Filming Blog: Making the Magic Happen

 Hey guys! I just finished day 1 of filming with Giulia and I wanted to update you all on how it went. I showed up to her house bringing the tripod, my phone to use as a prop, the storyboard, and the weapon to use as a prop. As soon as I got to Giulia's house, I started preparing for the first scene. I first pulled up the song "Somebody's Watching Me" on the phone being used as a prop and centered it on the kitchen counter. I practiced where to position the camera to capture the high angle I wanted, and then I directed Giulia on what I wanted her to do for this scene. I showed her how to swipe the phone to the left and how to swipe the cutting board into frame from the opposite side. I also told her the timing for these actions to make sure that each item would be on the screen long enough and so that there would be enough time for the titles. I took three takes of this one scene so that I could later chose which take I liked best to use for the film. 

Next, I made sure that I had all the props I needed for the next scene. I asked Giulia to have a piece of fruit that she could use in the scene and I also asked her for the red paint that would serve as blood. I showed Giulia how to apply the paint to her hands so that you could only see it when she angled her hand a certain way. This way, the audience wouldn't be able to see the fake blood until Giulia "cuts" her finger and angles her hand towards the camera. After that, I showed Giulia where to position herself for the scene, and gave her advice on how to act startled when the phone rang. I was also responsible for using another phone to call the phone that was being used as a prop. I would position the camera, tell Giulia when to begin acting, count to three seconds, and then call the prop phone that startled Giulia and prompted her to answer the phone. I filmed about four takes of this scene again, just so that I could have backups to chose from. At this point, I was really happy with how all of the scenes were coming out so far, as I felt that Giulia and I were working together very well. 

For the last scene in the kitchen, I moved behind the kitchen counter so that I could capture a medium shot of Giulia and make sure that there was enough space above her that could later be used for inserting a title. Since this scene shows Giulia having a conversation with someone on the phone, a voice over would have to be used for the caller statements. Therefore, I had to time how long the caller's sentences would be and relay those timings to Giulia, so that when I later inserted the voice over, the conversation on the call would sound seamless. The last thing I did before filming this scene was instruct Giulia on her body language. I told her at what point to stiffen to show her confusion and fear and how to make her movements jerky to show her unease. Once again, I filmed multiple takes of this scene so that I could have options to chose from.

Originally, I had planned for that to be the last scene I filmed that day, but I saw that I was doing really good on time since everything seemed to be going perfectly that day. So, I decided that instead of spending three days filming, I could just film more scenes today and finish the rest on another day. This way, I would only have to spend two days filming instead of the original three, and more time could be dedicated to editing. I'll fill you guys in on the rest of the filming I did next time. See you then!