Production Day #1

Today marks the first day of our official production. Pierce, Ben, Bianca, Robert, Mr. Engle and I all stayed after school from 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM. Immediately, we got to work on setting up the scene. We placed prop pill bottles on the nightstand, we removed the batteries from the clocks so time wasn't a continuity issue, and we undressed the dummies' and used their hospital gowns as Roberts costume. Today, we mainly filmed the very beginning of the title sequence. It included the events of Robert waking up, him getting out of bed after which he explores his hospital surroundings, and him discovering a dummy in a wheelchair waiting outside of his hospital room. (Creepy, right?)

Below is a picture of the dummy we used in our filming

In the beginning of production today, we knew we had wanted to produce a mysterious shadow figure behind the curtain where Lionel (Robert) stood, in order to make the audience suspicious as to what is happening and why scary shadows are behind our protagonist in the unexplored neighboring room. As a reference to what I'm talking about, here is one of the shots recorded showing Lionel walking past the shadow and questioning its presence (above)

                                          

You may be wondering how we achieved the human figure behind the curtain. Well, rather than forcing a member of our crew to sit there motionless while I filmed their shadow, we found it better to use our resources, and prop up a dummy on the other side. Here's a picture of what the dummy looked like from the other side. We had to scout out numerous pillows from around the mock hospital to use as support for holding up the dummy in the position we wanted (which proved slightly difficult, as the dummy was rather heavy and hard to move!)

In order to achieve the shadow itself, we had Bianca (production designer) hold up industrial lights that Pierce (director) owned, while Pierce and I would record and examine shots on the opposite side of the curtain and decide where the light should be held, how close she should stand to the curtain, and make configurations to the position of the dummy until the shadow was camera ready.

How Will My Film Look/Feel/Sound?

In order to make our film fit into the genre thriller, we have to make it look, feel and sound like one. In order to do so, one aspect of mise-en-scene we are planning to emphasize is it's strong setting. There is no question as to where our film is placed: a hospital. Hospitals are perfect for giving that extra spooky vibe we are looking for, do to the fact that hospitals are associated with death and pain. As an example, watch the following clip from Macbeth (2010) in which the setting is in a hospital.

Could you imagine if the previous film had been shot in another setting, such as a library? A bedroom? A movie theatre? It simply would not have the same effect on the audience. The setting is vital, and we plan to make the film feel eerie and spooky, with the setting carrying a large weight. Along with that, notice how the scene was covered in a blue-ish filter, making the lighting appear low-key and scarier. In post production, we will most likely add on a similar filter, making the film feel even more spooky and tension fueled. 

Sound is also vitally important. During production, we do not plan on recording any sounds, but instead we will input all sound during post. We have discussed placing non-diegetic music in the background covering the duration of the title sequence. The following are what we have discussed as possibilities (my personal favorite is Deranged by Dark Piano)

Along with adding the previous music, we will be adding diegetic sounds in post as well, including footsteps, curtains opening, wheelchairs crashing, etc. Our director, Pierce, plans on downloading sound editing software, that way he can record our diegetic sounds at his house, edit them, and then send the results to our film editor Ben so they can make it in our film. By amplifying these noises and adding the non-diegetic background music, we will be able to make our film look, sound and feel like a thriller.

ATTENTION!!!!! VITAL INFORMATION!!!!!! PLEASE READ!!!!

ATTENTION ALL READERS 

THERE HAS BEEN A CHANGE OF EVENTS WHICH REQUIRES AN IMMEDIATE READ

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WE HAVE DECIDED TO CHANGE OUR TITLE SEQUENCE.

But don't freak out! It is not as dramatic as it sounds. As previously noted in my blog, our first round of production was conducted on March 2nd, 2019. After a long days work, our editor Ben Issacs successfully put together our rough cut. However, as a group we were able to come to the consensus that we did not like the message it sent to the audience. It wasn't exactly what we wanted to portray to viewers and certainly wasn't what we wanted to submit to Cambridge. Even editing couldn't turn our rough cut into what we really wanted to create. So we will be re-shooting (yes, for real, but it's part of the grind) and we will be changing a few factors from our original rough cut. The reason we are doing this is to create a piece of art that better portrays what we all have in our imagination. We want to create and share something that better evokes eeriness in our audiences bones. By re-shooting, we will be able to film something that gives that extra boost of curiosity and fear that our original just did not create. Is is for those reasons we are choosing to do this. And it will be worth it. 

WHAT ARE WE CHANGING FROM OUR ORIGINAL ROUGH CUT?

1) THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS - In our original rough cut & script, our character Lionel woke up in a normal bed, after which he walked into the bathroom in order to discover where the dripping noise was coming from. In this new version, however, Lionel is to wake up in a hospital bed, immediately see that the dripping is coming from the sink next to him, and then he ventures through out the hospital, never going into a bathroom. 

2) THE COSTUMING - As most likely suspected, since Lionel is no longer waking up in a house/motel setting, he will no longer be in average clothing. Instead, he is now going to be dressed in a hospital gown.

3) IM NO LONGER PHYSICALLY SEEN ON CAMERA - In our original rough cut, I was acting on camera. Essentially, I was the mysterious female figure in the red dress who appeared behind Robert while he was sitting on his bed, and I was also the female laying in bed beside him. Both times, my hair was blocking the view of my face, but my whole body was physically seen on camera. That is no longer happening. Instead, you will see my feet, shadow, etc. But the red dress has been completely eliminated. We found it was unnecessary at this point, and that my shadows would work better.

4) THE SETTING - We did not like the bedroom/bathroom setting we used originally. First and foremost, it was simply inconvenient. The space was small, crammed, hard to get good cinematography out of, and wasn't the atmosphere we felt correctly evoked the eeriness we wanted. 

   

The photo to the left shows me (cinematographer) trying to get a high angle shot from a difficult location, and also shows a glimpse of the setting which we felt was not correct for the mood we were aiming for

However, in better news, our production designer Bianca Raby has already scouted out a new location for us to shoot in. And get this... it's a simulation hospital located in our school! (Insert scared emoji here). You can't tell me a hospital isn't a spooky place for a thriller film to be shot. Due to the the looming sense of death, toxic medications, psychiatric wards, needles, blood... [well, you get the point], a hospital was a WONDERFUL place to re-shoot. Below are some photos of our new setting

WHAT ARE WE KEEPING THE SAME FROM OUR ORIGINAL ROUGH CUT?

1) THE ACTOR - We definitely are not getting rid of our actor Robert (aka the character Lionel). He is great with appearing emotionless, which is an aspect we want to keep the same, Our character is supposed to be burdened by the past and by his secrets, which explain why Lionel appears so stone cold.

2) THE BRAND OF WATER - For our film, one of the brands we had created for ourself was water, because of how innocent and calm yet destructive and unforgiving it can be. It is quite the paradox and goes along with the mysteries a thriller film carries on its back. We are still keeping the mysterious dripping of the water, therefore our brand is remaining the same. 

3) THE PARANORMAL FACTORS/ABNORMALITIES - In the original rough cut, the female figure in the red dress was not actually there. She was a phantom, a paranormal factor, haunting Lionels mind. In our new rough cut, the female figure is gone, technically. However, there are shadows moving behind curtains that don't belong to humans, levitating/hanging feet moving along the tile following Lionel, and more. There is still that eerie abnormal factor which is something I truly wanted to incorporate more than anything.

4) THE GENRE - Obviously, we cannot change the genre at this point.But it is something we are keeping the same. We will still have an eerie mood, specific cinematography that is often used in thrillers (close-ups, low/high angles, etc.) and a spooky setting. The result will still fall exactly where expected. 

5) THE OVER-ALL MESSAGE - The theme is remaining the same. In both versions, Lionel is to wake up in his bed, with the memory of his dead girlfriend looming in the back of his head, as abnormal situations occur all around him. This creates an eerie and unsettling feeling which makes the audience want to watch more, as they are asking "why is this happening?" 

Due to our gracious and extremely amazing AICE Media Studies teacher Mr. Engle, he has already talked to both the health science teacher and the principal and has granted us access to staying after school Tuesday, March 12th and Wednesday, March 13th to film, and he has agreed to be our proctoring adult. We love you Mr. Engle!!! Let the filming begin!!

Rough Cut Refelction

As a classroom activity, Mr. Engle has us do a self reflection on our rough cut, and also had us do a peer evaluation of our rough cut. Below is my self reflection, followed by the peer evaluation ⤋⤋

Self-Reflection:

Continuity

Our video has decent continuity over all, however I did notice that there was a random, unnecessary jump-cut of our actor going from the bedroom to the bathroom without any context. This can be confusing to the audience when watching and definitely will be fixed later on during re-shooting.

Film Opening

Our video is not quite readable as a film opening... yet. This is because, for one, we have not cut our clips in the right places yet. We simply placed our lengthy clips into the rough cut without cutting them down to the necessary length yet, so it appears to be very drawn out. Also, it is supposed to be a title sequence. But we have no titles. Once we get our title card and credits placed in, it will become more readable as a film opening. Also, our sound has not been correctly placed in yet, so the video appears slightly quiet and the sound seems asynchronous at times.

Genre 

It is fairly obvious that our video falls within the thriller genre. We demonstrated many thriller genre conventions in our opening, such as low key lighting, a sense of isolation, and creepy beings such as the female figure who appears behind Lionel, giving an eerie vibe.

Peer Evaluation: 

Partner suggestions (below are the questions I asked my peers, and their responses).

Whats the setting (time and place?): A motel, late at night, coming back from work, sketched out by the creepy room.

Who are the characters?: Robert, protagonist, then the creepy female character in the background.

What is movie going to be about? How can you tell?: Thinks the female character is supposed to be demonic or possessed based on how she is portrayed/hair on the face.

To what extent is it readable as a film opening?: Very readable already, when adding titles it will be even more obvious as a film opening.

To what extent is it readable as a thriller film?: Yes very obvious that it's a thriller.

How might the clarity of meaning in the video be improved?: Cut down the length of the shots a lot, but the shots used were very creative.

Seen below is my rough cut. My very ROUGH cut.

Our Actor!

     All great films need great actors to really make the film POP. That's why my group and I decided to use Robert Thomas (the older brother to our group member Pierce Thomas) as our actor. Robert was perfect for the role as he doesn't convey much emotion in his face. Now, I know that sounds strange. You might be wondering why a lack of emotion would be a good trait for our actors to have. So I shall explain. Our character, Lionel, is someone who is trapped within his own mind by haunting memories and experiences. He has become cold to the world and to emotions after death took away someone very close to him. When searching for actors, we wanted someone who could portray this mindset of numbness without over or under-doing it. Robert was the perfect fit. As cinematographer, it was a surprise to me when I was asked by my group to play the mystical figure of the woman who's loss Lionel mourns throughout the title sequence. I was aware that someone would be playing the "female in the red dress", but I wasn't sure who. Oddly enough, it ended up being me! So I will be acting in our film as well.  Pictured to the right is Robert and I. 

Scheduling/Preparing 

Many considerations came to mind for scheduling and preparing our actor for production which took take place on Saturday, March 2nd. The most important factor was making sure everyone was available. We have a director, a production designer, and editor, a cinematographer, and now an actor who all have unique schedules! But we couldn't accomplish anything without an actor present on screen for actual production. We we had to make sure to work production around our actors schedule. Thankfully, he had a free day on Saturday... which was great, because we spent 9 hours during production that day! Preparation for our actor was also important. In order to make sure Robert was ready for the big day, he needed to be familiar with what we expected from the title sequence. Our director made sure Robert was familiarized with the script and with the general idea behind the story so he knew how to conduct himself prior to the rolling of the cameras. This helped make sure his performance was 10/10.

Sources: https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/how-to-plan-an-effective-shooting-schedule/

Our Experience at Super 8 Motel

Today marked our first day of production! Located at Super 8 Motel in Tampa, we spent a very long, tiring, and exciting day filming for our rough cut. While I enjoyed the entire experience and was very glad I got to make a title sequence with my amazing group, there are some factors from today that just cannot go un-said. The first thing that I would like to point out is the VERY deceptive nature of the motel's webpage.

Online, Super 8 made their cheap $80 room look cute and cozy. It seemed like a nice place to film, while simultaneously not grossing us out. We thought we got super lucky, because what're the odds you get such a good room at such a low price?! 

Pictured here are some photos from their website of our requested room.

But let me be the first to tell you, this was NOT the case. After Pierce, Robert and I were shocked at the outcome, I decided to take out a camera and record a mini handheld documentary of where we were about to film. The living room was missing furniture, the door to the bedroom was gone, and the dishwasher had disappeared from what appeared to be a long time ago. Please enjoy the video I filmed seen below.

It was rater ironic how our production designer Bianca had found a nasty review of the motel online from an angry customer who claimed the motel was so un-kept that the sheets were always stained and their was always pet hair on the beds. Well, after examining the bed, that was exactly my statement as well! 

But besides the let down on the physical appearance of the motel, we did experiment with some abnormal shots during our time here. My personal favorite was our "under water" shot idea. We didn't have  a water proof case, but we did want to attempt to get a video of Robert from below the water, so I brought along my trusty zip-lock bag and hoped for the best. Here is an example of one of my test shots before we got Robert in the scene. Though the shots did get more clear as we practiced more with that unique shot, we decided against using it in our rough cut, because it felt too out of place. Nevertheless, it was fun to film!

One of my favorite parts of today was experimenting with lighting. As cinematographer, it was definitely an important skill to learn and a massive part of my role. As a group, we were all able to test out the industrial lights, lamps and iPhone flashlights that we had on set. We would test out how our actor looked on camera with these lights up close or far away, and even experimented with using multiple lights at once. A big factor that I enjoyed was discovering hands-on how the angle in which you hold a light can cast spooky shadows on your subjects face, making the thriller factors even stronger. All in all, today was a very interesting, exciting, and tiring day, but I can gladly say we completed our rough cut. 

Bianca and I holding 3 iPhone flashlights at different angles as Pierce tests the camera to see what shadows look the best on film

Storyboard baby

As Cinematographer, duty called when it came time to make the storyboard. A storyboard is a sequence of drawings, typically with some directions and dialogue, representing the shots planned for a movie or television production. Through collaboration with my group, we were able to come up with an agreement of how we want our film to look. Using that, I made a basic storyboard showing some major shots and settings which I thought carried a big significance on the title sequence and needed to be drawn out. Now, I would like to note that I am not, nor have I ever, been blessed by the artistic Gods, and I cannot draw very well. Though I did try! It's the thought that counts, right? Just don't laugh at the drawing....

Actually you can. I did too. 

Here is my storyboard

*I should note that my partner Pierce, who is more artistically talented, agreed to take my storyboard and re-draw my vision to make it easier on other peoples eyes. I will update you when the storyboard 2.0 is created!*

1.  Going from left to right, the first shot is our master shot of Super 8 motel in the evening, however during production we decided nighttime made the feel much spookier. Here is a sneak-peak of a possible master shot we may use, shown above.
2.  The second shot is our high angle push in on Lionel's face while he's sleeping
3. The third is a mid-shot of Lionel after he wakes up and adjusts his body, sitting up over the edge of the bed, clutching a red cloth. This is where the figure of a woman in a red dress (who was played by me) appears behind him, and we hear a distinctive dripping noise in the background.
4. The fourth is a wide shot of Lionel as he enters the bathroom, which is a very important setting for our film as it revolves around our brand of water. We can hear the dripping of water grow louder.
5. The fifth shot is a high angle over Lionel as he looks down into the sink, acknowledging the abnormal occurrence of a phone ringing while being submerged under water.
6. The sixth shot shows Lionel after he makes his way into the bathtub full of water. Whispers being to rise in the background, reminding him of what he did... or what he didn't do. 

Sources: 

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/what-are-storyboards/