We came, we saw, we conquered the beast of re-filming. We are completely done re-shooting our film as of today! I was a long process that was mentally exhausting, but well worth it. A lot of changes and hard work led to the completion of production stage.
The Plot Issue:
The large, overhanging problem of the setting not coinciding with our plot that was presented in the last post was one that I thought through carefully last night. What was a way to continue the flow of the film logically, without Lionel leaving his room? I thought of his simply remaining in the room and the silhouette/girl coming to him, but I also thought that it probably wouldn’t be as compelling of a film opening due to lack of movement. There was also the possibility of Lionel pulling the curtain back and seeing that the silhouette was only a dummy, but I felt like that would be too straightforward and wouldn’t lend to the creepy vibe of the title sequence. He would have to move to the other room, but how?
I thought that having the silhouette and the dummy completely disappear when Lionel entered the adjacent room to answer and my group members agreed. Not only would add to the creepiness of the opening, but it would also leave the question of why the dummy could move and where it had gone. A subtle, yet crucial alteration. We proceeded with this in mind.
We also altered the ending a bit. We planned to show a silhouette, the girl from the picture (a.k.a Katelyn) coming from the room that Lionel just exited to enter the dummy’s room. It would watch him as he had his backed turned. Then, using a prop from way back in the “First Rough Cut” era – the “I Should Have Been There” document – the light on the opposite side of the bed would distract Lionel. He would walk over, unaware of the silhouette behind him until he got to the other side. When he looked at the curtain, the silhouette would be gone. Lionel would reach down and grab the computer, looking at the document, not noticing that the silhouette was now behind him. It would grab him from behind the curtain and the opening would end.
Other Issues and Resolutions:
One of our group members, Bianca, was unable to make it to this shoot, so we were down a person. This left us with only three people to work behind the scenes. Unfortunately, our group member, Ben, also needed to leave around 4:00 pm. This would leave us with only two people to film and work any lighting or props. This was problematic, as Katelyn, who would be the only one left to help with filming, was an actor in the film as well. The majority of her acting took place near the end of the title sequence as well, meaning that if we shot sequentially, we would most likely not have enough staff to film the scene properly.
So, making an executive decision as the director, I decided to film the end of the film first in order to have enough people to film the scene. All 3 of us had roles in the scene we filmed where Katelyn grabbed Robert: Ben was holding the light behind the curtain, Katelyn and Robert were acting and I was filming. Had we not filmed this first, this scene might have had to change or be rushed.
Additionally, we had popped the head off of a dummy in the Health and Science room and put it in the dummy’s hands as he sat in the wheelchair. We ended up not liking this blocking and ultimately decided to reposition the dummy and leave him with his head on this time. This didn’t take precedence, though, so it was one of the last things we filmed.
Beneficial Decisions:
Directing Robert was much easier this time around as I had learned how to better direct him from trial and error during the rough cut shoot at the Super 8 Motel. I had initially tried to direct his acting by giving him visuals of how to act or scenarios to “put him in the zone” to give a proper reaction. I quickly learned that this had the opposite effect that I had intended, prompting him to take the scenario less seriously than before.
I learned that giving Robert direct instructions with little context was more effective to get him to have the reaction I had hoped for. For example, in one shot where we were above him filming his reaction as he “woke up” in the hospital bed, I told him directly “you wake up confused. You look to the left, then to the right, before sitting up, thinking “what is that silhouette in the room over?” Directions like these, although seemingly restrictive, turned out to be most effective in giving Robert guidelines in how to act the part of Lionel.
One of the best decisions made this filming day was the decision to film the opening out of order. Not only did we film the ending first, but we also filmed all of the scenes that occurred facing the right side of the hospital room. After filming the scene where Katelyn grabs Robert, I decided that it would be more efficient to film all of the scenes facing this side of the room first. After yesterday’s filming, I thought about how we didn’t plan to present of source of the light, like a spotlight behind the bed within the film to give a reason for the bright light and silhouette. This would suggest that this light was naturally occurring within the room. Because of this, I felt that the continuity would be stronger should the bright light be emanating from every hospital room.
However, we only have one light and there were two hospital rooms bordering the room that Lionel wanders into in the second half of the opening. To pretend that this light was “coming from every room,” we would need to light up both sides of the room. This meant that if we wanted to film chronologically, where the camera would flip point of view to view either side of the room at points, we would have to move the light from one side of the room to the other side of the room depending on the shot.
I determined that this was too time consuming and inefficient and decided to simply film all of the clips that faced the right curtain first and the clips facing the left curtain last.
General Review:
These decisions made during filming were greatly beneficial to the filming process of the second day overall. Katelyn and I ended up having to work overtime and Ben left before us. We had planned to be done filming around 4:00 pm, but ended around 6:00 pm. However, since all of the most important pieces that required all of our group’s cooperation were already filmed, Katelyn and I were perfectly capable of shooting the rest on our own.
We were able to re-film the scene of Robert opening the curtain before seeing the dummy in the wheelchair and have it look just like we wanted.
I feel much more proud of this filming process and believe that our final cut will be changed or the better.
Lucid Elucidation's Explanations 