Evaluation of Filming - 2/2/14

When we first filmed the chase scene, there were a lot of aspects that we weren't happy with as mentioned in Annie's post.

When planning our second attempt at filming we took into consideration all of the aspects we wanted to change such as the location, time of filming and costumes.

 ~ We decided to film in Bexleyheath as it was a local urban area and would fit in with the storyline.

 ~ We aimed to film in the evening, when it was completely dark as the street lighting would be sufficient enough for our characters to show up clearly on screen. 

 ~ With our victim, we changed her outfit from the dress to the black skirt and red top but kept the bruise and her extreme makeup. We also decided against her wearing a fake stomach as it would be more obvious in the next scene that she was pregnant. 

 ~ We also didn't like the fact that we could see the villain's face and the outfit he was wearing so he would wear just casual dark clothing with a hood and a white mask.

How it turned out:

We had planned to meet in Bexleyheath, travel to my grandparents house to film the death scene and then back to Bexleyheath for the chase scene. 

The main problem was that one of actors had a family emergency, on the day of filming and so was unable to join us for the chase scene and the scenes in the garage. As we wanted to get a majority of the filming done on that day, I had to play the villain for the shots we had planned out. 

'Back-up villain'

Candles

Annie taking the candles shot 

Doing Emily's makeup

Annie's 'killer' hands

Raman setting up the camera 

Preparing to film

Fake tears

Raman filming

Annie filming

When looking at the footage from the day, I really wasn't happy with myself playing the villain as it didn't look right and would be much better if it were our preferred actor. Although I liked the location that we chose (the alleyway) it was extremely difficult to film in as the lighting was too dark for the camera to stay focused for a long amount of time.

This also meant that our villain didn't show up on the screen as well as we would have hoped. It was quite dark and blurry and I didn't think this would look good enough for our final coursework. Also with the location that we had chosen, we didn't realise how many people would be walking past on a Sunday evening which interrupted the shot a lot.

Here is a selection of screenshots from our footage, showing why I wasn't satisfied with the result.

While we were filming the chase scene, the camera ran out of battery due to the amount of times we had to film the different shots and this meant only part of the chase scene was filmed. Therefore as we would have to set another day for filming anyway and after looking at the footage, it would make sense to re-film the whole thing.

Editing Candles and Jars Shots:

When we went to my grandma's garage on Sunday we set out the candles and the jars and I used a variation of different camera movements to film them. Some of them looked quite good but others were not as effective so it depends on the editing as to whether we use them in our actual piece.

I imported all the shots I thought could look good onto Final Cut Pro with the aim of editing them in a similar style that Annie and Raman had edited the flashback shots. I decided to go against using transitions and would just use simple straight cuts for the moment.

The video below is the original video that I took of the candles, a simple panning shot of the shelf, with the sound removed because as we plan to put sound over the top, we didn't worry about being completely silent and you could hear the talking in the background.

~ For the first panning shot, firstly I trimmed it down so it was only when the camera actually moved, rather than having the stationary section at the beginning and end. On the effects section under lights, I chose "Flashing" as I liked the way it made the candles stand out even more, I also added the "Film Grain" style afterwards. It was still really slow and boring so I re-timed it so it was 400x faster.

~ Next I decided to edit the zooming out shot and did the standard procedure of removing the audio and trimming it down. As the zoom is naturally quicker than when I did the panning shot, I only felt it was necessary to make it 200x faster as when it was on 400x, it went so quickly you barely saw it. I then added the cross hatch style effect over the top.

~ I decided to put the tilt shot next, which went upwards, after removing the audio and trimming it down I sped it up by 400% again as it looked a lot better when it was faster. I added the "Keyer" effect and the "Old World" effect as I thought the end result of putting them together was ideal.

~ The second tilt shot originally went upwards but to make it different from the previous shot I reversed the clip 400x faster so it looked liked it was going downwards and moved it to the beginning so it wasn't straight after the first tilt shot. I then added the "Luma Keyer" and "Super 8mm" effect to darken the image.

~ The last shot I used was a pan shot but I rotated the camera slightly as I moved it to make it slightly different from the previous angle. I experimented using the speed ramp option to re-time this section and ended up going from 400x - 200x - 100x - 50x throughout the clip as I liked the way it slowed it down, in addition to this I decided to add the "Prism" blur effect as I liked how the jars had flashes of green light on them.

This is the final version after the editing changes I made, I'm happy with how it went but I'm not sure if I'm satisfied with the end result and whether it looks successful or not. It depends on my group as to whether we actually include it in our coursework or maybe shorten it down slightly as 7 seconds is a lot of time for just one piece of mise en scene and there are other shots that we have taken which I could edit in a similar way to this but with the different objects.

Mise en Scene of Killer's Den

In Hayley's shed, we placed candles on some of the shelves to add a romantic ambience which is ironic because he is going to kill her. cut her open and take her foetus. Also, the candles add additional lighting, but it was not a lot so we used other lighting to aid the filming process. We used a lamp because it had an orange undertone, adding to the ambience of the scene. 

 We placed plastic on the floor because, firstly it would help keep the floor clean from any fake blood, and secondly because our group is trying to emphasize the killer's obsession with death and gore. He is a doctor and likes everything to be neat and orderly. As well, we did this because we were inspired by Dexter's Room from a previous post. When we film the rest of the opening, we are going to put plastic on the garage door and along the walls, as seen in Dexter's room.

Also, we put black bin bags on the windows to block out any natural lighting, but some still came through which was beneficial so we could film and see what we were doing. However, these bags will not be shown in the film opening.

 In the room, the shelves still had all the garden tools and bags on them because we did not put any books or chairs by it as this section will not be shown in the flashbacks. However, when we film the second part of the opening, we will take off these items and put on health and pregnancy books and the foetus jars.

This is where the killer will sit and we are going to put a chair there. We are going to change the stickers on this small cabinet so it says things such as:

• "nails"
• "hair"
• "teeth"
• "fingers"

However, we will not make the killer open these drawers, it is only suggestive to make the audience squirm and to stress his obsession with human bodies.

Evaluation of Filming Chase Scene - 02.01.2014

[ADD PIC] On the day we shot the chase scene, Annie, Hayley and the 2 actors came round my house because the park is up that road. Annie began doing Jordan's make-up first; she applied liquid latex and then baby powder and make-up on his hands to make them look old and as if he had beaten the victim before she ran away. Then she put "Adore + Endure Me" and "A+E" on his face.

 

Next, Annie started work on the victim's face, making it look bruised and bloody, as if the killer had beaten her. The victim also had smudged lipstick and mascara on her face, to make her look more superficial and emphasize the fact she is a prostitute.

Annie had made the pregnant belly using a pillowcase filled with stuffing and on the day, when our actor tried it on, it was too big for her. So after many attempts, I managed to take out enough stuffing so it was fitted her but still look large as if she was quite heavily pregnant.

 

 Also, Hayley put the actor's hair in a messy bun which had loosened and strands were coming out.

 This is what our 2 actors looked like at the end of hair and make-up. Overall, the preparation went successfully as our actors looked how we wanted them to, especially the special fx make-up on the killer which looked good after Annie had tried out so many variations of it.

After, we made our way to the park and we took up a ladder so we could film the high angle shots, special fx make-up to the victim's arm wound which comes half way in the chase scene, the story board to direct the actors and the camera and tripod to film with. When we got up there, luckily we found a trolley so we used that to put our stuff in, including actors coats as it was very cold. The trolley was greatly beneficial to us as we kept moving around in the wooded area.

 I filmed the first shot, the establishing shot of the victim running away, using the tripod and this was hard because I had to partly hold the tripod as the ground was slightly unstable because it was extremely muddy. The week we filmed, it had been raining a lot, so when we were all moving around the park, it was very difficult. However, luckily the rest of our opening will be inside Hayley's shed. As well, the path the victim was running down was a popular path for people to walk down with their dogs so there was a lot of waiting for us so that in the shot there was no one else apart from the victim.


 When we began filming (around 2pm), it was relatively bright; bright enough so we did not need to use additional artificial lighting. In many of the first scenes we used natural lighting, however at around 4pm it got very dark so when we filmed the last few shots where the killer catches the victim, we used artificial lighting to illuminate the actor's faces for the camera.

We were not expecting the sky to get as dark as it did within half an hour so our last shots are quite dark. My group and I decided to incorporate this into the story - that the length of the chase had been going on for quite long, so when the killer finally caught her, it was late. This will make surprise the audience that the killer is that determined to get the victim, and will also emphasize the killer's agility juxtaposing the victim and how she tired after a while.

Before it got dark, we filmed the scene where the victim got cut by a branch and we used the ladder for this. The ladder was placed on muddy ground and I was on it so Hayley had to hold the ladder while I filmed. The ladder was against a tree and the branches were blocking the camera so I had to break off a few, but I kept some in the way to make the scene seem more realistic. Being on the ladder was not a problem as it was actually quite stable without Hayley supporting it.
Also, Annie and Hayley poured some fake blood on the branch and the leaves underneath and I filmed the killer approaching this. Meanwhile, Annie was applying the victim's wound from the branch so we saved time and when that was done, we filmed her being cut by the branch.

After we finished filming that, it began to get very dark, as mentioned, so when we found a thick enough tree for the victim to hide behind, we needed artificial lighting. Annie filmed the last few shots and Hayley and I held the lights. While Hayley and Annie were setting up, I directed the actors on what they had to do. All this saved time as we knew it was getting dark quickly. The lights were small which meant they did not project masses of light onto the actors which was good because when we watched over the recordings, the surroundings were dark and only the victims faces were illuminated, making the scene more scary and fitting with horror and slasher conventions of darkness to reflect the killer's inner darkness.

Once we had finished filming we looked over the scenes to see if we needed to re-do any however we felt they had turned out well. The filming process took around 2 hours, and our chase scene will be about 1 minute long. The only complications during filming was the muddy ground, we wanted our victim to be barefoot, then we decided she would wear heels but when we saw the ground, we decided she would wear trainers to make her seem less dignified and careless about her image. Also, the dog strollers were a minor issue which, again, we could not help so we had to work with.