Project A.M: Filming

This is an outline of what we did before and during the day of our filming. 

• The first thing I did was create the set the night before. This took approximately three hours as I had to rearrange all the furniture in the room. Luckily, this was filmed in my house which already displays a lot of antique objects which fits into our theme. This was the result:

Before:

After:

• In the morning of the filming day, Pie and I woke up early to separately gather all the props we'll be needing for the process. This was easy enough as we already wrote several lists in class of the things we may need for our project. Some of the more challenging objects to find were wooden clippings for the polaroids and a big rope to create the authenticity of a professional murderer. The cake was also a last minute find, so it may not be as plain-looking as we had hoped but it worked out nicely inside the frame. 

• I also added in some barbie dolls to create a more psychopathic ambiance inside the attic:

• When the actors arrived, we decided to take pictures of the victims in order to create their polaroids. We tried to make them act as natural as possible whilst collecting these photos in order to achieve a disturbing effect of a stalker's point of view. Here are some of the photos:

• Then we made fake blood to splash onto the actors' clothing. We chose white dresses as they would contrast with the stark red of the blood:

• Overall it was great fun and our actors were hugely cooperative. We didn't argue over any scenes, but kept adding in suggestions and developed the shots together until we both agreed that they looked good. It was a tedious process and we also had a time limit, so it was pressuring at times but we pulled through and tried to get in as many takes as possible. We also had to take into consideration how uncomfortable the actors may be getting in their costumes and make-up so as to cause no harm towards our helpers. 

• For me, one of the best and most surprising things about the filming process was how great the acting was in relation to the cinematography. It wasn't something we were able to plan for, and so the actors' sportsmanships were greatly appreciated (Tanya, Rute, Gale and April). The lighting of the set which radiated from either small candles or dim lamps really merged in well with the filter of the camera we chose to work with. 

• I really liked filming with Pie as she likes to get the job done quickly, but as precisely as possible. She definitely plans ahead, as to which shots should be taken in case the one we planned on didn't work out. I felt like the uncertain mood of the film was taking shape in the process of filming as we were exposed to dark, crimson-based colours and contrasted whites. Later on, we spent around two hours by ourselves after the actors have left just to discuss how we want the editing to be done and analyse the representation of the visuals such as the semiotic code.