Production Concept: Base Story

The monster Cthulhu has been sleeping for thousands of years at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean trapped in the ancient city of Rl’yeh, which in modern days translates to Atlantis. A giant earthquake that strikes the Eastern Coast of the United States forces the city to partially rise up from the bottom of the ocean, causing interest with Archeologists and Marine Biologists. However during an underwater exploration of the city, Cthulhu is disturbed and awoken, despite still trapped within the city. Cthulhu releases little amorphous creatures called Shoggoth which brainwash the explorers near the site, causing them to become followers of Cthulhu. The Shoggoth then pollute the water system for New York, which then start to brainwash citizens all around the City into joining the Cult of Cthulhu – Cthulhu’s way of releasing himself from his cage. This cult then gather together on a night where the stars align in a particular way, and perform a ritual summoning to release Cthulhu from his cage. Cthulhu, now free, wreaks havoc upon the city of New York, destroying buildings and killing people alike. A man named Inspector Legrasse who is investigating into why people (the cult) are vanishing, stumbles upon the mystery of Cthulhu and does what he can to end the cult and place Cthulhu back in his cage.

Production Concept: The Maneater Series

After doing more research into The Syfy Network and what TV movies they do we noticed "The Maneater Series". The Maneater series is a different class of monster movies compared to Sharknado, Piranhaconda and Sharktopus. TV movies like Sharknado seem more like exploitation movies and have monsters alot smaller than our monster Cthulhu, The Maneater series however include TV movies with a more serious undertone, have a lot of movies based around myth and have gargantuan monsters. We as a group we felt that Cthulhu seemed to fit very well into this category of films however this meant that we have to take away the exploitation aspect of Cthulhu. As a group we decided to take away the exploitation aspect so it can fit into this category of films which we feel is a wise choice.

Films included in the Maneater Series include Wyvern and Behemoth whose posters are included below.

We plan to watch these movies tomorrow and make more observations on the story style and if there are actually any over the top aspects.

Production Concept: The characters and their casting

I decided to look into who I wanted cast for the characters in this film, for this I had to look into similar films like Cthulhu and who they cast and also tv programmes shown on the syfy network. I took careful consideration into who I cast for this, I wasn't going to just choose anyone to play these characters, I had to imagine these people playing the roles but also consider if the target audience would be able to relate to them. With these actors I have chosen I believe it is the right balance of acting skill, how they would play the role, connectivity with the audience and also looks. Below is the characters and who I cast for them:

 •John Raymond Legrasse: A Detective Chief Inspector in the NYPD, Legrasse is charged with running the investigation into all of the missing persons in New York, before finding out they have all been brainwashed and formed the Cult of Cthulhu. Described as a “commonplace-looking middle aged man”, a determined man. Hard worker, and an all round family man. Plays by the rules and is good at his job, upon Cthulhu being summoned, his family is brainwashed, causing him to do everything in his power to stop Cthulhu and get his family back.
For Legrasse we found an actor who has often appeared on the Syfy network called Grant Bowler, he's not too well known but if famouse for roles in True Blood, Killer Elite and Defiance.

Prof. William Webb:  A professor of anthropology at Columbia University and “an explorer of no slight note”. When Inspector Legrasse conferred with a meeting of the American Anthropology Society about the Cthulhu cult, Professor Webb was the only member of the assembly to be familiar with an idol found during the raid and the ritualistic chants used by the cult. A very intelligent man, comes across as a bit of a quack by his piers due to his views an interest in Cthulhu. An eccentric.
We decided that the best person to play Professor Webb was Edward James Olmos who has appeared in roles in Battlestar Galactica, 2 Guns, Blade Runner and many more. Olmos would be our highest paid actor as he has the biggest acting showreel and is relatively big. He has also appeared on a few SyFy network shows and we feel that he would connect with the audience alot.

  Aimie Fiber: A Detective Inspector in the NYPD, she is partners with Legrasse. Of a Latin background, she is a very strong and determined woman. Good looking but stern, she has a way of keeping Legrasse grounded at times of desperation. 
For Fiber we chose an actress named Terri Ivens who has appeared in Piranhaconda (from the syfy network) and a few other TV movies, she looks the part and is still a relatively unknown actress. She also looks the part so she seems perfect for the role

 

•Rachel Legrasse:  The wife of John, she is a good looking middle-aged woman, and a stay at home Mother. She is kind, caring and sympathetic, but when it comes down to her child/family she will do anything to protect them. Constantly worried about John going on the job. Becomes brainwashed by the Shoggoth.

For Rachel we chose actress Susan Savage. She's a relatively unknown actress, however she looks and suits the part well

•Tommy Legrasse: An innocent little 8 year old boy, the son of John and Rachel Legrasse. Like his mother, he becomes brainwashed by the Shoggoth into joining the cult, and disappears along with Rachel. After finding out Tommy and Rachel are brainwashed, it becomes John’s ultimate goal to save his family.

For Tommy we chose a child actor named Kadan Rockett, he hasn't been in much but he has been in horror Dark Skies so we thought that maybe he'd be able to connect with our audience.

 

Production Concept: Research into Syfy Films

A few days ago Myself, Jamie Shaw and Sam Wilder sat down to watch a few of the "Exploitation Films" broadcast on the Syfy Network. We watched Sharknado, Piranhaconda and Sharktopus. Although each of them had terrible story and shoddy special effects there were surprisingly a lot of differences. Here are the notes that I made when watching them

Sharknado (2013, Estimated Budget: $1,000,000): With Sharknado I found that the acting was absolutely over the top and shark effects looked very poor, however because the story was so ridiculous it kept you hooked and most of the characters had very interesting (though sometimes stupid) backstories. The constant gore and shark deaths also kept the film very entertaining.

Piranhaconda (2012, Estimated Budget: $1,000,000): With Piranhaconda I found that there was a more serious and underlying story, regardless of the ridiculous monster. Compared to Sharknado the special effects for the monsters were surprisingly good however, I found that the story did not have the desired over the top comedy effect that I felt needed to be included with our film "Cthulhu. It had a serious story but poor acting, decent effects and no real comedy.

Sharktopus (2010, Budget: Unknown): Sharktopus did bring the over the top comedy effect that was absent from Piranhaconda, which made it very similar to Sharknado, however when compared to Sharknado I found that the serious story was not as good. Some plots seemed pointless and didn't seem to go anywhere. If the movie had more of a serious underlying story I feel that it could have been as good as Sharknado.

After looking at all of these movies I decided to look at some similarities. I came upon the decision that these movies are all aimed at men. All of actresses that are featured in these films are fairly young and attractive, and all showed alot of cleavage. These actresses (regardless of their acting skills) are mainly there to attract a male audience, with the addition of all the blood, gore and death, this brought me to the conclusion that these "exploitation films" are generally aimed at men.  

Production Concept: Elevator Pitch

Here is the Elevator Pitch which we came up with last week: "An adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's short story; an over the top, New York based monster/disaster movie featuring the creature Cthulhu"

Production Concept: Syfy Original Movies

I recently looked on Syfy Network's website to see what kind of original movies they produce as to an insight to whether this would be the best place for Cthulhu. Here I found a list of some of the Original movies that they have shown on their channel. Below are some of the examples I found.

These movies as you can see bare resemblance to my idea of making this movie completely over the top with a ridiculous story line. To express the example even more below is a trailer for Sharknado which went viral in 2013, has been watched by millions and has even bagged itself a sequel.

Sharknado is a brilliant example of a movie which is so bad it's good which has given it so much success which is what I'd like to replicate with Cthulhu

Production Concept: The original concept and idea behind Cthulhu

When given the brief for this unit the thing that spoke out to me most was the unlimited budget aspect, over the holidays whilst watching various monster movies and trailers I thought it'd be great to do a monster movie as it is a genre which is not often tackled on the course. To get a general idea of what monster to use in this movie I asked a handful of people through social media to think of a creature which could pose a threat to society. I asked that their ideas could be as bizarre as possible so that this movie would have a unique twist and feature a creature which has never had a movie written about it. After looking through all the suggestions one stood out and had a fair bit of potential, this creature suggested was called Cthulhu. I had a vague idea what Cthulhu was at the time but nothing too clear on what he actually did or where he came from, so after doing a bit of research on him I believed that he would be perfect to make a movie about.

Soon enough I recruited two of my friends and coursemates Sam Wilder and Jamie Shaw to help out on this with me, to get a varied opinion and use their skills to make the project a success. After deciding the concept of the movie I had to chip it down to where it would go and who it would appeal to. I took examples from newer monster/disaster movies such as Sharknado and Big Ass Spider and decided that I wanted this to be a TV Movie broadcast on The Syfy Network specifically in America. The Syfy Network in America often broadcast their own movies most of which are monster and disaster genres. I wanted Cthulhu to suit Syfy networks needs as much as possible so have decided to make Cthulhu completely over the top and cheesy as bizarre as it sounds. My reasoning behind this again comes from Syfy network's choice of original movies, they have chosen films such as Sharknado which have had such a huge viral presence because of the over the top acting and story, these types of films are so bad they're good which is why I want ours to be absolutely ridiculous. I want the movie to be successful for all the wrong reasons, Cthulhu would be the movie that everyone watches because of the over the top story and visuals as well as having a serious underlying story (which all the Syfy original movies have).

This is my reasoning and original idea behind Cthulhu and the style choice which I think suits its format most.