Unfortunately, something we did not account for was the weather. The forecast on the day was heavy rain and strong winds. We discussed whether to continue with the day or to use the back up, but we agreed we should attempt to film and should just dress warm and take umbrellas to cover the equipment. We were lucky in that the rain eased off for the majority of the day and only got really bad when we were filming the last few shots. In actual fact, the grey sky acted as a good lighting backdrop for the shots, and it created a creepy atmosphere that is perfect for a horror.
However, where we were walking back and forth across the grass of the castle and it was raining heavily, the ground turned into a mud pit, which was a risk as it made the ground slippery, and David even fell over, although he did not hurt himself.
However, where we were walking back and forth across the grass of the castle and it was raining heavily, the ground turned into a mud pit, which was a risk as it made the ground slippery, and David even fell over, although he did not hurt himself.
The strong wind did, however, pose an issue when we were trying to hang the body bags. We knew this was going to be an issue anyway, as we were not certain how we were going to be able to attach the body bags to the wall, however David was able to hook the rope around bits of jagged rock protruding from the walls. When the body bags were hung, they did swing quite a lot in the wind, which sometimes worked well but acts as a distraction in other shots.
We also had trouble with finding a place to tie the rope that the girls would be tied up in. After spending quite some time looking for places where we could tightly tie the rope to the wall, David managed to tie it to a piece of rock. Luckily, this held up in the wind and through being pulled on.
There were also some issues caused by the rain. The day was pretty clear until the afternoon when it began to rain heavily. Luckily we had filmed most of the footage and only had the shots of me tied up as a victim left to film. For this part, the victim is supposed to have their ear cut off. I was able to do this on Amy using FX Wax and liquid latex, as well as lots of fake blood. However, when the time came to apply my ear, it was raining rather heavily, which made my hair wet, my ear wet, the wax wet - everything was drenched. As a result, the wax was not sticking properly, and I couldn't see my ear properly to know where to smooth the wax and check that it looked good. After deciding the ear FX didn't look good enough to use, we debated having two victims in the first place. We agreed in the end it only made sense to have two victims due to the continuity of having the two body bags representing the victims in previous shots. David then came up with the idea of cutting off the ear in the shot as opposed to it already being cut off. He used one of the cows ears used for mise-en-scene and a stanley knife (with the blade covered) to act cutting off the ear and throwing it to the ground. As I have long hair, the fact that my ear was still on my head could not be seen.
The rest of the make up worked really well, although the fake blood appeared to be too fake in some of the shots as it is quite a vibrant red colour. However, in most of the shots this creates a nice contrast between the bright blood and the bleak setting.
The location itself was perfect, and although being near to road for easy access and moving larger props like the mattress, the castle appeared to be far away from everything and looked truly abandoned. The square of land in the centre of the four walls created a lair atmosphere as it felt enclosed and secluded.
If we were to film again, we would be more prepared with factors like the rope and body bags as we were lucky we managed to solve the problems we faced on the day, and would need to plan these elements in advance. However, I feel we were extremely productive on this day, despite the restrictions of the weather.
We also had trouble with finding a place to tie the rope that the girls would be tied up in. After spending quite some time looking for places where we could tightly tie the rope to the wall, David managed to tie it to a piece of rock. Luckily, this held up in the wind and through being pulled on.
There were also some issues caused by the rain. The day was pretty clear until the afternoon when it began to rain heavily. Luckily we had filmed most of the footage and only had the shots of me tied up as a victim left to film. For this part, the victim is supposed to have their ear cut off. I was able to do this on Amy using FX Wax and liquid latex, as well as lots of fake blood. However, when the time came to apply my ear, it was raining rather heavily, which made my hair wet, my ear wet, the wax wet - everything was drenched. As a result, the wax was not sticking properly, and I couldn't see my ear properly to know where to smooth the wax and check that it looked good. After deciding the ear FX didn't look good enough to use, we debated having two victims in the first place. We agreed in the end it only made sense to have two victims due to the continuity of having the two body bags representing the victims in previous shots. David then came up with the idea of cutting off the ear in the shot as opposed to it already being cut off. He used one of the cows ears used for mise-en-scene and a stanley knife (with the blade covered) to act cutting off the ear and throwing it to the ground. As I have long hair, the fact that my ear was still on my head could not be seen.
The rest of the make up worked really well, although the fake blood appeared to be too fake in some of the shots as it is quite a vibrant red colour. However, in most of the shots this creates a nice contrast between the bright blood and the bleak setting.
The location itself was perfect, and although being near to road for easy access and moving larger props like the mattress, the castle appeared to be far away from everything and looked truly abandoned. The square of land in the centre of the four walls created a lair atmosphere as it felt enclosed and secluded.
If we were to film again, we would be more prepared with factors like the rope and body bags as we were lucky we managed to solve the problems we faced on the day, and would need to plan these elements in advance. However, I feel we were extremely productive on this day, despite the restrictions of the weather.
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