Three Ending Styles

After looking into three ways of filming the ending to the short (dolly zoom, rapid editing and projected background) I have decided that I will film all three of these, as well as my own original way of ending. All of the versions will play out with the exact same beginning, but will change when Arbogast reaches the top of the stairs.

These are how the endings will work:

1. The Dolly Zoom

In this version Arbogast gets slashed across the face and falls to the bottom of the stairs, as he reaches the floor he stays on his feet, where I will use a dolly zoom effect in which the background zooms in to show the sense of death and realisation of what has just happened creeping up on Arbogast. The scene will then end with the classic shot of Norma Bates slashing Arbogast's fallen body.

2. Rapid Editing

Within this scene Arbogast is slashed across the face and as he falls the camera rapidly cuts from a matter of all different angles, as shown in the shower scene in Psycho. As well as making the scene more exciting and modern I believe this will make it an easier process to film, as I have had fears over the safety of the actor playing Arbogast if he genuinely has to go down the stairs backwards, and so filming little pieces of this each time and later editing them together will mean that the actor will be safe and when edited it will look like one take with many different angles.

3. The Projected Background

This is the version that is most likely a shot-by-shot copy of the original as I will record the footage of the stairs as if there were someone falling, and later use a screen projector at school to have my Arbogast actor stood in front of this, as he flails around pretending he has fallen.

4. My Original - The POV Shot

In my own version of how the ending should play out I believe that audiences should be given a look into the psychopaths eyes as he takes his prey, and so this shot would occur after Arbogast has first been slashed across the face and he begins to fall. I would film this by having the camera in one hand and a knife in the other, and as the actor makes his way down the stairs I will follow, occasionally thrashing the knife in front of the camera as if trying to still stab him as he falls.