Filming Fiasco

        This weekend, specifically Saturday the 4th of March, I began my first day of filming. Though it was a busy day, I got a lot of shots done, some that may need reshooting, but a good amount for the first filming day.

Pre Filming-        

        At around 2:30, my friend Sol came over. She was the one playing the victim at the beginning of the opening scene. We decided to leave around 3:00 o'clock for our location, much earlier than we wanted. That was because I had forgotten that the location we wanted to film closed at 6. So I would later have to edit the footage to make it look darker and creepier since we would be filming during the day,

        Before leaving to film though, we had to do a couple things. First, I explained my story and storyboard to make sure she understood her role and how she should act while filming. I also told her what specific clips I wanted to try to film while we were out. 

        We also had to figure out where exactly we wanted to film. Before this day, Sol and I had already decided to film at a popular nature park, Markham Park, however, we still had to decide exactly where in the park. We ended up deciding on a small nature walk next to a lake that had mini paths branching out.

      Right before leaving, we finished our costuming and did our makeup. For my makeup, I went for something very simple as I wasn't going to be on camera as much for this day of filming. As for my friend, Sol, we had to make her look very hurt and weak as if she had been running for a long time in the woods.

      I helped her out by making fake bruises on her face with eyeshadow and she used brown and grey eyeshadow to put under her eyes to make her look exhausted. For costuming, I just gave her an old white shirt I had that was already ripped up a bit, and then we cut some more holes and ripped it apart a little more.

Once we got to Markham Park, we also decided to add some dirt to the white shirt to make it look dirtier and seem more natural and realistic in the context.

The Filming-

        After we got to the nature trail, we decided to walk around for a bit checking the off-route trails to see if any of them matched the setting I was imagining. After exploring, we found a small cliff that we thought would be cool to start the opening scene.

We filmed a set of clips around that area and then kept moving deeper through the trail. Once we got to the darker and more hidden parts of the forest we realized we were being eaten alive by mosquitos and bugs. So we tried our best to finish our filming in that section so we could head back to the original trail. Sadly, this made some of the clips a bit shaky so I may not be able to use them, however, we did end up getting some good shots from that setting. 

After running away from the mosquitos, we went back to a place we found earlier on the trail that we thought would be a good place for the ending of filming that day. I was putting on my costume at the time since if I had done it earlier I would have sweat to death since I was going to wear a hoodie.

Unexpected Visitors-

We started filming a small section when we started hearing cheering. We looked around and found a group of people chanting while marching through the woods almost directly where we were filming. Sol and I both looked really weird and creepy so we started running

I know we could've just explained that we were filming something for school, but Sol had all these "bruises" on her face and her shirt was all ripped up and felt embarrassed. So we hid until we thought they passed. Turns out they were coming our way, so we jogged passed them, looking down at the floor, still receiving concerned and confused looks.

Finishing Filming-

        Anyway, we finished recording Sol's part and finally, the last part to film was mine. But before we could film anything I had to dirty up my "weapon" which I decided to be a scissor. Yeah, I know it's kind of lame, but I didn't want to be holding a real knife and pointing it at my friend. So I ended up just using fake blood to make the scissors bloody and then we filmed my part.

        By this time, our ride home was already waiting for us, so as we jogged back, I took the opportunity to film some POV shots that I could use for the opening scene. I also made sure to take some shots of the creepy forest and random leaves so I could maybe use them.

Lesson-

        Whenever I film, I always say to myself, "It's better to be safe than sorry". So I always film much more than I need, because I know once I start editing, I'm going to be deleting and not using many shots.

        I didn't only learn today that filming can get really awkward when you're filming in a public spot with lots of people passing by. I also learned that I should always carry bug spray.

-Dana