My Experience Filming

Just like I promised you, I'm talking about the filming process! I had a blast, even though I did forget to eat before shooting. That was a bad idea. But besides that, filming went well. I had to take the time beforehand to collect all my equipment and all my materials, grab the stuff that I needed at the last minute, and stuff it in an old gym bag. I knew that I would be moving around location-wise, so I needed something to carry everything so I wouldn't have to go back and forth from the car. 

In terms of equipment, I brought an iPhone, a smaller hand-held tripod, a larger tripod, my microphone that I bought for last year's project, flashlights, scripts + storyboards, pieces of colored construction paper for lighting, and some fake blood. Which brings me to this video that I think you guys will enjoy:

Link to fake blood video:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k18c30aYQ_dT0AL1bUFtzKKDLYRPg-GQ/view?usp=sharing

In it, I make an absolute mess out of my kitchen and make fake blood in the process. My earlier blog post really did help me, as I used that exact recipe with pretty good results. I'll show you next blog post what I'm talking about, and what I meant by "my corpse". I mostly just used corn syrup as the key ingredient for the blood. I mixed in some cocoa powder, corn starch, and hand soap for that texture and to help it leak into crevices on the skin like blood usually does. And I used food coloring, which is no surprise there. I added a combination of red and green food coloring for the normal human blood (it actually looks really realistic, I did think I managed to scare my brother a little bit when he saw it on my hands. I also mixed red with a lot of blue food coloring to make that darker purple, almost black demon blood. I didn't use it for this particular shoot, but I'll definitely use it for the next one. That also looks creepy as hell, so I'm proud of that one, too. I honestly expected the blood-making to go worse, because I originally couldn't find a few ingredients, but I think it turned out well. 

Now, let's move on to the actual filming.

I had to head to my first location with my crew: TC. I knew that the location might be a little populated since it is popular for food and restaurants, and we wanted to film in the evening, so we went to a part that was more secluded. We still had a little bit of traffic coming through, so that was one problem filming. I had my shot exactly how I liked it and was about to record, until some little kid would waltz into the frame and frolic around for a good 30 seconds before moving. I understand why kids like to frolic (I want to frolic more often), but after the third time it got annoying. I'll try to film in less populated locations next time, but I may not have a choice. If that's the case, I. might try to set up a little "filming area", and try to tape off a section where I'm filming, or just try to give people more of a heads up if they want to come through the area where I'm filming. It might be better than forcing a smile and waving people through right when I hit record and get a good shot of some kid running through. It might actually come in handy later, because one of my shots that I want to get is of some townspeople (aka demons) staring menacingly and robotically as my protagonist Val walks past. In that case, I'll have to talk random strangers into helping me with my school film project. It'll be awkward and scary, but it might also be fun.

I also had to account for the time change, and thereby the change in when the sun sets. I needed my setting to be a little more dark, because I got there earlier than I intended plus it was the first day of daylight savings. So I stood around and just planned shots for longer than I wanted to. When it finally became dark enough, I did get some good shots. The lighting where I filmed was perfect and really had that feeling of perfect town mixed with some frightening and dark elements. I'll talk about it more next blog post, but just know that I did finally get good lighting. Here's the proof:

Yes, I did edit the video some (including the brightness and contrast), but it looks good regardless. The lighting in that location was just fantastic, so I got lucky there. There are dark trims to give it that more suspenseful feel, and there's good symmetry, so it is more aesthetically pleasing. I also like the color combination, especially after editing the video and getting it to look more eerie. Here's another video without the edits to show off my location:

It just has a certain look that I really like. Plus, I was able to get some shots that highlighted composition (such as this one) because of this ideal setting. I can really contrast the seemingly perfect town with the pockets of darkness its hiding behind the light. 

Since I'm going in depth with the shots that I took next post, I want to dedicate this little section to my actors/actresses/actor people (especially Cathy) for putting up with me and this project. Filming can sometimes be a pain, especially later at night, but they made it more fun and they were the ones that made my shots better. They held the flashlights and lighting kit stuff while I filmed, they put up with my crazy self, and helped with equipment. I owe y'all more chocolate for sure. 

I'll leave my most persistent problem while filming for the next blog, since I will be going more into depth with that one. So, hope you stick around to read it, and I promise there'll be more fun stuff (and actual trailer footage) next blog post. Peace.