Filming

 Welcome back!

We made it to the big day. We wrapped up filming Monday night, and we now have a bunch of footage to sort through and edit in the coming weeks. We had some complications, but after a long night we got the footage that we need. Everyone left exhausted, but we all had a good time and worked hard.

The start of the night:

Chloe, me, our cinematographer, and our makeup artist arrived at location around 5:30 pm (17:30) and began setting up. We set up the cameras, lights, and props. Chloe and I organized the backyard, Chloe took out the bottles she had collected, and we made sure the equipment was running properly. We put colored paper in front of the lights to add a filter as well.

Nevaeh arrived soon after, then the team discussed some of the specifics of our plan. We got our dolly and spoke about where we would be taking the camera, placing actors, and other important aspects of the opening. The rest of the crew (the actors, who also helped carry around the lights whenever we switched rooms/locations) arrived just after 6:15, and filming started shortly thereafter.

Our first problem was that most people cancelled on us.

Other than our cinematographer and makeup artist, everyone who Chloe invited cancelled on her. The same happened with Nevaeh. I had invited one person who said he was going, and last minute (two days before) I asked him to invite some more actors. He got three other people, though one also had to cancel. Fortunately, we only needed one person working the camera and one person reserved as the main character. Nevaeh was going to play the main character, so the 6 of us that were remaining starred as the partying (and dead) characters. It actually worked out pretty well, and I think we had a decent number of characters.

Originally, Chloe, Nevaeh, and I had planned to do a dolly shot through the entire house. We planned to film a walkthrough two times, once with living characters and again with dead characters, then editing in flashbacks as necessary. We communicated this to the team, but our cinematographer had a different idea. She took still shots of the characters alive and dead in three different locations. I took a long walk-through recording of the house, but instead of a smooth dolly, it is more of a POV shot of someone walking through. I think it may be difficult to keep all of this footage in a two-minute time frame, and I am slightly concerned about how to ensure that it looks like the first two minutes of a film, and not anything else (ie a short film). I will be getting to editing soon, however, and I will manage.

Moving on:

We filmed all of the alive scenes, and then moved upstairs to do makeup. 

The quality of our time was better than the quality of those photos. Our makeup artist was applying the powder makeup, and actors who had powder makeup on then moved over to Chloe, who was spraying fake blood on us. I had the wonderful experience of getting a small bit of fake blood up my nose and in my mouth (Thanks Chloe). The makeup came out good, and we moved on to the dead scenes. 

The first dead scene we filmed was in the dining room (which was where the last living scene was filmed, so the equipment was already set up). Two of us played dead on the counter, and then we began moving equipment to the sitting room.

We did give our actors their promised pizza (although only one of the two pies was delivered), and we took a brief break from filming to eat dinner. The food arrived just after we filmed my dead scene in the kitchen, and once everyone finished eating, filming began in the next room.

I saw some of the filming in the sitting room, but at Chloe's suggestion Nevaeh and I headed upstairs to get her into costume and ready. Nevaeh and I did realize that the scene with her in plain clothes should have been shot before her scene in the bloody costume, and I ran downstairs to relay this information to Chloe. She agreed, and Nevaeh and I then joined the rest of the crew downstairs. Unfortunately, I missed the entirety of the dead-people-in-the-backyard filming. 

At this point, everyone moved back upstairs with the equipment and we recorded Nevaeh's plain clothes shots. Chloe was helping the boys remove their makeup while Nevaeh was being filmed, and our actors and cinematographer left thereafter. We still had to shoot Nevaeh's walking scene in the bloody dress, so I took care of lighting and filming for that part. Everyone was extremely tired by this time, and after a couple of tries we decided we should be good. Chloe, Nevaeh, and I packed up the equipment and then Nevaeh and I headed home. 

It was a fun, interesting, and rather exhausting night of shooting, but we made it through and will begin editing soon. Shoutout to everyone who helped!

The crew: Chloe, Nevaeh, Liv, Eddie, Ashton, Henry, and Obed.

Here's a random assortment of photos from our night of filming:

To be continued...