My inspiration for this short film are movies such as Zoe gone, Girl in the bunker, Room, The Girl who escaped, Believe me, and Level 16.

"A genre may also change by mixing its conventions with those of another genre." (p.336)

I wanted to make a story with the dark theme of kidnapping that's starts with the lighter theme of meeting someone new and making a new friend. I wanted to highlight this contrast through editing.

"The filmmaker may control story chronology through the editing" (p.226)

Bordwell, D., Thompson, K., & Smith, J. (2020). Film art : an introduction. (Twelfth edition.). McGraw-Hill Education.

initial idea: close your eyes. A girl gets accepted to a year abroad program and wants to enjoy her last few days in her hometown. She then meets a guy who she believes is nice. “Hi” “hi” they spend some time together and grow to like each other. Maybe in a car “This was nice”  “what do you mean” “I’m leaving soon” “...then don’t” “I have a surprise for you. Close your eyes” a blindfold covers her eyes (the camera) the screen goes black. Door lock sound. The blind fold gets taken off the camera (her eyes) she is locked in a dark room by herself. He has kidnapped her. Next shot is her seeing pictures of her on a table.

why

inspiration: Zoe gone, Girl in the bunker, Room, The Girl who escaped, Believe me, Good boy

•Locations— park, house(Megan’s House)(two rooms, maybe three (living room, and room(s) Mara stays in))

•Props— blindfold, pictures of other people(will ask people), matches, something to tie the hands– supplied by me

•other— voice recording studio for voice over

•Genre action mystery Thriller horror Audience/15+
Logline Mara has received an acceptance letter to study abroad and wants to spend her last few days stress free before the chaos of moving to another country. She then meets Dahlia who wants to change those plans.
Synopsis Mara (19) has just been accepted into a year abroad program to Italy and wants to have a few calm days before going through the trouble of preparing to leave the country for a year. On the last day before she goes to Italy, she ends up going to the park, her favourite place to relax, where she meets Dahlia (20) a charming kind faced girl who shows her affection, they decide to spend the rest of her last day together. When it’s time to part ways Dahlia doesn’t want Mara to leave. She tells her to close her eyes as she has a surprise for her in her car. Flash forward to 1 month later Mara is locked in a room with her arms tied behind her back and blind folded. Dahlia has kidnapped her. The story follows Mara as she tries to escape. The story progresses as we find out Mara was not the only victim of Dahlia.

Today I filmed scenes 1 (interview) and 4 (house). I arrived at the location at 10:00am with my crew to set up the equipment and take test shots before the actors arrived. The actors arrived at 11:00am and I had them rehearse the scenes before we began shooting at 11:30. Directing the actors went well and something I enjoyed was answering the questions the actors had about the context of certain parts of the script to have a better understanding of the characters. We finished shooting at 15:35pm and I was able to look back at everything we filmed and reshoot what I thought could be improved.

DAY 2 - 29/11/2024

Today I filmed scenes 2 and 3 at the park location. At 12:30am I arrived with my crew to set the equipment up. At 12:45 the actors arrived and I walked them through the areas we will be filming at using my location lookbook. I believe it went well and the directing experience was a bit different from filming day 1 as it was outside so there were more interruptions and the scene was more light-hearted.

The trailer is a long more slow paced in depth look into the overall story. This style of trailer would be the main trailer because of the length.

Close Your Eyes– Filming Opportunity

Hi, I’m Abigeal and I’m looking for two actors for my short film Close Your Eyes.

 I’m looking to cast 1 female and 1 male actors.

The genre is Action Mystery Thriller Horror

The story follows Mara (19) who has received an acceptance letter to study abroad and wants to spend her last few days stress free before the chaos of moving to another country. She then meets Damien (20) who kidnaps her.

Shooting should start from in-between 18th November - 30th November, depending on schedules.

Email a.lawrence5@edu.salford.ac.uk if you are interested