Once again, I find myself back in the Compass program here at Danville High School. I, Cooper Anderson, am a Senior here. Making this my final year of Compass. I of course thought that I would most likely work on yet another film project. The majority of my previous projects of varying success levels were film related, so why shouldn’t this one be too? I got to thinking, what should my project be? At first I thought about continuing the more comedic horror series I only got to make a very rushed pilot for last year before it was shut down by COVID-19 restrictions. But then I thought, since this is my last year, why not reach back to my first project in Sophomore year? Some may recall the unnerving ragged puppets, or the sketches of twisted clowns, or the (poorly made) burnt hand. In the tenth grade I had been working on the first season of a horror show titled Foreboding. The premise was an online show which would tell a different horror story every season. The first season was named “Snuffles” after the antagonist in clown attire. Overall I still enjoy the plot concept I had come up with, and even the characters. That being said, it was obvious in my writing that I was younger and a less experienced writer and filmmaker. So I thought that it could be fun to reach back and revive the long dead project to remake it with an older more experienced mind. As I feel the concept deserves another shot at existing, another shot at frightening viewers. The first thing I did was I went back and looked through all of my older documents. Scripts, planning documents, and I reminded myself of the plot. I pinpointed plot holes, characters and scenes that could be cut, new characters and scenes that could replace the old ones, and even brought back some scrapped concepts that never made it into the older version of the story. I then began to write the new draft of the script, and right away it became apparent that the dialogue is far more intelligently written. As I write more and more, I realize the story is overall much more disturbing than it had been. The graphic scenes and displays of violence being far less watered down, the antagonist is a little more stalker-esque and less comedic, and the protagonist has more depth to his character. Next I drew new character designs for some additional puppets for the show. Some may remember Benson the blue monster and Farmer Mike. While some of the newer puppets are still less prominent in the show as Mike or especially Benson, their designs are still creepily uncanny. I also have fixed up the older puppets since by now they had been sitting around rarely used or even touched for years. So of course from sitting in storage, and age, they were kind of beat up and in need of some repairs. Overall I feel pre production has been rather successful so far. I will soon begin to cast. Of course, some of the original actors wanted to return while others did not. Foreboding will begin filming next semester when the snow starts to melt, and release onto YouTube around the end of the school year.
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AuthorDanville School Students! Archives
December 2023
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