Character Profiles

Oscar- a 12 year old boy. He goes down to the river to skim stones with his older sister Martha. He lives in the area surrounding the rain forest the group are in. He loves exploring the local wildlife which is the only reason they go down to the creek in the first place. For this reason he is dressed in casual summer clothing, shorts, a t-shirt and trainers due to the terrain and climate.

Martha- a 15 year old girl. Follows Oscar down to the creek to skim stones with him. She lives in the local area around the rainforest. She believes the stories about the Japanese ghosts haunting the rainforest and is superstitious about the whole thing. She is also dressed in casual summer clothing. She is the member of the group to go missing as she, makes a run away from the rainforest after she gets scared. 

Rebecca- a 13 year old girl. A close friend of Martha visiting from England, she is called down to the creek by Martha when Oscar finds the first sign on a log by the creek. The first one to notice Martha's disappearance and is easily scared. Again dressed in casual summer clothing.



Hector- a 17 year old boy. The eldest sibling to Martha and Oscar, so also lives in the near by area. He is called down by Martha and arrives at the creek with Rebecca.  As the eldest he holds authority over the group and therefore takes charge in trying to keep Rebecca and Oscar calm after Martha goes missing, although this ultimately leads to his downfall.

My Idea and Synopsis

The symbol I am using in my film is Japanese. 死 or Shi was it is written using the English alphabet means death in Japanese. I chose to make the story line revolve around this symbol because of the area I chose to film my trailer in. I filmed in Northern Queensland, Australia, this area of Australia has a rich Japanese history after a huge amount of Japanese troops were placed in far north Queensland around the deep rain forests that surround the area. However there are several legends that surround the Japanese history in this area, stories say that because of the remoteness of the Queensland rain forest that the troops never got word of the end of the war and continued to kill people who wandered into the rain forest and into their camps. Even long after, and to the present day many of the inhabitants of Queensland believe that the spirits of the Japanese troops haunt the rain forest and haunt and kill the people how walk through the old camp sites. Therefore I decided to base my trailer idea around these legends and stories of Queensland.

Synopsis:

The story begins in World War 2. Many Japanese troops were stationed in the tropical north Queensland in Australia. During the war the Japanese troops fought through the difficult terrain of northern Australia with little success, when the war finished the Japanese troops never got told and very little effort was made to remove them from Australia due to the remote stationing of the troops.

Legend has it that after the war Japanese troops continued fighting in the rain forest and to this day gun fire can still be heard in the depths of the forestation from the souls of the troops that died there.

In 2014 there are many, many houses built in and the rain forest, a brother and sister, Oscar and Martha, venture into the forest as they have many times before. The two of them discover a strange red marking “死” and call their friends, Hector and Becca, to come and see what they have uncovered. Their friends tease them for calling them down, Hector tries his best to scare the others whereas Becca believes that the others are playing a trick on her because they know how easily scared she is. All of the group begin to get scared as the ordinary sounds of the rain forest begin to sound more and more horrific.

As the group are walking home they spot the sign again on the side of a walk way, after teasing Becca for panicking they soon realize Martha is missing, everyone’s phone signal is down and no one can make contact with her. As they are calling for her, the group hear a scream and run home without their sister.

Everywhere the group go they are haunted by the signs. Hector, as the eldest takes control and looks up what the sign means, they find that it is the Japanese symbol for death, Shi. Hector is convinced that this is an elaborate prank set up by Martha and leads the group home, however when they return there is no one in and the front door is locked. Hector advises Oscar and Becca to wait while he tries to get in through the back. He is gone for a long time, the outside lights are flickering. Suddenly they hear Hector scream. The lights go on in the house. They hear him calling them into the house telling them it is safe. He talks to them as they make their way round to the back of the house, however when they get there they find him out cold with 死 cut into his chest, however he is still “talking” to them. All of the lights go out in the house.

Storyboarding part 2

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Storyboarding

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