Synopsis

Whispers depicts the story of Ray Leroux - the latest victim. As a teenager, his playground is the forest till one winter morning he hears some strange whispers and comes across a charred body. Scared out of his wits, he runs away and never returns to the forest, never mentioning the ordeal to anyone.

Twenty years later, and now an established computer game designer, Ray is faced with the dilemma of going back to the forest to sketch and take pictures of trees. The night before he is due to revisit the forest he hears the whispers again. Failing in his attempts to rationalise it, he turns up in the forest but is sent home when he is physically sick. When he fails to turn up the next day his colleagues wonder what has happened until they make a startling discovery in the woods....

Director's Notes

My intent, when writing the script, was to make believe that there exists a mighty spirit in Epping Forest. This force is as old as history and for it to survive it needs the soul of a human being every twenty years. It carefully selects its victim well in advance… The selected one does not see it but hears it whispering...

I was very much influenced by writers like Rod Serling and short films like “The Night Gallery”, “The Twilight Zone” and “The Outer Limits”. My wish at the time of writing Whispers was to make it appear that it was part of the above series. However, the lack of experience, equipment, and other resources made the making of the film a Herculean task. Nonetheless, through the commitment and motivation of a number of people who believed in me and were ready to invest their time for free, we managed to combat all the obstacles and together work towards making the film.

The film was successfully completed, although not exactly compliant to my original vision. The camera angles were not pre-planned, there was no time to rehearse, and the actors were simply asked to improvise using the words from the script as a basis. Add to that the complications of shooting an outdoor shoot in winter time with light-loss proving a major factor, and the fact that the license to shoot in the forest was granted for a month only.

It also proved to be quite difficult to cast the film. Getting a child actor for the part of Young Ray was a no-go area, absolutely impossible! A Portuguese actor who fitted the description of Old Ray auditioned but he dropped out at the last moment for paid work. Consequently, the final casting of the roles of Ray proved to be very unconvincing - Young Ray is dark (mixed-race) and Old Ray is blue-eyed with burgundy hair!
Finally, Producer Magnus Ekpang had to step into the breach when another actor didn't turn up on the day of the shoot!

The film was shot on MiniDV, using a Canon XM2 in 4:3 aspect ratio, and cost £300 (in travel expenses and food only) to make. The post production was quite simple with editing and sound mixing both being done by Yann-Marig. The music, sensationally scored by Irvin Duguid, was added last and served to elevate the film to a higher level.

We tried to enter the film into the Clermont-Ferrand film festival but they only accept Digibeta or 16/35 mm, the conversion to which is quite expensive, so the idea was abandoned. However, submission to Propeller TV was successful and the film was broadcast on the 7th of September 2006, which may earn us the right to place Whispers on IMDb.

All in all, the team is pleased with the film as it has taught us a lot that we could only learn by getting out there and doing it.