The following morning...

After having that very long night of filming we woke up the next day and met at my house at around 10am. My houses had to two things we needed for some of our last shots: a fridge in the garage and a kitchen fridge with lots of sun in the morning. So the fridge in the garage was when the man is putting the heart away but we had one major inconvenience again... none of our male actors were available.... Again we worked with what we had because that is all we could do, so I picked up my hair, changed into all black and began shooting. We blacked out the entire garage so you could only use the light inside the fridge and we placed the camera inside and just did trial and error. we tried many different angles and shots to see how the camera would focus better. I don't know how I feel about this shot, I feel we should get one of our male actors and do it again as I feel its obvious its a girl but I don't know if I think that because I know its me. We will see how it looks one its put together and I'm going to ask different people to see what they say. Then we shot the last scene which would be the beginning of the film where the girl is alive. I went to completely change my outfit to wear a bright pink girly shirt as that's what I want the audience to perceive her as creating a juxtaposition with what happens in the film. When she is killed and getting her heart ripped out she is also wearing a yellow shirt as this represents optimism and pink represents feminine . This following shot was also inside the fridge but was easier to get the focus right with all the light. We did different shots adding props and costume design. Just as the red bloody heart was put in the fridge to continue with the red theme she takes out a big red bowl out of the fridge. Also we did a could shots with my dog to have more options while editing as he will make the mood lighter. This day of filming was much much shorter as we were very sleepy but we wanted to finish that so we could edit a good part of it. We are just missing about 3 shots which we are planning on doing it Monday.

Fliming part 2

Yesterday we got together and now we really started filming the more difficult and messy shots. we had to change our male actor as the first one we had was busy but we made sure they were wearing the same thing and since everything had tighter shots it turned out ok. I think the hardest things was the scene of him taking her heart out as we didn't want to graphically show that but at the same time make it clear to the audience what he is doing. My original shot idea which is in the storyboard for getting closer and then up was very difficult to do as we had nothing to make the camera stable. So instead we decided to make a clear shadow and simply film the shadow. This certainly wasn't ideal but we worked what we had and it came out well. The other biggest challenge we faced was the lighting, we were just using lots of flashlights as our lighting so we had to keep moving the lights around for the camera to capture the image. Overall this filming day was very successful but very very messy. The fake blood got absolutely everywhere!! When they poured all that blood on me it created a huge puddle me and it was super cold! then after when I went to change the blood had bleed through the shirt and was all over my back!!!! Thankfully I came off with simply a wet paper towel but it still took a while to clean it all up. We started filming around 9 and finished at around 2 am, we knew we were going to do this because we knew we wanted to take advantage of the night time. We finished about 80% of our shots and I was really happy with how they came out. Below are a few pics from our filming day part 2.

Schedulinggg

We weren't able to film anymore that week as I worked the entire week and Gabbie and our actor had things to do but we decided to set certain dates ahead to time so we can all plan ahead. We hope to do all the filming the 28th and the 29th of March. Now that we have a game plan we can do it much easier and get to the actual filming faster. We also divided certain things for each person to do like we need more fake organs to put in the jars so we each have to make 2 organs. Gabbie is going to make eyes and fingers, Thabata is going to make thee liver and the spleen, and I am going to make the kidney and intestines. Thabata is going to bring all the jars as well and I'm going to bring more flash lights and tissue paper we can wrap it around. I'm also going to either buy a disposable camera or take them on my phone and print them in office depot of different people that he 'kidnapped' for the scene where he has all the pictures hanging. Then I need to go to goodwill, a thrift shop, to buy clothes that can be stained and throw away but can still follow my costume design of feminine and delicate. Lastly I'm going to ask Thabata to buy another plastic table cloth for the table where he buts the heart not to get stained. There is a lot to do but the good thing is we have spring break right now so I have lots of time also when we are filming we can stay until late at night because we don't have to wake up early the next day. I will keep you updated on what I'm able to get this week!

Blood & Heart

The making of the blood and heart was a it tricky for different reasons. For the blood we had so many different recipes and it was hard to decide which one would come out better. We ended up doing one with lots of different things in it like coco powder, chocolate syrup, and corn starch.
Once we mixed it all together the color of the blood came out spot on but it came out a bit thick for what we needed. since we didn't end up using it that day we left it out to see what would happen for next time we film, if anything I feel that if we add water it will get a bit thinner. This is how our blood came out. Then for the heart we had a different complication at first that was not easy to fix. The directions to make the heart says to leave it in the freezer for 45 minutes and it will be ready. We put a timer for 45 minutes and when we went to check it hadn't gotten its form. We added more time and nothing. Until like 4 hours later it still hadn't gotten its shape. This is when we began to get a little nervous of what we were going to do or if we were going to have to find a new recipe. We left the heart in the freezer over night and the next morning Gabbie sent us this The heart finally got a form and was looking really good!! We really didn't need it perfect as the scenes are going to be dark so this is exactly what we needed! I'm super happy both the blood and the heart worked out and are ready for our next day of filming!

FILMINGG

Yesterday we finally had our first day of filming but it could have used a little bit more planning and time. Since our scenes need to be at night we had to wait until around 7 or 8 to start filming. Before we can even get together to start filming I got an extremely bad headache and couldn't get up:( I got there a bit later trying to recover but it worked out fine because my partners had begun making the blood and heart. I'll leave the heart and blood for a different post, but here I want to tell you about what happened when we were actually filming. First we decided we weren't going to put blood nor use the heart until we see all the shots and lighting works, I'm very glad we did this. First we would have used more lights as it didn't look nice on camera. We were using a big flashlight, a lantern and our phone flashlights.

This day worked a lot more as a learning day of what worked and didn't worked. We used a tripod and a skateboard to be able to do the pans which worked very nicely. We left everything how it was so it will be easier when we start filming again and we are going to add some lights, I'm thinking red. We got about 2 shots done yesterday but we learned a lot so it worked out.

Buying Stuffff!!

Today after school I went to buy a few things  we need to be able to film tomorrow! So I though that Party City had Halloween things year round with stuff like fake blood and masks, but turns out I was wrong! I walked in to Party City and all I see is Spring and Easter decorations:( I walked around for a while for a while and we found this mask

 

I asked in our group chat what they thought of the mask, we established it definitely wasn't the ideal mask we were hoping for. But this go the job done as it still looks mysterious and the red connects with the psychology of color as the color red often associated with death., so I got the mask. Also got a plastic table covering so that we don't stain anything with the fake blood. The only thing we are missing to buy now is the glycerin, food coloring and lots of corn starch but I'm going to ask someone in my group to buy it or I'll go get it tomorrow because I didn't feel very well. Last finishing details so we can really start filming tomorrow, I'm excited!!

Low-key Lighting

I've also been researching a little bit on how to create low key lighting to be able to make our scenes suspenseful. I was reading an article which presented a good idea called “The Complete Beginner’s Guide to Shooting Low Key” by Josh Johnson. For an affordable way to make the low key lighting is in the room we are filming in to make it dark and then the room or hallway connected to this room turn on all the lights to give it this low key lighting (picture below). We will be filming in a garage so in the hallway leading to the garage we can play around with this lighting to see how it looks on camera.

In another article called “How Low-Key Lighting Can Instantly Make Your Film Dramatic” by  Caleb Ward, it says not to over complicate the lights so much, it's easier than you think. If something seems wrong try turning off some lights. It gives an example of a possible set up (below)

Also explains a few things one should take into consideration. First thing it mentions investing in good lights but for this case i think we will have to work with what we have. Then it says to have fast lens nearby as these are good to use in low key lighting. I will ask Gabbie to make sure to bring this as she is the one with the camera. Next it explains about monitoring the levels of the camera, how much light is coming in or isn't, how the pixels look and that the subject is overexposed or underexposed. Lastly it explains the use of negative fills, meaning that using a black backdrop or absorb the light. This will allow you to control the light better and assure the focus is on the subject.

Making the title

Hii! So I've been planing with a couple different fonts to see what we would want for our title and our credits. We want the title to be called “Blind Date” but then the word “blind” would be crossed out and under it would say “blood”. Below are a few samples i have

My favorite ones are the first and the last one, the last things we would be missing on this is to make the title look more bloody. We were thinking of putting blood dripping around it but I wasn't able to do this, so I'm going to ask Gabbie if she knows how because she uses lots of photoshop. I’ll get back to you about this soon!!

Group Meetings

Welcome back!! This week has been completely chaos so I hadn't really had anytime to meet with my group:( I've had different work and club meetings and conferences all week, but I now I'm back!! So today in class we again shared with other groups our ideas and what we have done so far. I feel I got a similar reaction from last time, everyone was very surprised about the cannibalism idea but i explained that it was something completely out of ordinary. But one of girls i was talking to called Alexis gave me a good idea! She said for when the girl is dead on the group, to be able to look realistic and be able to put blood on her without worrying about staining the floor is by getting a clear trap that painters use. This will be very useful for making the scene look more realistic. They also recommend that we try out the heart before we film. That was all the ideas and advice I really got! Talk to you soon

Creating Suspense!

It is a new week and I decided to start this week off with a some more research. My group and I know that to make this film opening effective we need to create lots of suspense but we really haven't mentioned for researched well how we are going to do this. So since we are begin filming very soon i decided to get ahead start on this. On a blog post by Liya Swift she explains 5 main aspects to focus on to create suspense: Use music, build emotion, make an extreme decisions, use your space, and take your time. Music is the most basic and easiest way to  make a scene suspenseful with simple and nail-biting music in the background. We have already begun to look into this and have a few possible tacks saved. Then to build emotion you can use the emotions the actors are giving you. This can also be done with lots of close ups and rhythm to show the emotion in the scene. Throughout the scenes we have so far we have many close ups so this is good we don't need to make any significant changes. Next she explains about making an extreme decision such as filming the entire thing from the back of the head of someone or one wide angle shot the entire time. This will keep the audience thinking the entire time what is happening and why? I like this idea especially the wide angle one but I will be a challenge as id if we have a wide lens. Utilize your space is an important aspect as well but we will need to set this up and see the amount of room we have when we get there so we have ideas but that's it. Although we need to be sure we assure everything in the frame is organized and have meaning behind it. Lastly take your time, make sure the shots aren't rushed, allow the actors make the movements slightly slower, and follow the internal rhythm and music. This is going to be one we need to focus on because we don't want to rush it but we have a time limit and want to but a lot of shots in this time. Many of these aspects I didn't consider but then thinking about them they will all play a crucial role in creating suspense in our film opening.

First filming day set!

We have finally been bale to set our very first filming day!! this is very exciting as we fell slightly behind but we hope to get a lot done this day to get back on track. Saturday night we hope to get all the shots we have up to now done but this will entail a bot of preparation. I need to make sure I have the fake heart ready by then. We also need to go out and buy the fake blood and other organs. I would have liked to get together sometime during the week to work but it would be hard as we wouldn't have much time because it is getting darker later so we would have a very limited amount of time to film since its a school night. For this coming week the plan is to finish up the story board in class, create a props list and go out and buy the things. So excited to see how this all starts to come together!!

Cannibalism

I have been researching a little about cannibalism as in all honesty I don't know too much about it. On a Psychology Today website it says that the are usually extreme loners and are bitter about this. So that is why they kill people and keep them to eat  like that they never feel alone. It even goes on to say that it even sexually excites them to take the meat off the person. Cannibals usually don't look for something in a person it is more of a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and usually proud of their actions and have no shame in what they have done. Then I went on to research what leads a person to cannibalism I found there is not concrete answer but several theories. Clancy McKenzie, a psychology professor at Capital University in Washington, D.C. believes that cannibalism is a result of trauma, especially that experienced in childhood. On the other hand others believe that children who are excessively dependent on their mothers, due to maternal over nurturing, are more likely to experience oral aggression and frustration due to separation. The list of theories goes on and on but one thing I found in common is all of them include some type of trauma. This research wasn't too in depth but there weren't any symptoms or signs of cannibalism I was able to find today. Hopefully I have to opportunity to go more in depth another time, but I still learned some good facts.

Fake Heart

As the day that we begin filming gets closer closer we are trying to finish figuring out how we are going to do the props as we are going to need a significant amount. So i took it upon myself to research a little bit how we are going to make the fake heart.

How to Make a Fake Heart-

Ingredients-

• Glycerine
• Powder gelatin
• Water
• Fake blood
• Popsicles sticks
• Microwaveable container
• Paper towels
• Measuring cups
• Seran wrap
• Cup
• Bowl

Directions-

1. Inside the container put ½ a cup of gelatin powder, ½ a cup of glycerine, and ¾ cup of water.
2. Mix thoroughly with popsicles sticks then put in microwave for 12 seconds at a time until it feels warm. Do not place it for more then, 12 seconds at a time as we don’t want it to boil. Keep warming it up until it is completely liquefied.
3. Set a sheet of seran wrap on the biggest measuring cup and then pour liquid inside. A heart is about the size of your fist so that's about how much you should pour in.
4. Take your cup and stuff a few paper towels and stuff them inside creating a strange shape as this is where the heart will sit in. Then pick up the gelatin in the seran wrap and twist it close.
5. Sit the gelatin in the cup around the paper towels and keep moving it around until you like the shape of it. Then place it in the freezer for about 45 minutes or until it is solid.
6. Since it is now frozen you can and wrap it out of the seran wrap. Tip: do not take any of the extra piece hanging off as they can be different arteries and veins to make it look a lot more realistic.
7. Place the heart into the bowl and pour lots of fake blood on it. Keep rolling it around until it is completely covered in blood.
8. That's it you have your fake heart! Below are a few pictures of how it is supposed to look like.

Storyboard, Storyboard, and more Storyboard!!

Hii!! Welcome back sorry I haven't updated anything in a while I have been very busy:(( My group wanted to be a bit more ahead at this point but we decided we really want to take our time on the storyboard. We had a slight change of plans in our plot, we decided to take away the stalker aspect and just keep him as a cannibal. This was decided because we felt the stalker idea might be a bit overused and get boring. One of my favorite scenes we have come up with is there will be lots of pictures of people that will be when they are already kidnapped by him with a towel tied in their mouth, and each of the pictures will have a red X over it except one of the girls. Then another good idea we came up with was when he is putting the heart away we do a close up of his hand opening the fridge then the camera will be in the fridge, he closes the fridge then the title comes up. When the fridge opens again it will be at the beginning of the plot and it will be high key lighting and a bright happy environment. I’m genuinely very excited to see how these shots come out as I feel they were very creative.

Group Discussion

On Friday in class my group and I had the opportunity to break a apart and present our project to other people in the class as well as hearing their ideas. I haven’t had the chance a chance to speak with my other partners about the feedback they received but I'll update you on that on a later date. For now I'll tell you the feedback I got from my peers which for the most part was positive. I told them about the entire brainstorming process and the storyboard explaining why all those shots. They all told me the idea was very original and they weren't expecting that as people don't see many movies about cannibals in the film industry. Some advice they did give me was that in the beginning when the girl is dead we should make sure the camera can see her face so that in the following scene when it's the beginning of the plot that audience will understand what happened. This was a good recommendation as we were debating if we should show her face in the opening scene. We also discussed for a while about the part where he is ripping her heart out but we still couldn't really find a way to make it look realistic. So we came to the conclusion that we should keep the shots we had for that part but to make sure the heart looks very realistic by using some slime with fake blood. Then they told me another good point, for this scene with all the blood and organs we need to go in with a plan and already know how we are going to make everything as it is going to be long and messy so it will be hard to keep everything the same the following day. Out of this group discussion really gave me confidence for our idea and reminded me that my group and i have a lot of research to do to try to make it look as realistic as possible. I'll update you on what my group says soon, bye!

Srarting Storyboard

Hi, welcome back!!On Thursday Tabatha Gabbie and I were able to meet after schools and get a significant amount of work done. We began our story board and I really like how it’s coming out. Some of the shots we had to get creative on just so we can make sure it looks realistic, for example with shot 6 and 7. We wanted to make a scene where he is taking her heart out creating a symbolism that the audience would understand later. The symbolism would something along the line of her breaking his heart so he is going to rip her heart out. So Tabatha said we should do a shot for him pulling the heart out but what worried me is that it wouldn’t look as realistic. Then I came up with the idea I’m very excited of how it will look. At this point the camera is at a low angle shot with the girl on the floor dead and him looking over her, the camera begins to get closer and as he puts his hand into her chest the camera begins to move closer to them and up until you can’t see either of them anymore. Then he will come up from the bottom of the screen holding the heart and it will again be a low angle of him holding the heart so the heart will be the focus of attention. I came up with this idea and I really liked it but we need to make sure we find a way to make the heart look as realistic as possible, this will be the most challenging part. Also we found possible areas we can put the credits so they incorporate with the scene. Like the shot of his feet going down the step the name can be on the floor a when he steps on the name it disappears. In the last part of the meeting Gabbie gave a good suggestion for a movie title, she said to have it say blind date but then the ‘blind’ is crossed out and it says blood in a bloody red font. I also liked this idea a lot it thought it was a creative idea. That is where we stand as of now, we hope to finish the story board this week as a fell a bit behind planned and start filming in a week. I will keep you update on our progress!!