Jade Saunders 4253 Blog Re-sit

All re-sit posts will be improved and altered and these will be highlighted in Red.

Film Schedule

12:00 pm - Meet in town

12:30 pm - Arrive at location

12:35 pm - Tour of location

12:45 pm - Filming of bus stop scene

13:15 pm - Back to factory, sat down and discussed the schedule for the next scene
and ran a mini reheasal

13:45 pm - Georgie started Rachel's makeup while Jade and Deej created the
stalkerboard and filmed the snippets for the flashes at the begining of
the film

15:00 pm - Start filming

17:30 pm - Finish Filming

Equipment

2 x Samsung Video Camcorders
2 x Tripod
1 x Tacking Dolly

We used 1 camera each that was attached to a tripod and we used a dolly for the tracking of the male character approaching Rachel in her chair. By using 1 camera each we were able to film the scene quicker and from as we ran through the scene again and again we had a variety of different camera angles.

Target Audience Profile

Target Audience Profile

Visual-Eyes

Casting

For the part of Rachel we chose to cast Rachel Longstaff. Rachel Longstaff is a 17 year old performing arts student from Essex. She is a model and therefore had the attractive attributes that we were looking for, and she looked old enough to play our 20 year old university student. We chose Rachel because we feel that her audition was believable and that she performed with such professional emotion.

For the male part we chose to cast Francessco Manfredi (Or Deej, his nickname) who is also a 17 year old drama student from Essex. We were very impressed with the quality of his performance and how he portrayed the sinister flirtyness that we wanted the male lead to have.
Here is His audition. We feel Deej is perfect for this role as he has a very deep, intimidating voice which is hard to recognise. Although the actual male character's face cannot be seen in the movie, Deej's body language really interprets the characters mood and attitude.

Filming

When filming we decided to dedicate a whole day to shooting the scenes which will feature in the start of our film. This was easily done as the 2 minute horror opening only contained a maximum of 3 scenes, 2 of which speech was not required. As we arrived to the location we decided to sit down together and talk through the plans for the day and make sure everyone was comfortable with it all. Here we devised a filming schedule and ran a rehearsal.

Once this was done we walked to the local shop to film the bus stop scene where Rachel sits at the bus stop, awaiting a bus, we would then use this for the flash images at the start accompanied by a heart beat sound. After filming the bus stop scene, we headed back to the factory and located ourseleves in a room near the main shooting area to prepare for filming. While in the room, Georgie was doing Rachels makeup, and Jade was arranging pictures on a wall to use as the male leads stalker board. Once the stalker board was done Jade then filmed the male leads snippet of him becoming obsessed with attacking Rachel, this was done in and around the factory grounds.

Once all the short snippet scenes were filmed, the costumes were on, the makeup was done,the cast were prepared with their lines and had completed a final rehearsal, it was time to start filming the main scene.

When filming the scene we decided to shoot it all as many times as possible to get as many camera angles as we could. As we were progressing through the filming, both the cast and crew thought up some new ideas and props to add to the scene, for example the use of cable ties around Rachels hands, and when Rachel spits in the males face.

All in all, we feel the day was very succsesful, with everyone working as a team, having fun, and working hard. We couldnt have asked for a better
group of people to work with.

Experimenting with makeup

Before filming, we decided to experiment with makeup for Rachel's face, this enables us to create the perfect makeup and practice applying it. We need to make the actresses' face look realistic, burnt, and by doing this we need to make the burns and brusies look as natural as possible.

When creating the blood we used the following ingredients:
* Red paint
* Blue paint
* Yellow paint
* Black paint
* Yellow food colouring
* Foundation
* Water
* Flour
* Syrup

We wanted the blood to be thick and realistic. Rather than following one of the recipes we saw on an early post we decided to experiment with a variety of different ingredients and keep adding more random ingredients until we were happy with the outcome.

To add texture to the face we used a number of ingredients to succsesfully achieve the realistic look. To do this we added to the blood:

* Porridge oats
* Sugar
* Gritty lip balm
* Cling film
All of these ingredients were added to give the effect of bobbled, scabbed and falling off skin.

To Give the black eye (brusied) effect we simply applied the following everyday eye shadow colours:
* Black
* Dark blue
* Light blue
* Dark purple
* light purple
* Dark green
* Light green
* Dark brown
* Light brown
* Yellow eyeshadow

When creating the black eye effect the trick is to layer the eyeshadow to create a puffy effect, we wanted the brusie to look fresh therefore we had to use darker colours like the browns and blues rather than lighter like the light green and yellow. This is so the brusie will not look of age, and the audience becomes aware that it is a recent attack.

To create the burns for Rachel's face, we bought a small bottle of Liquid Latex which is used by big makeup firms in the film industry. To achieve the correct effect, we applied the latex thinly and layer by layer and then peeled it back to look like the skin has been burned.

Instruments we used to apply and mix the ingredients included:

* Bowl
* Large paint brush
* Small paint brush
* Make up brushes

With inspiration from the film, The Eye (2008), we decided to use a white contact lense to show that damage has been made to Rachel's eye. However sadly the contact lense ripped therefore we could not use it for filming purposes.

Why did we make a Gantt Chart?

We created a Gantt Chart to stay organised and on top of tasks which were due in on certain dates. The Gantt chart has been nothing but benefical for Rogue Productions as it has given us the option to simply look to see which tasks are complete and what tasks we still need to work on. By making a Gantt Chart it was easier to distribute work between the two of us to make sure we both did equal amounts of work. The Gantt Chart has helped us manage tasks, meet deadlines and ensure that we have not missed any tasks out.

Consent Letter

As directors of our movie we want to be as professional as possible and this means taking into to account all the health and safety restrictions that come with filming.
As both our leads are under 18’s we have decided to put together a consent form for the parents to sign, this is so the parents are aware what their children will be filming, why they are filming it, who they are filming it with and how we take all precautions very seriously.
By doing this, the parents of the actors get peace of mind, and reassurance that their children are in good professional hands.

Auditions

When auditioning the part of Rachel, we were looking for a down to earth, attractive and serious women who could play the part seriously and with emotion. We wanted Rachel's character to be a character that our target audience could easily relate to so that we could add to the fear of the attack happening to the audience members. Therefore, we wanted our audtionee to play the part seriously and naturally to create a believable and professional performance.

When auditioning the part of the Male, we were looking for a tall and intimidating man who could perform in a sinister and flirtatious way similar to the Joker in The Dark Knight (2008).

Initial Ideas

We created our initial ideas to come up with a variety of different ideas for our horror film. This helped us decide whether our ideas were easy to create and also to merge ideas together. By doing a brainstorm of ideas, we were able to discuss ideas and decide on an idea that suited us both. We were able to consider how we could develop ideas and discuss a range of actors and locations for that specific part.

Location

When deciding on the location of the scene where Rachel is strapped up on a chair and the protagonist is torturing her, we decided to use Bridge Communications factory in Maldon as we had connections inside with a highly important member of staff. We have decided to use this factory, as the space where we would be filming will have a great effect. We need a location that looks deserted because this it connotes to the audience that Rachel is helpless and the chances of her being saved is very slim. We also chose this location because the room we will film in is very big and open and this enables us to capture lots of echoes which will also connote to the audience that Rachel is far from being saved.