Filming Evaluation- Castle- Day One

Filming Evaluation- Castle- Day One

The first shooting day was the 22nd of December and we were filming the majority of the footage at the castle in Sutton Valence. We had agreed that we would meet at 10 o'clock because this meant that we had the majority of the day because we knew we were going to take a few hours and we also were aware that at this time of year it starts getting dark at about 4 o'clock, so we had time constraints.

The morning of the filming, we all woke up to rain, wind and gloomy weather conditions. We had initially discussed the possibility of rain and had decided to go ahead and film anyway, however the rain was really coming down and there was a gale blowing. The group decided to proceed regardless of the awful weather conditions and to go to the castle. We all took waterproof jackets and wellies as well as several umbrellas to cover all of our things as well as the camera as there was no shelter in the castle. 

As arranged everyone met there at 10 o'clock and we took everything up to the castle. Prior to the filming day, we had individually gathered items from either shops or around our houses because we realised that we needed to make the castle look as though a murderer had been camped out there for a long period of time. It also needed to look as though it was a place equipped with the right equipment to be able to tie people up and murder them. We all took our bags of props up to the castle and Charley also brought a mattress and Dave brought his tool kit and work-table. Other props included:

• bottles 

• cans

• a white china plate and mug

• a small chess board

• dried pasta

• a can of gruel and a teaspoon

• newspapers 

• books

• logs (to make a fireplace)

• fake blood to stain certain props

• kitchen knives (stained in blood)

• toolkit with tools in it (including a mallet and hammer etc)

• cow and pigs ears

• a chest of earrings

• body bags hung up from the walls

• rope

The first task was to set up the lair. We needed to ensure that it didn't look artificial and set-up so we made it messy and unorganised. We places the mattress in one corner and poured blood onto it- this was good for about 5 minutes but then it started to soak in and look more pink than red. We should have poured the blood on when we came to film it so that the blood was red and fresh. However it could just look like it was dried up blood and to fix the colour we could always adjust the colour on Final Cut. On top of the mattress we left a crumpled up jumper, some scattered pigs ears and cow ears. The animal ears in theory were a good idea, however after having bought them and seen them on the camera after filming then, we didn't think people would know that they were ears because they were designed for dogs to eat and so had been processed and didn't look like raw ears any more. They have been filmed but we will decide how much of the ear footage we will use when we begin the edit.

Next to the mattress we scattered lots of beer bottles around to make the killer look stereotypically homeless and an alcoholic, making him seem troubled even underneath everything else. On the walls of the castle, there were rocks sticking out, providing natural shelving. We really like this because we thought that this gave the castle a more homely feel to it and we put jars, candles and cans of food on the shelves. We felt like this also exaggerated the long period of time that he had been living there. 

Dave had created some body-bags out of black bin-liners and had used string to create body curves. He had made two- a adult and a child. These were really effective but they didn't really match the shape of the two victims that the killer flashbacks about. Because one was a child and one was an adult, it may confuse viewers, so it would have been better if they were both medium-sized so that they matched mine and Charley’s body shape. 

With the body bags, we needed to hang them with rope high up, as well as a long rope to tie up the victims. However, finding places on the stone walls to be able to steadily hang some rope which could also hold a significant amount of rope was proven to be a difficult task. We tried lots of different methods to get the rope into crevasses in the walls or wrap it around sticking out bits of rock. We tried tying a tin can to the end to weigh it down as we threw it (like an anchor), but this didn't work. As a group, we spent a good 15 minutes trying to attach the rope to the wall but in the end Dave climbed between two rocks and managed to tie loops of rope onto some rocks. This was then pretty stable and managed to stay up for as long as we needed it to. 

Once all the mise-en-scene was set up, we started filming establishing shots and quick bursts of the props that we could use in editing to link the main bits of footage together. Doing this gives us more flexibility when it comes to editing because if we need to cut a bit of footage in half to get rid of some, we can insert a shot of the binoculars hanging off the wall for example, and then cut back to one of the girls. With the rain, it meant that we needed to always be under an umbrella so it required at least two people when filming (one to hold the camera and the other to be holding the umbrella up. This meant that everything took a lot more time than it should have.

For our opening, we have also included fake wounds, but these only appear after we have shots without them i.e. a before and after shot. This was fine, however it meant that we had to do all fake wounds on set at the castle, in the rain. For the severed ears, we were using wax to secure the ear down flat and cover the edges, giving the impression that it had been cut off. However, once this wax got even a little bit damp from the weather, it became harder, slippery and impossible to work with. Luckily we managed to craft my ear before it got too wet but Charley’s ear was too hard to do, especially when we realised we had began losing light. Thinking about it, we should have done the individual character filming at the beginning and the prop shots at the end in the rain, but unfortunately this problem didn't even cross our minds until it had happened. As a result, it has meant that we don't have any good close up shots of Charley’s ear. As a group we discussed how we could solve this and have said that when it comes to editing, we will just have to intersperse shots of Charley with shots of me and just imply that the same has happened to her. If it’s fast paced, we’re hoping that it shouldn't be too much of an issue. 

Another problem that we realised the night before was the fact that people aren't allowed to carry knives or tools around with them. After a lot of discussion though, we concluded that there wasn't a lot that we could do in such a short space of time and even if we had had more time, making knives wouldn't have looked as realistic as using real ones. Therefore our solution was to only get the knives out of Dave’s tool box when we were filming them, transporting them wrapped in tissue and we also figured that because the castle is right off track and the weather was so appalling, we doubted that anyone would actually come up to the castle.

Overall, the weather conditions made our day a lot harder, longer and more technical than it needed to be. If there was another day that we could all have filmed then we may have decided to postpone it, however in hindsight, the gloomy weather will create an effective juxtaposition to the sunny weather the main girl will be jogging in, as well as creating pathetic fallacy too. Looking back at the footage, we did think of other shots that may have looked good or would have been effective but we will have to make do with the rest of the good quality footage that we got.