.

1. Costume and locations
From the start I had many location and costume ideas.
Costume – I had a think about mental institution films and programs I had watched before,
the first idea that came into my head was the costumes in ‘American Horror Story’.
A white gown that seems to strap the patient down, I thought that this would be an amazing
idea because it would really show off that the character is mentally disabled to an extreme
extent. This is quite scary to think off, that they have to be tied up. However, the problem
came that the only ones that I could find online came to a very expensive price that was
over my groups budget to get it.
So in the end we settles for black ripped jeans, as if id been running in a woods and have
fallen about a couple of times. The colour black would create an impression that I was
maybe evil and not safe to be around. I’d also wear a white baggy jumper to show the point
that I am actually very vulnerable still because I am alone all the time and mentally unstable.
The white and black contrast shows a split personality of a mentally disabled person.

2. Location – The location ideas that I had were to look at horror films and TV programs and
see there they were set. Again I used American horror story, to look at their locations. The
locations found in the TV program were a mental institution surrounded by a forest.
We then decided that we would use woods in Shirley to create a spooky effect to the
opening sequence.
As a performing arts student I came up with the idea that we could use the dance studio for
the mental institution, because the flooring is black and there mirrors can be covered with
black curtain or used to create a double effect (showing a split personality again). The studio
then has a lighting box so we can have red lighting to show danger or a white lighting that’s
dim to create low-key lighting effects. The only problem with this would be that often the
dance studio has many lessons and other students practising so we would have to carefully
book the space and be aware that we may not be able to have it at the last moment.
Then I remembered that there is actually a mental hospital near where our school is so I
could go and visit it to get the iconography of a mental hospital to set the establishing shot.