Video production class weblog--day four--disappearing act

1) Out of a class of ten students, one disappeared last week due to a sudden case of appendicitis, and then today two more guys vanished today due to some mysterious, regrettable incident that I'm not at liberty to talk about (it did involve some activity they were engaged in at midnight last night). Suddenly, one of the two groups had shrunk to 3 students--not really enough for a cast and crew, so we decided to have both groups merge together.

2) So now this video production class seems a bit doomed, but the remaining 7 students regrouped quickly and came up with a whole new movie idea:

a) Sitting, bored, during physics class, a young man notices a photograph blowing around on the parking lot outside the window. After class, he takes the photo which depicts a pretty woman smiling and holding two fingers in the air. He keeps it, and later that night he hears a tapping on the window by his bed, and for some odd reason he wonders if it is her. Then, the next night, he again hears the tapping, this time coupled with the sound of light female laughter. Gradually, he becomes obsessed with the girl in the photo, and sometimes he thinks he sees her in the distance amongst crowds during school, but she always vanishes when he tries to follow her. His friend grows concerned about him as he gets more obsessed, but he ignores her. He starts to ignore everyone, his studies, hobbies, sports, etc., in his growing monomania. Finally, one night, he hears the tapping on the window, and then the sound of the laughter out in the hallway. He sleepily follows the laughter outside to the front of the yard, and then on to the road. A large truck runs him over, killing him instantly. The driver of the truck gets out and examines his body, but then notices a photo on the road. He picks up the photo, and sees a young woman smiling and holding up three fingers of one hand.

3) The student who came up with this narrative said that he found it somewhere on the internet. Perhaps it is an urban legend? At any rate, that's the last big film project we will work on. The students will write up a treatment tonight, and we will revise, story-board, and perhaps start shooting it tomorrow. They will also work on another action scene for fun--perhaps a shoot-out using prop guns and fire crackers, aside from editing the zombie and promotional videos. We will see if all 7 students appear at 8:30 tomorrow morning.

Comments

Ted Fisher said…
Very fun story, and one that happens in production classes a lot.

Maybe you could re-adapt the scenario to where the woman in the photograph is knocking off the members of a film crew one by one.

Although I guess that's the plot to "Urban Legend: Final Cut," so maybe not....

Great post.

tf
Univarn said…
Hmmm your class may be giving all knew meaning to "surviving the semester" :P.

The plot actually sounds like it'll be pretty awesome.
Richard Bellamy said…
The story sounds great - pretty easy to film - though what about this truck? How will you do that? Too bad about the disappearing midnight guys. The year before last I lost my most talent filmmaker due to some indiscretion. Now he's happy and feeling fulfilled at a film school in L.A.. Anyway, hope you don't lose any more students.
Jason Bellamy said…
Suddenly, one of the two groups had shrunk to 3 students...

I'd like to see James Cameron figure that one out!

Keep grinding. Loving the weblogs!
Thanks, Ted. We were thinking of a story involving people disappearing, as in some Agatha Christie whodunit.

Thanks, Univarn, Hokahey, and Jason.

We might use one of the professor's trucks, but we still haven't figured out what house to use for that last scene.