The Monkey: Making a Production Company

          For our production company, we went through a lot of names. At first, we though about combining the initials of all parties involved, and came up with several combinations of C, E, and G. For us however, titles like "CGE Productions" and "C, G, and E" weren't clicking with us. We couldn't envision those names in our title sequence stacked up with our name. We knew we could do better.

We went to the internet to research the production studios of famous horror movies. We had to sift through a lot of the major studios (Universal, 20th Century Fox, etc.) to get to the smaller studios that specialized in the horror genre.

          Ones that caught our eye right out of the gate were Twisted Pictures, Atomic Monster Productions, and Full Moon Productions. The names were a little over the top, but nonetheless reflected the types of movies we were about to watch. With this in mind, we settled with Hackhouse Productions. The name was inspired by Blumhouse Productions, the makers of some of our favorite horror movies, including Get Out and the 2018 sequel to the original Halloween. The "Blum" in Blumhouse was derived from creator Jason Blum's last name, so we decided to take the same route. We decided to use Ethan's last name "Hackshaw" and shorten it down to "Hack," partly because it was shorter and catchier, but also because "Hack" is commonly associated with violence, which would perfectly fit our horror aesthetic.

          The next step was making our logo. We researched the fonts used in different 80's horror movies, and found that many were imperfect, hand drawn fonts in red. Speifically inspiring to us was the title card for An American Werewolf in London (1981). To accomplish the hand drawn effect, Ethan and I cutout letters from notebook paper and arranged them on our desk to our liking. We then took a picture of the arrangement and put it in Photoshop to edit the coloring and sizing of some of the letters, and added in a cartoon axe to reflect the "hack" motif. We also added grain to the logo to make it feel more dirty, much like the aesthetic of the movies we were inspired by.

Ethan and I cutting out letters from notebook paper.

The final product of our arts and crafts stage.

The final logo which combined our letter cutouts and Photoshop work.

The Monkey: Location Scouting

For us, the location scouting process was fairly easy since the script was written with Corey's apartment building in mind.

The frontal view of Corey's apartment building.

The apartment complex was constructed in 1987, so its architecture perfectly fit our mise-en-scene. We knew we wanted to film the opening shot of the scene as an exterior to establish a disturbing tone, so we tried to stage it from the jump. We knew the general layout of Corey's room, so we decided on his side window for the opening shot. It provided a shot of our main characters that perfectly established the main components of the scene.

The angle we decided on for the film's opening shot.

Once we were done planning out our outside shots, we went inside to plan out the rest of the shots. Corey's apartment gave us all we needed: a kitchen, a hallway for long tracking shots, and a bedroom that could double as a safe space and a tight, claustrophobic area. While the layout, and most of the furniture and appliances fit our mise-en-scene, there were some modern fixtures, like some kitchen appliances, that we need to account for later on in the filming process.

A aerial sketch we made in Photoshop of Corey's apartment.

The Monkey: Set Construction and Mise-en-scene

Since our film is an homage to late 70's/80's slasher films, we realized early on that we would have to slightly remodel Corey's apartment to fit the setting and add the the intro's mise-en-scene.
To start with, we had to remove a couple things from Corey's room, like his desktop computer and his flatscreen television. We knew we had to have a television in the scene, so we took to Craigslist to find an old tube TV to fit in with the 1980's aesthetic. We were able to purchase one in a city roughly 10 miles away from us for only $20. For our video game console, we used Ethan's Nintendo Entertainment System.
We also made sure to costume ourselves according to 80's fashion trends, so we wore jeans, tucked in our shirts, and wore ratty old shoes.
For the murder scene, blood presented a unique problem. Corey's entire apartment is carpeted (much like most 70's/80's suburban homes) so leaking blood over the floor was not an option for us. To combat this problem, we placed an old carpet on the area of the floor we were filming the scene in. We positioned it to look like it blended in with the room's aesthetic, so as to not remove the viewer from the experience.

The Monkey: Storyboards

For the storyboards, we sketched out rough ideas of what we wanted on paper, and then made our final versions in Photoshop. Neither Ethan or I are artists, so Photoshop allowed us to easily make templates and adjust our work to our liking. When setting up our template, we made a typical, 1920x1080 Photoshop document to emulate the typical 16:9 aspect ratio of most viewing devices. Since our movie is in 4:3 aspect ratio, we created a blank, 4 by 3 inch white work space in the middle of the original document to lay out our shots. 

The first shot aims to establish the presence of an unknown figure. The camera slowly and shakily zooms in on our main characters as heavy breathing and a dark, one-note synth compliment the visuals. We were very inspired by John Carpenter's Halloween for this first shot.

The second shot shows our main characters playing a video game in a warmly lit room. The video game (Nintendo Entertainment System), set design, and costuming aims to establish the 80's mise-en-scene we were going for with the film to pay homage to the slasher genre so popular at the time. The decision to make it a scene of teenagers engaging with media was heavily inspired by the opening scene of The Ring (2002), since it helps our target audience better sympathize with our main characters.

The next shot aims to build off the mise-en-scene of the last shot, showing both the old, tube TV and the vintage gaming console. The handshakes that the characters say goodbye with will also match the mid-80's time period. Also, the leaving of the friend's signals a change in tone, as things go from warm, relate-able, and cozy, to cold, lonely, and uncomfortable. To accent this change in tone, Corey will turn off the lamp giving the room it's warm lighting, and will enter the harsh, fluorescent lighting of his hallway and kitchen.

This shot is meant to establish the layout of Corey's house as well as the presence of the killer in Corey's house. Once Corey leaves the frame, a face pokes out of the closet door at the end of the hallway.

This one is pretty self explanatory. Corey cuts chicken on his counter, and feeds it to his dog Snowy in the next frame.

We made the decision to keep the dog out of frame for two reasons. Firstly, the location we were filming in didn't allow animals, so we were forced to make all aspects with Snowy auditory. Secondly, we didn't want the focus of the scene's tragedy to be the death of Snowy, but instead the death of Corey. Corey is portrayed as an upstanding individual, avoiding the smack-talk between his friends and caring lovingly for his dog. Showing the dog might have distracted the audience from who we wanted the true emotional center of the scene to be.

This shot mimics the shot from earlier of Corey walking down the hallway. However, unlike earlier when Corey seemed nonchalant walking down the hallway, he is know shaky and unsure of what he will find behind the closet door. We wanted to highlight this change in emotion with the parallelism of the shot. The shot stays the same, but Corey's behavior changes.

For this shot, we were inspired by a shot from Hereditary (2018) shown below, where Toni Colette's character, Annie, reacts to the death of her husband. We really wanted to highlight the horror Corey feels, so we wanted to focus on his face instead of Snowy's dead body.

Annie (Toni Colette) reacts to the burning of her husband in Hereditary (2018). 

Much like the hallway shot, we wanted to utilize repetition/parallelism to demonstrate the change of tone from the beginning to the end of the scene. The same shot was used earlier to make the audience feel warm and nostalgic, but is now being used to show panic and fear.  

For this shot, we were once again inspired by John Carpenter's Halloween. In the shot shown below, we are initially focused on Laurie Strode's cries of relief in the foreground. But since there are two-thirds of dead space in the frame, we are forced to question what the director is trying to show. This creates tension and build-up leading up to Michael Myer's iconic sit-up. In our scene, we wanted to emulate this shot by focusing on Corey initially, but leaving the open closet door in the background to create tension. The focus then changes to the background to reveal the presence of the killer.

Laurie Strode rests in her doorway after supposedly killing Michael Myers. The dead space in the rightmost two-thirds of the shot creates tension, leading up to the reveal that Michael Myers is still alive.

The Monkey: Shot List

Establishing Shot: The film opens with an establishing shot of an apartment building at night which holds for a few seconds and at the the center of the shot is a window that is dimly lit. The shot will be filmed with a drone to achieve the desired height.


Medium Shot: The characters share playful dialogue meant to show their chemistry and portray that they are friends and close confidants.


Medium Shot: A shot of the television screen is shown to help us follow the video game that the friends are playing.


Medium Shot: The scene cuts back to the same medium shot of the characters reacting to the video game.


Mid Shot: The scene cuts to our main character Corey saying goodbye to his friends as they leave his apartment.


Tracking Shot: The camera follows behind our main character as he goes around doing menial tasks mixed with the horror ambiance.


Close-Up: Close-up shot to show expression of suspicion and confusion.


Wide Shot: A hallway is then transitioned to, showing an eerily lit walk way meant to create tension within the viewers. Our main character Corey walks out of frame into the kitchen and behind him you see a white mask peering out of the closet watching him.


Mid/Wide Shot: Corey is seen taking chicken out of the fridge and preparing it on the counter.


Over the Shoulder Shot: A quick growl and whimper is heard from the dog as the camera stays over Corey's shoulder as he looks on straight into this dark hallway


Tracking Shot: The camera follows Corey as he investigates the dog's cry coming from the dark hallway


Close Up Shot: A close up on Corey's face as he inches towards the door as the music builds up along with the tension


Low Angle Shot: After the closet door is opened a low angle shot within the closets perspective shows Corey's reaction to what he finds, horrified Corey runs away


Medium Shot: Corey horrified and stumbling about, runs to a landline to phone the police only to be met by a dead silence as the phone lines have been cut


Low-Mid Shot: Corey falls down to the floor crying. He sits in a fetal position with his back against the bed.

The Monkey: Script

To write the script, we used CeltX, a website that gives you script templates and options to create different actions within your scripts (i.e. actions, transition shots, etc,). In terms of dialogue, we tried to make everything sound natural, like how we interact with each other in real life, but we cut out modern slang to adds to the period piece mise-en-scene of the film. We made sure to include crucial changes of setting within the scene and important cuts so that readers could visualize the story.

The Monkey: Opening Layout

The film opens with a black screen and heavy, male breathing. The black screen cuts to a shaky drone shot of an apartment building, leveled with a second floor window with warm lighting emanating from within. The breathing from the black screen intro continues and is complimented by a droning, one note synth lead. This coupled with the shaky camera movement is meant to convey the sense of an unknown presence. As the camera zooms in on the window, we can see three friends playing video games together, and we can hear the muffled sounds of banter through the window. This is meant to create a sense of warmth and familiarity that contrasts the unsettling unknown presence, and makes the audience feel as though the characters are being watched.

The scene then cuts into the room. We can no longer hear the heavy breathing, instead our characters and the video game they are playing. Their banter is playful and natural, and is meant to help make the audience relate to them. After the round of the game is over, two friends say their goodbyes and leave. Corey is left alone, and he turns off the lamp in his room, eliminating the scene's warm lighting. This is meant to strip the audience of any comfort they once felt.

The heavy breathing returns, indicating that the presence is inside Corey's home. The camera cuts to show to a hallway. The set from the point forward is fluorescently lit to make the audience feel a sense of unease and to create and oppressive, unnatural environment. Corey leaves his room and we can see him walk down the hallway and turn into the kitchen. The camera lingers in its position, and with the absence of Corey in the frame we are able to see a masked white face peering out of the closet. 

Corey begins to cut up some chicken on the kitchen counter, and we hear the footsteps of a dog coming towards Corey. Lovingly, Corey chops off a piece of chicken and feeds it to the dog. Corey continues chopping the chicken and the dog can be heard running down the hallway to eat the piece of chicken. The running sound stops and the dog begins to bark. Shortly after, we hear a crunching sound and a whimper. Corey looks back into the hallway to investigate and he sees the closet door slightly ajar. As he approaches the closet, ominous synth music begins to play, ala Halloween (1978). 

Corey opens the closet door and the camera cuts to a low angle shot from within the closet of his reaction. Corey, horrified, stumbles into his room and picks up his landline phone to call the police. Immediately after he picks up the phone, a droning phone sound effect comes into the mix, letting us know that the phone line is either down or has been cut. 

In a panic, Corey falls to the floor in tears. The camera cuts to a mid shot of him on the floor crying in a fetal position. The music cuts out and all we can hear is Corey’s wimpers. The camera then switches focus to Corey’s bedroom closet. After a couple seconds, the masked white face becomes visible. Suddenly, it begins aggressively advancing towards Corey with loud heavy footsteps. A kitchen knife is visible in his hand. Corey looks up and lets out a scream which is cut off by the slashing of his throat. The camera remains in its position as Corey bleeds out on the floor. We can only see the murderer’s legs as he stands above Corey’s body for a couple seconds. He then begins walking away with the same aggressive cadence as before. We hear the apartment door open and slam shut.

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