pied Piper.
• New urban legends will almost certainly have some sort of
viral online element. Jeff the Killer is a similar, facially
disfigured internet meme.
9. Loch-Ness Monster
• Freshwater, has its own monsters and one
is the most well-known of all: ‘Nessie’, the
Loch Ness Monster. Loch Ness holds as
much freshwater as all the lakes of
England and Wales combined, but the peat
of the surrounding countryside makes it as
notoriously murky as the legends that
surround its most famous character (and
most of the photographs taken of it).
Modern Scottish lake monsters are often
described as a dinosaur-like, but before
the discovery of dinosaurs, almost every
large body of water in Scotland had a
kelpie which, like the Orcadian Nuckalavee,
had a horse-like form. Kelpies may well
have been part of a cautionary tale
tradition to keep children away from rivers
in case ‘the kelpie got them’.
10. The licked hand
• In this popular tale, a scared girl (or
sometimes an old woman) listens to an
ominous dripping coming from within her
home. She is reassured by the presence of
her faithful dog who licks her hand from
under the bed. Eventually, she investigates
the noise only to find her dog slaughtered
and a message written in blood – "humans
can lick hands too".
• This story was actually taken from a much
earlier MR James story called 'The Diary of
Mr Poynter' in which a character
experiences a similar fate.
11. Freaky food
• Recently, outraged internet people were taken in
by claims that popular fast food outlet KFC were
breeding genetically mutated chickens for their
burgers. While the "shock pictures" were quickly
revealed to be fakes, more than one of my
Facebook friends were taken in.
• Foodstuffs often fall victim to urban myths – are
MacDonald's burgers really made from
earthworms? Will mixing popping candy and fizzy
pop make you explode? Don't forget the perennial
"dog meat takeaway" rumour.
• Food is at the centre of our lives so it's no surprise
it's at the heart of our fiction. The Hunger Games
presents kids willing to kill for a lifetime of food
while Soylent Green (based on the 1966 novel
Make Room, Make Room) goes one further and
suggests we'll soon be eating people, much like in
Matt Whyman's The Savages.
12. Which research into existing products has been the
most useful? Includes examples and explanations
• The research I've had is into the narration aspect and how the tone of your voice can
change the whole story. Strong characterization, vivid use of detail, and the creation of an
emotional, conflict-driven tone can all ensure the success of narration within the listener
13. Which production format [drama, narration, etc] do you
feel fits your idea best and why?
I feel like I would need voice actors for this piece and that they would have to do a pretty
good job at conveying fear in their voices for this.
14. Which story have you settled on and why?
• My own indent into ‘The original Slenderman Story’ where you're already walking through
the woods and you know that Slenderman is after and you have started to collect the
pages but a cassette player catches your eye and you decide to listen to it
15. If you had to sell your story quickly, what is the title and
the logline?
• In a world where you have to collect pages to the leave the woods because a 7ft man with
no face is after you and somehow you find a cassette player near a rotting tree and you
decide to listen
16. What ideas have you had for sound effects, narration
and storytelling?
I have an idea that my story is based in the lore of Slenderman, kind of like an indent in the
video game( an easter egg kind of?) and I'm thinking I would add a cassette tape sound and
which makes the entirety of the tape sound old and scratchy and then at the end of the tape
you would hear the Slenderman sound once again
17. Initial feelings…how do you feel about the project
currently?
• I'm feeling pretty good and I have an idea in mind for my end product and how I'm going
to make it all come together
• My idea is that you're already walking through the woods and you know that Slenderman
is after you but you find a broken tv with a cassette player next to it so it incites you and
you want to listen to it. The cassette is scratchy at first and gets more scratchy during the
duration of the whole of the tape and there's a voice that says how they’ve been trapped
in the woods and there's a man after them and they're scared and if anyone finds this
tape they need to leave the woods asap and at the end you hear the kill sound of
Slenderman and the tape ends.
18. What other research do you think you need to do?
• I think ill need to watch a few playthroughs and fact files about the lore of Slenderman
and try to make it as close as possible to the storyline of the already set storyline of
Slenderman
• I will also have to do some research on how to use adobe audition so I know in advance
how to use it
• Id have to look up some sound effects and how to put sound effects together
• I would have to look up some voice actors I could have in it. Or use myself
Notes de l'éditeur
Think about creative and technical elements, it could be you like the idea of evoking a sense of place or you have the perfect person in mind as a narrator? Or are you keen to start writing a story and take it from there? Ideas and development are personal, try and get across where your idea is and what has got you to that point.
Add as many slides as needed from the work you did on Urban Legends, York Ghost stories and other inspirations you have considered. Which story have you gravitated toward and why?
Think about why this idea rather than any other…is it because it has the best scope for sfx, narration, etc. Reasons can be personal, but you need explain them.
A logline is a one sentence description or summary of the audio story. Loglines distill the important elements of your script/story—main character, setup, central conflict, antagonist—into a clear, concise teaser. The goal is to write a logline so enticing that it hooks the listener into your idea
Think about creative and technical elements here, it could be you like the idea of evoking a sense of place or you have the perfect person in mind as a narrator? Or are you keen to start writing a story and take it from there? Ideas and development are personal, try and get across where your idea is and what has got you to that point.
Consider pros and cons here, what are you excited about, what is a worry…
This could be audio recording, post-production, getting cast/narrator, etc…it might be just organising your idea into a workable project…