The preparations started the week before, we had everything ordered from amazon, this included spray paint a dress, string and elastic bands. The first step was to create props for our title sequence which I took the liberty of creating a pentagram from sticks, elastic bands and spray paint, this took me a good amount of time but It was worth it as it was perfect for out filming. The day before the shoot me and Tom prepared the rest of our satanic symbols needed for our title sequence, these included upside down crosses and a few other pentagrams. This made sure we were well prepared for the shoot day, we had all the materials needed for our title sequence. I at the start thought we didn't have enough props to be effective conventions to our horror, but when we were at the shoot we had more than enough. The day started out normal time, I went to breakfast early and then went straight to the media classroom where we kept all of our props, this was around 8:30 and everyone got together. After this we collected the meat from the dining room, once we had collected the pig heads we brung all of our props to the bus.
What went well in our filming is how prepared we were, we had everything we needed, even though some of our items on amazon took longer than expected, at first we didn't know what meat we were going to get for our title sequence, at first it didn't look like much but it was more than enough. We found our location very easily, and another positive is that the bus was super close to our location which meant we could move our props in and out easily. The drive was around ten minutes so we got from and to the school very easily, which gave my group a lot more time to film. Furthermore, with the bus being so close we could move the meat fast, this was vital as the weather wasn't very good, the meat was very heavy which meant we would've struggled carrying it long distances. The fake blood we used also worked very well and in addition to the spray painting of symbols on trees, our setting up of the massacre went very well. It took us around a hour to set up, while we were doing that we were also filming other shots so we used our time very effectively. The massacre set looked great, it looked like a spiritual killing which is what we were aiming for. With the mix of blood and spray paint it looked like a planned out event, as well as the tipis that were pre-made made it appear like there was bodies in each one. Finally the packing up of all of our equipment was very fast, this was great because the weather started pouring with rain as soon as we were finished.
There were a few issues with our filming also, this was majorly the weather, which was terrible all day. This could've lead to the ruining of our massacre scene, this is due to the combination of all of the blood and meat, as well as the fact that most of the meat was on the ground which could have mixed with the dirt and ruin our product. Furthermore, we had sticks in the ground with pig heads on them which meant they could have easily fallen over. We avoided these problems by making sure out filming was done as quick as possible whilst capturing all the scenes we needed, furthermore, due to the weather being shocking we had to use umbrellas the whole time to make sure the camera equipment including the tripod didn't get wet. Additionally, this gave everyone a role in our filming with some of us holding umbrellas and then rotating with filming and directing the scenes.
One of the main things my group could have done differently is filming a different day, this is due to the tight squeeze that Fridays usually are with a mix of some group members having plans and struggling to get transport home if we filmed overtime. Furthermore, I think we could have filmed for longer, the material we got was great but there is always room for improvement as well as we filmed a lot quicker than most other groups, although we covered a lot of material, having more shots of the same sequence from different angles would have been better. Additionally, I believe that we could've had more props, the massacre scene looked great, but I'm disappointed that we didn't go above and beyond, these props include meat, I believe that we could have had a lot more which would have allowed our group to space out the meat a lot better, to make the scene appear like it was just a slaughter.
On our film day I had the role of focus pulling, this is a new technique that I learned, overall I knew about the terminology that we used, we didn't use much technical language that I didn't know already. There was one thing I learned from our shoot day, which was walking from the right to the left of the screen goes against the normal, which relates to the character walking into uncertainty, as well as making the audience know that somethings going to go wrong. The terminology that was used most on the day was the directors stage directions, which included camera rolling, action and cut. The workshops really helped with the filming, my group was very confident in setting up out scenes and the camera, furthermore, we knew about what to avoid, like having bad composition, and because of the last workshop I knew that we had to make sure we used the right lighting. Moreover, we used the 180 rule and we knew what to avoid again, like filming from opposite sides of the dog walker, which would have confused the audience.
Overall my favourite part of the day was the setting up of the massacre, this was because of the fact that we could be creative to our greatest extent, I spent around an hour setting up this scene with the best part being spraying the fake blood around. The reason this was the best part is due to how it looked, and every few minutes it looked better and better. This was due to the extra details that we added, like the spray painting of symbols on trees. From the footage we shot I think we have more than enough, there are some angles that I wish we captured but overall the shots we got look great. What I have learned for my next filming project, is don't stop shooting until you have too much. Furthermore, if we had to film this sequence again I would prepare more props, and make sure we have more filming material.
The thing I am most excited about when it comes to editing is re-watching everything we filmed, it's great to be able to see the work we had prepared for months, and this is the final product. With the mix between the 4k black magic cameras and using Adobe Plus editor the sequence already looks great, even with little editing and no title sequence. There is few challenges that we face in the edit suite, most of them come from the fact that we didn't get enough of a shot or we didn't have the angles needed. Furthermore, we have come across a lighting problem, but this is easily dealt with as it is only one shot.
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