Behind the scenes: Filming

Here is a look behind the scenes of the creation of the horror film:

Starting off, I teamed up with Alex McNally to make the horror film, and we brainstormed ideas for the horror film. Eventually, we came up with the idea of the masked killer who's hunting the son of the detective that caught him. We then made a script (w/o dialogue) and separate storyboards showing our respective visions for the film. (The storyboard and script are on different blog posts.) We then made a shooting schedule (also on a blog post)


First shooting:

For the first filming session, we filmed at the 6th form block after school (more details on the film schedule) I bought the video camera for the filming, and McNally bought the props (the newspaper and costume) We filmed multiple takes of him doing various actions in the room. While McNally had doubts on weather we had enough footage, I am confident that we have all the footage of the student character that we need. We did end up going back for more footage a couple of times, but the new footage was unsatisfactory and will go unused in the final film. We did ask a couple of passers by to be a part of the footage, but we couldn't find a way to fit them into the film effectively, so we didn't use their footage either. Throughout, McNally expressed concern as his performance as an actor, but I believed that he was satisfactory.


Second shooting:

For the second shooting, I personally wasn't involved. Instead, McNally conducted that on his own, collecting the filming. Either way, he acquired enough footage to introduce the killers hideout. Apparently, he experienced difficulties with the lighting, and had to wait for decent lighting for consistency with the fist shooting.


Third shooting:

For the third shooting, McNally had no part in it. Instead, I worked together with my brother (Michael Harris) to create the inside of the killers hideout. We managed to make his bed look like a wall by tipping the mattress on its side and sticking the killers target-board to it. We created the board together, by taking a white board and sticking pictures of McNally onto it along with a picture of a school, while adding disturbing red writing demonstrating the killers plans. We experimented with multiple kinds of lighting, including sticking red plastic over a light-bulb to make the room darker with a tint of red, but in the end, we decided to just turn the lights off, as the camera could still see the board and the killer effectively while keeping the surroundings dark. The dark lighting also added to the eeriness of the scene, and it made sure that my eyes were not visible through the mask. For my killer costume, I borrowed a white mask and a wooden knife prop from school while wearing a big black coat. One idea of my brothers is the part when the killer pauses from sharpening his knife, and looks at the camera, telling the viewers that the 4th wall will not protect them. For one of the takes, I looked slightly above the camera when looking up, creating a more humorous effect then a scary one. This clip will go unused. I'll be sure to include Michael in the credits of the film, as he was a great help when shooting the killer in his hideout.

Alex Harris 08/01/2017