The Makings of Evil
For my EPQ I gave myself the title of 'Cinematography: Create a short film about the complexities of being evil'. After questionnaires, research and an interview with a psychotherapist, I put together my film 'The Makings of Evil'.
"May is a troubled girl who keeps to herself. As she talks to her therapist, we learn about her relationship with Steph (a girl from school). As we take a deep dive into May's mind and life, we discover why she is who she is and why she has ended up here."
In this project I have done the filming, hair/makeup, costuming, props, location, editing, direction, admin/scheduling and writing.
In brainstorming ideas of a storyline, my love of Hitchcock films influenced the genre as a psychological horror. I wanted the film to be very character central (like Joker), with a small cast, which would enable me to explore the psyche of the person more as well as supporting the production to be COVID safe. I took elements from Falling Down (how it could only take one bad day for someone to snap) and the real psychological bases of the book ‘From Pain to Violence’ (how a person’s personal history and childhood can influence their decisions as they get older).
Cast
Amelie Peters
Eloise Mair
Adrienne Swan
I started by logging random ideas that were coming to me during the day. After looking at what I had written for this, I used influences from my research to devise a structure for the story. Since the story was virtually a character analysis of the main character, I used the development of the story as the development of the character too.
I created two versions of the script, one for the actors (so they could learn lines) and one for me (so I knew where each scene would be). I did it this way because most of the scenes were split up and dispersed through different parts of the film and it would be hard for the actors to learn their lines like this and immerse themselves properly into the scenes. Once I had finished writing and gone back multiple times to edit, I sent the scripts out to the actors.
Crew
Joel Overton
Score
Hilary Bexfield
Sound
Mary Moss
Sound
Characters
Name: May
Age: 16
Character Description:
On the outside she looks calm and collected, she is good at concealing emotion, but she can break under the right circumstances. She is aggressive and vulnerable at the same time. She is hateful of the world and all who live in it because of her experiences but she puts up with it. She envies Stephanie and thinks that she doesn’t appreciate what she has. In some way, she wants to be Stephanie, but she would never admit to that. Because of her mother’s abuse, she has been mentally damaged from childhood. She struggles to make meaningful attachments, and, in her mind, she is alone. She generally doesn’t like or trust other people, but deeply wants someone to care for her.
History:
May never had a father and her mother neglected her from a young age. Her mother blamed her for her dad leaving as he left when he found out she was pregnant. She never bonded with May and often had bouts of violence against her. After her mother attempted suicide and May called the ambulance, May got blamed for more things in her mothers life. When she joined secondary school, Stephanie tried to befriend her. She put up with her presence because they live near each other and walk the same way home. May doesn’t actually know a lot about Stephanie, she just seems to talk a lot.
Name: Stephanie
Age: 16
Character Description: A well-meaning girl, she is almost the opposite of May. She believes May to be a friend, although she herself might think differently. Unaware of May’s situation, she makes conversation by talking about her family. She talks about and complains about things, in an attempt to be relatable, and to the average teenager, she would be. She doesn’t mean to be petty, but she comes off as it to May. Stephanie has a friendly face and is a bit naïve.
I wanted the names of the characters to represent or mean something, especially the main character. After looking into hidden meanings behind certain names, I came across Mae/May which means bitter or pearl. I liked the definition as the two definitions were sort of contradictory. This showed how she was not good or bad. I wanted to create a complex character who could not be fully blamed for their actions. From the outside, she would be perceived as ‘evil’, but she actually lives in a grey area of being a victim of her environment.
For the secondary character, I wanted to create a contrast, so I looked at names with cheerful meanings and which exude bright, happy emotions. I also wanted a name that could be abbreviated well, because I wanted to prove a point that May doesn’t use the shortened version of the name. This would show her lack of attachment to the secondary character. I chose the name Stephanie (Steph), meaning crown.
The next stage was storyboarding all the shots needed, sorting out locations to film at, and costumes. I used google-maps, street view to sort locations (since we were still in a lockdown). After filming begun, some of the locations changed due to safety and convenience.
After confirming which days everybody could do, I created a shoot schedule with what we would film on what days (checking that I had written down all the shots I had drawn up previously), what props and costumes were needed, and which characters were being filmed. Then, I produced a call sheet for every member of the cast and crew. I made sure to add ‘pick-up days’ in case we needed to reschedule things for the weather, or we didn’t get all the shots we needed in a day.
While I was editing, I decided that I wanted to make the ending more chaotic by using audio clips of some of May’s lines to voiceover the montage of Steph’s death. I chose some of her most powerful lines and extracted the audio from them, before cutting them together with the ‘no, I didn’t kill her’ lines that are repeated. From the beginning I knew I wanted a powerful ending, so after this loud, abrasive, assault of noise, it becomes very quiet as May breaks the 4th wall and looks at the camera and says her final line.
This line, ‘she deserved it’, was created off something the psychotherapist said in our interview, about how people who don’t show remorse in court are seen as ‘evil’, compared to those who cry and repent. Since the whole film is like an origin story, this part shows May becoming the villain. Hopefully the audience understand her complexities, but this final line will push the idea of her being seen as ‘evil’ to them. I want to leave the audience shocked, scared, and most of all I want them to understand how someone is more than just a ‘bad person’.
DVD
During the time filming, I had made sure that we had done a small photoshoot of the characters, for the credits, poster and DVD cover of the film. I selected my favourite images when I was putting the finishing touches of the film (credits and titles). When everything was complete, I downloaded my work as an MP4 video so it could be viewed as well as burning DVD copies for the cast and crew (which included the main film and the blooper reel) as a memento.
DVD cover includes: Credits, synopsis, age restriction, laurels from the film festival it was in, language options and a short bio on each member of the cast/crew.