Behind the Scenes

On the 20th of January 2016 our media group shot our thriller which we had prepared for since October. We began working on our shoot at around 09:30 a.m, when we finally had gathered all of our props, and all of our group members had assembled in the studio, where we would be shooting all day. Gathering the props wasn't a big deal at all; we had ordered half the props from Amazon as most of it was able to be delivered within a day to a week, and the others we were able to get from the art department (things such as the easel, paint palette, jug, etc.) the day before and brought them up to the classroom so that we would have everything ready in the morning. That was one thing that definitely went well, as we were properly prepared for the shot and didn't even need all of the things we had brought along. There were no problems with props and we had extra fake blood left over after the entire thing.

We started out with setting up the back panels to our shoot. We got black back panels which have texture on it, and which also had some rips in it. Because we didn't have to focus on the background as much, we had the ability of putting the back panels together without looking at whether they properly fit together or not. This didn't take as much time as we thought it would because it was quite simple for us to create the set. 

We also placed the easel and the table accordingly to where we think the actors could both be in the same shot at the same time, but would also give us enough flexibility to work around them. We also placed the easel and table so that they wouldn't be stuck on the wall, therefore making it look a little more dimensional and making the space we filmed in more larger than what we actually had available to us.

After we had completed putting together our set, we got our first actor, Oliver Tennant, who would be playing our victim - because we wanted the victim to be as bloody as possible, and look as deranged and hurt, we used as much fake blood as possible. This worked quite well in the sense of the victim looking like he was hurt, however we wanted to make the body look more dead - sadly we hadn't accounted for paler make-up, or anything that would make the body look more sickly, and therefore we were required to use more fake blood so that the entire tablecloth, body and floor ended up being covered in the sticky substance made of corn starch. The effect we wanted did come through in the end, however it took a while for us to get the gruesome look we wanted to achieve in the first place. Next to this, the fake blood we used was very sticky and therefore very difficult to work with. We had to often dilute it in water to make it more runny in order for us to be able to pour it over the victim, and not look like syrup. It did help us shoot a wound drooling slowly, however when being shot from further away it was vital that the blood was spread out and did look runny, because blood does not usually have a cornstarch consistency, especially when leaking out of the body.

Right from the beginning of shouting our thriller, we encountered a little problem; as it is January, and it was about -2°C to +1°C outside, it may not have been the smartest idea to have our victim's costume to consist of a white tank top and white shorts. The studio is not a place which is usually heated, so we were all a little cold. However our victim ended up shivering throughout the entire time he was on set, as he was not wearing a lot of clothing when he was lying on the table, playing a person that was fading in and out of consciousness and who was about to die. In order for our actor not to freeze to death, we quickly had to improvise and find a portable heater in one of the classrooms. Eventually we did find one, and in between each shot we had someone hold the heather towards our victim to warm him up, and to not have him die of hypothermia. In the end we did manage to shoot the shots we wanted to without too much of a problem, although most of us did feel quite sorry for our actor. Thankfully he persevered.

We did attempt to maintain continuity by using three different canvases, however only ended up using one as the actor for our killer ended up painting a big splotch of blood on the canvas. Therefore we just went along with it and used the canvas to the fullest, without wasting too much fake blood. Our actor was very enthusiastic and energetic when it came to doing things with the fake blood, such as smearing it across his face and maniacally laughing.

When filming, I was the one who was usually behind the camera and responsible for setting up the shots. This gave me the ability to be creative and learn more about the process of how someone actually films a video; I was also able to explore the pans, and because I was quite confident with the camera, I was able to bring ideas and suggestions into filming and tried to make everything happen so that we could have a large variety of shots. I was also the one who had the ability to say whether we should re shoot the scene or not, and was also able to direct what and how the shot should be set up. 

I really enjoyed this aspect of filming because it gave me the ability to play a big part during our thriller shoot, and become interactive within our work. I also tried to work with the director in order to decide what we had to shoot next, but usually I was able to put my creative mind into everything.

Something we also did was recording a minute to a minute and a half of sound to use in the background of our thriller, to extenuate the feeling of being in a secluded area (such as a basement), and just getting the surround sound.

Overall, I believe that our thriller shoot was a success. We did end up using a lot of fake blood, and it did end up on everything that was included in our thriller shoot (it ended up on the floor, the canvas, the easel, the tables, the cloths, etc.), however I feel like using this specific type of SFX gave us the ability to make our thriller look especially gruesome and disgusting. Cleaning up did however, take quite a while.