Production log 04

Where: Maddie H's house
Who: Maddie H, Niamh, George
Equipment: DSLRs
Purpose: Re-shooting for narrative

This was the final shoot we did before the final cut of the film. The focus of this shoot was just to perfect scenes that had perhaps room for improvement after receiving our second session of feedback. Most of the improvements that had to be made included the same glasses, pouring with one hand, etc. Fine tuning we imagined wouldn't take long, therefore we assumed the shoot would take two hours maximum.

However, we thought we may have some difficulties, as George was wearing a different suit. He originally wore a black suit, and then wore blue within this shoot. However, this problem was easily bypassed being able to colour correct on Final Cut Pro. I had also painted my nails a different colour, and only had one hand with purple nail polish. We bypassed this problem with careful framing.

Production log 03

Where: Maddie H's house
Who: Maddie H, Niamh, George
Equipment: DSLR
Purpose: Recording narrative for male victims death

This sequence happened due to the narrative changing - we originally planned for the death to happen in a bar, but changed the narrative so our protagonist seduced and killed a man back at her home. This made it a lot easier to scout out a location, as all of our houses had what we needed. However, we found my house had the best lighting and look with many blocky colours. As we needed to shoot all the scenes of the the seduction and man's death, we expected this would take the two hours allocated. We were correct, and everything was shot, with room for re-shooting if we felt necessary.

There were little issues with this shoot as we had all the props necessary, and most of our issues were with performance and lighting. As my kitchen is mostly glass, the unpredictability of the lighting on a cloudy day caused issues, meaning if we had to wait a couple times to wait for the sun to come back out. Also, since neither of the actors were professional actors, we had a few performance issues and both needed to be coached. 

Production Log

Whilst filming this sequence, we decided we needed change the location of where it was shot so it fit in a lot better with our whole bar idea. It took us a long time to actually set up the scene, which ate heavily into our filming time. We allocated two hours to filming this, which still wasn't enough time to film, but we had to use the footage that we could. The idea was the same, of our protagonist seducing a male and killing him, however some scenes had to be left out due to the time constraints.

Acting wasn't an issue, but since we had to use my hands and then the rest of Niamh's body we had to keep swapping roles, which also ate up time. Another difficulty was the lighting, as it wasn't perfectly black, with the light box reflecting on the wall. This ruined the whole feel of our sequence, and people commented that it looked too dark anyways.

Production log

Where: Maddie H's house
Who: Maddie H, Niamh, Kaan
Equipment: DSLRs, props
Purpose: Filming sequence for narrative 

When filming this, we moved the furniture within my house to make it look like a bar. However, later our teacher commented on it looking like a cafe. With all these scenes, we also had to shoot it to make it look like she had seduced him and killed him. The cinematography and lighting within these scenes works well, as the white walls reflect the light well. Acting was performed well first time, and we managed to shoot all the scenes we wanted in the two hours allocated, with room to re-shoot. We didn't need silence for these scenes as audio was being put on top. 

Production Log

Where: Media room
Who: Niamh, Kelly, Maddie B, Maddie H
Equipment: DSLR, Light boxes, white screens, props
Purpose: Recording mirror scene

Within this sequence, we were shooting the mirror scene, in which credits were going to be shown. We allocated two hours to shooting this scene as we knew it would take a long time, and we were not wrong. Framing to ensure that we weren't seen within the scene made it extremely difficult, and ate up a lot of our time. We also had Kelly practice writing on the mirror, so it looked clear and bold for the actual film.

We had to position the camera awkwardly to make sure we captured what we wanted, not interfering with the wires all across the floor. We did also have to prop up the mirror, which could have fell a couple times if we weren't careful. However, after a few practice tries, we were happy with the footage captured.

Production log

Where: Art department
Who: Niamh, Kelly, Maddie B, Maddie H
Equipment: DSLR, light boxes, lightscreen, props
Purpose: Testing footage, creating props

For this, we were creating some of the props we were possibly going to use and some test footage that we were may or may not going to use in the actual title sequence. We set this up in the art department, with a white screen, white table and light box to really illuminate the scene. The purpose of the footage was filming a lipstick being melted as if it were 'blood' and signifying a character's death. This was in reference to an early scene in the title sequence of American Psycho, where raspberry liquor referenced blood also.

The filming, framing and cinematography of this scene went well. However, the whole scene as something to film was something that was a health risk. As we were burning a lipstick, we were at risk of many things. Burning plastic is toxic and could have harmed our health, and also I risked burning myself with the lighter.