Garage location mise-en scene

Garage Location Mise-en Scene

Carrying on from my last blog post on location, we used my garage for our latest day of filming.  It fitted our supernatural horror really well as it was very dirty and dingy.  The bare walls and dark colours made the scene look very effective and scary.  

 To fit with the religious, exorcism theme we used burnt down candles to mimic candles used in churches and exorcism scenes from other films.

 The costumes for the scene was a priest's outfit and the young girl victim.  For the priest we used a plain black suit and priests front and dog collar.  This looked very effective and realistic which made the scene look very realistic for an exorcism.

 We chose a position in the garage which would look the best on film of the background.  The wooden and metal brown wall looked the best as it was dirty and broken in places to make it look run down and unused.  We organised the candles into a semi circle around our victim to mimic a ritual like situation which looked very effective for the genre.











We then tested the lighting by switching off the over head lights.  Through the
camera the candle lighting lit up the victim very effectively as the low lighting
was very specific for the genre.









In evaluation I feel that the mise-en scene was very effective for the supernatural horror genre and fitted our exorcism theme very well.  The candles worked well as low-lighting and gave a religious feel to the scene.  The costumes looked very realistic which is good for the scene as horror is usually more effective at being scary by using realism.

Evaluation Day 3

Filming Evaluation Day 3-29th Jan

We had to make several changes to our initial plan when discussing our filming plans for the exorcism scene.

Firstly, Alice's brother stepped in as a replacement for our priest as Paul was unable to film on this day. As a result of this, we also had to slightly change our costume for our priest character as we no longer had all the full priest outfit, therefore we opted for a plain dark suit alongside a white collar and rosary beads (which would still allow our audience to immediately identify our character as a priest).

Furthermore, we initially planned to film in an inside/room location (a spare room in Alice's house), however this had to be changed therefore we decided to film in Francesca's garage as we would still be able to create a sinister atmosphere and still have an element of isolation. This change in location also meant that we no longer had a chair or bed for our victim to lie in therefore we decided to have our victim on the floor as through high angled shots, we could still emphasise the vulnerability of her character.

On the day, we decided that it would best to meet straight after school. Francesca, Alice and I met at Francesca's house at around 3.30, whilst Rebecca went to pick up her sister and meet us. During this time, we were also waiting for Alice's brother. 

We began filming around 5:30, however, the daylighting wasn't an issue as we were shooting in inside anyway. After our victim and priest had been dressed and had their make up and props, we set up our set. Prior to this filming day, we had ensured to burn out some of the candles so that they looked worn out and were different sizes to emphasise the sinister-looking set which we wanted.

We laid out the candles in several ways for different shots. Whilst we were filming, we also decided to add any other additional shots which we felt would add to our supernatural and sinister setting. For example, we had the priest walk around the victim whilst she was circled with the candles. Also, we were able to draw a cross into the ground which we felt gave a twisted mix between our victims innocence with the religious incorporation of the supernatural genre. Whilst these were not part of our storyboard, we felt that these extra shots would improve our opening.

Evaluation

Positives:

• We were able to deal with problems (e.g.actors not being able to attend, location change).
• We were able to shoot a variety of different camera angles and lighting shots.

Negatives

• Battery running out-ensuring the camera was fully charged/battery wasn't wasted.
• Not being well familiar with our camera.
• We could have been more efficient-whilst our actors were getting ready, others could have been setting up or do lighting checks.
• We could have used more props to make our priest as easily identifiable to our audience as possible.
• We could have used more candles to highlight our sinister setting even more.

Evaluation Filming day 2

Evaluation of Filming Day 2

• Our second filming day was for the woods scene at the end of the opening the whole group was present for this section.
• We began filming at half past 5 because we needed the dark for the torch light to look effective.  The location was danson park and we found an appropriate wooded path to use.
• Our actor was again our victim and she was wearing the same nightgown costume but this time with possessed style makeup and hair done by Rebecca.

• This filming took longer than the last day as we needed more shots. The lighting took a while as the torches had to be precisely placed for the victim to show up properly but to also look sufficiently creepy. 

• We eventually realised that the best lighting we could get was when we positioned the torches just behind the camera to light up what was in front of it.

• Our shots consisted of a combination of long shots, mid-shots, close-ups and floor shots.
• To achieve an effective shot of the victim running we put the camera on the floor to get her feet and then put the camera in a boot so it was tilted upwards to get her jumping over the camera.  
• The only difficulties we encountered was the weather and the background light from the main road.  As it was a very cold night we had to keep putting a blanket and coat over our actor as she was only wearing a night gown.  This was especially bad when she was lying on the floor in the mud.  To avoid seeing the lights from the main road we always had to film the victim with the camera's back to the road.
  
  
  
  

Evaluation Filming day 1

Evaluation of Filming Day 1

• Our first filming day was of the church scene at the beginning of the opening although due to work commitments only myself and Rebecca could make it.  We meet at the location at approximately half past 2 and began filming at 3pm.  

• Our only actor for this section of filming was the main victim, Rebecca's sister.  She wore the nightgown costume with plain pumps and have natural hair and makeup to look as young as possible.
• The weather was perfect for the scene as it was grey and overcast, making the church look grim and gothic.
• Using the story board we went through the shots, some we had to re-do as they were not the best quality when we looked at them.  
• The day went really well and the shots we got are very effective and look how we want them to.  The only problems we encountered was that there was some slight rain at the end of the filming which meant we had to keep wiping down the camera.