Preparing to Film

 Welcome back to A Thursday Turtle blog!

As the year moves on, my class gets closer to filming our movie intros. This means that it is important that we have our ideas together and are thinking about the best ways to film and what we need to do to put our film together in the most efficient way possible. 

That being said, my group and I have been brainstorming and recruiting. Since the content of our film opening is the aftermath of a bloody teenage party with flashbacks to the actual party, we are going to need teenagers, a place to throw the party, and props to make it look like a real party. Fortunately, all of us are currently teenagers, so it shouldn't be too hard to find a few volunteers to be in our film (pizza can be very persuasive). As I mentioned in a previous post, we have already decided that our location is going to be Chloe's (aladyblug) house, so we don't need to worry about scouting for or renting a location. Her house has a pool, which we may be incorporating into the party. This plays into our thoughts for wardrobe. Since we are filming teenagers at a teenage party, we can tell our actors to dress as they would for a casual party with a pool (some may opt for swimsuits, regular clothes, or something a little on the cuter side; this is also information that we will be providing when we are communicating with our actors). We will probably ask to see what our actors plan to wear before they show up to set so we can make sure that their choices fit what we are going for. It is also helpful that our actors will be able to wear their own clothes, as we won't have to spend any of our not-really-existent budget on wardrobe. The main character is likely going to be dressed all in pink, so we need to search for specific clothes for her.

Moving on, props are going to be very important for setting the scene. The party will have pizza and drinks and music, so we plan to get pizza (which is also going to serve as payment for our actors) and fake beer bottles (since we are minors we don't want to work with real ones, even though they would be empty anyways). We also plan to set up a speaker because there will be music in the background of the flashback scenes. We may throw some extra clothes around the house (like jackets, or shirts by the pool) as well. Since our characters are going to be killed with a knife (as is implied by the main character holding a bloody knife at the end), we will need a lot of fake blood. It will be on the floor, on people, and on the main character's knife, which is another prop that we will need to have on set. 

Our opening is going to take place at night, so we will probably do our filming over the weekend. We plan to start setting up in the evening, and then start filming whenever it gets dark (which is pretty early this time of year). At the moment, we don’t have any specific dialogue planned for our intro, but actors will be directed to have conversations in the background, sing along to music, and maybe even shout as they jump into the pool. We will have to be sure to map out character blocking effectively, and we will also have to choose good music to play at the party. To properly get the dialogue, music, and other party sounds, we will either need a good mic or have to record everything after filming (likely both). Since the shot is a smooth shot through the house, we will likely need a steadicam, dolly, or similar equipment. With our shoot being done at night, we are going to have to work out how to get the lighting that will properly emphasize our characters and add to the varying moods between scenes without taking away from the darkness of the night. 

We have a lot to think about, but we will be filming soon! Till next time :)

To be continued…