Account of the shoot day

On our shoot day of 18^th January 2013, we unexpectedly woke up to snow. We were worried as to weather Sam, Christie and the actors as well as I would all make it to the location. So we were thankful when everyone turned up. However at 2.00 we were informed that the school was closing. This meant that we were not able to finish filming until the following Tuesday.

 The first day began where we all met in the studio and Sam, Christie and I put up our set.  Firstly, we assembled a bed, and put a mattress onto it, we then put some bed sheets on top. Then we laid some wooden slats onto the ground as the floor making sure they are realistically interlocking. We used wooden floor In order to accentuate the bare, hard surface and create a darker harsh tone to the film.

Then we assembled the artists desk, I bought with me some acrylic paints and an artists palette, including a selection of different candles. We displayed these on the desk, as well as some charcoal, and pencils and a scalpel on top of each other to indicate that the artist is messy, highlighting his insane mental state.                

We also prepared a series of white surfaces which we can splat and drip paint onto; as well as Sams old art pieces which we can also use. We also bought with us a glass container, which we filled with water in order to drip inks into to create a visual illusion, highlighting the surreal, physiological aspect, which will help attract our target audiences. We decided to shoot in the studio rather than on location due to the fact that we could achieve the necessary light and appearance needed. Also, none of our ideas included an outside setting.

The day commenced well, we all set up the camera and tripod and we pretty much followed our storyboard that we had created before hand exactly, however we began filming George earlier than we had scheduled.

For our characters, We chose Ellie de Rohan as our female character, this is because she is quite innocent and young looking, which indicates that she is vulnerable and defenceless she also has quite pale skin and blond hair, making her seem pure, she also looks like one of the girls in the three graces. We chose George because our original artist, James Hartman, was not available on our shoot day. As a result we chose George Hill, this is because we looked back on our blog page where we analyzed different hands to see which look right for our thriller, we decided that Georges hands looked best as he had paints or inks on them which, clearly defining him as being an artist and suggests that he is unclean and up to mischief. He also has plasters on his fingers, which heightens this atmosphere.

The first thing that we filmed where the artistic scenes, which we began by using a piece of plain paper and blotting water onto it, then, using a pipette (that we borrowed from the chemistry lab) we dropped black ink onto the paper and filmed the visual pattern and shapes that the ink made on the paper as the ink ran through the water, we filmed this zoomed in, as the swirls and patterns that are made in the water create almost a physiological illusion. 

We went on to film splatters of fake blood on the floor. This was carried out by myself going up a ladder and dripping the fake blood (which I mixed with water to give it a less sticky consistency to enable it to drip) from the top. Sam and Christie filmed a section of the white floor below, reasonably zoomed in, whilst the blood dripped onto the ground.

For our next shot, we dripped black ink into the glass container (which we had previously filled with water.) and filmed the swirling shapes that it makes.

We filmed these artistic shots of art medium, in order to introduce to the audience the fact that he is an artist however presenting this idea using a visually interesting, innovative method. We decided not to show too much of the artist, merely filming a hand in order to ensure the focus of the shot is on the medium whilst maintaining a mysterious, sinister atmosphere.

Then we filmed some long shots of Ellie, wearing a silk robe. This is due to the fact that we wanted something that was elegant, floral and feminine, yet looks old and used, hence the old style of a 1920's silk robe. The use of this robe signifies that she does not have anything else to wear, she is being forced to wear this and that she has had the basic necessities of clothing removed from her. In this shot we got a tracking device and filmed her, first from a long way away, then getting closer towards her and she responds with a terrified facial expression, I feel that this shot was extremely successful as it gives us the illusion that the camera is the artist and we are filming from his perspective.

We went on to film a series of more shots of Ellie. Firstly, we filmed her with her eyes closed, as if she just waking up, which we shot with the tripod fully extended with the camera tilted to give a birds eye view effect, we also filmed this in quite a dark light in order to indicate that it is night time. Then we filmed another shot of Ellie lying on the bed. For this shot, we used a genie, which the media teachers showed us how to use. This enabled us to film Ellie from a great height, and then rapidly zoom downwards. I feel that this shot was also successful as it establishes Ellie's surroundings, whilst sustaining a dramatic atmosphere.

Next, we filmed some shots of George (the artist). In this scene he is sitting at his artists desk, picking up a Polaroid photo of Ellie. He is wearing an artists dungarees and an artists overall. This is because we want him to appear creepy, dirty and like an artist. We wanted to conform to stereotypes of what a villain should look like yet still make it clear to the audience that he is an artist. We got inspiration for this character from the murderer in “the lovely bones” as he has the same eerie look that we want for our character

The day continued to go as planned, however as it was snowing, frustratingly the school closed at 3. This obviously stopped us from being able to follow our schedule as planned, and we had to carry on with our shoot the following Monday morning. This may have slightly hindered our flow of shooting however the weekend gave us time to think in depth about how to compose each shoot, so on the Monday we could get the shots finished quicker, which I think benefited us in the long run. On Monday we continued filming different artistic shots of blood, dripping down a scalpel, this is in order to set the dark, sinister tone of the film. We also filmed some shots of George writing our title “blood of purity” from different angles, which we can use at the end of our sequence.

However overall I feel that we prepared for the shoot quite well, we had all of our props ready and nothing was missed out. We followed our storyboards exactly; we also had a list of different shots we wanted which we ticket off as we went; however we came up with a few new ideas for shots on the day as well. Most of the time, we shot the subject with dark, theatrical lighting and reasonably zoomed in in order to establish the dramatic thriller genre, which will attract our target audience.