For our ten minuet film we wanted to centralize the theme around the paranormal, mainly because we thought as students it was a topic that isn't often attempted and secondly because we already had a great location lined up. Last semester I made a documentary about the closure of Sheffield's Castle Market, as a result of getting to know some of the staff, they had allowed us to film in the market during closed hours. Between around 9pm and 5am the market is empty aside from one member of staff, the night guard. At the time we joked about how spooky the place was when deserted and from this the idea grew that we would like to make a horror set in the market.
Early this semester I went to the market and spoke to the manager, he seemed to remember us from the last time we'd filmed there and was happy to let us have as much access to the market at what ever hour we requested and as many times as we needed. During this same visit we ran into one of the contributors of the documentary, a stall owner, and got talking to him about our next project. He seemed very enthused about the concept of a horror story set in the market and pointed us in the direction of a night guard who had some real-life ghost stories about occurrences of the paranormal that had happened to him personally. We met him and he took us on a unofficial ghost walk of the market, stopping us at every location where he had seen or heard something unusual.
The history of Castle Market supports the idea of potential spiritual happenings being that the building sits onto of the remains of one of the largest medieval castles in England, hence the name Castle Market. One of the stories that we were told about involved a handless and footless figure, dressed in chain mail, moving through the bottom floor of the market before disappearing through a wall. Ordinarily I'd dismiss the story as an imaginative hallucination, however, talking directly to the person who swore it happened had a slightly more chilling effect than had it been a 'friend of a friend' kind of story. Regardless of the truth, the stories have fired my imagination and will act as some of the inspiration for the film.
The pictures below depict part of the foundations of the old castle the public can still visit. We've been told there's a lot more to see however due to dangerous access its not possible to go down and see it.
The image below illustrates the scale and location of the 13th century castle.
Early this semester I went to the market and spoke to the manager, he seemed to remember us from the last time we'd filmed there and was happy to let us have as much access to the market at what ever hour we requested and as many times as we needed. During this same visit we ran into one of the contributors of the documentary, a stall owner, and got talking to him about our next project. He seemed very enthused about the concept of a horror story set in the market and pointed us in the direction of a night guard who had some real-life ghost stories about occurrences of the paranormal that had happened to him personally. We met him and he took us on a unofficial ghost walk of the market, stopping us at every location where he had seen or heard something unusual.
The history of Castle Market supports the idea of potential spiritual happenings being that the building sits onto of the remains of one of the largest medieval castles in England, hence the name Castle Market. One of the stories that we were told about involved a handless and footless figure, dressed in chain mail, moving through the bottom floor of the market before disappearing through a wall. Ordinarily I'd dismiss the story as an imaginative hallucination, however, talking directly to the person who swore it happened had a slightly more chilling effect than had it been a 'friend of a friend' kind of story. Regardless of the truth, the stories have fired my imagination and will act as some of the inspiration for the film.
The pictures below depict part of the foundations of the old castle the public can still visit. We've been told there's a lot more to see however due to dangerous access its not possible to go down and see it.
The image below illustrates the scale and location of the 13th century castle.
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