The first thing I did was to help finish dressing the set with the fireplace and books and then the cinematographers set up the track and dolly which I was going to be carried on to create the levitating out of the bed scene.
I finished creating the bedding and pillow and this was attached to the wall along with the 'blanket' that was stapled at one side so it would fall away as I moved forward. The art directors also attached flooring effect to the wall so that when it was shot it would look like a view of the bed from above.
The dolly was operated by one of the crew using the handle to pull then push the trolley up the track. The operator and floor manager marked points on the floor with tape as to where to pull to, push from.
The cinematographers took several takes of me being pulled forward on the trolley and veering off before reaching camera (hence the bend in the tracks). Several takes were required to make sure that my performance was what was required by the director and to change the focus and framing to make connecting shots. Reflectors were used to try different lighting, particularly when moving from mid shot to close up.
I was very impressed with a bit of kit that the cinematographers used to achieve smooth focus pulls. They used a wheel that attached to the lens of the camera, with a dial on the side which was smoother to turn and upon which focus pullers can mark their ranges and tag where to start and stop. It was such a simple idea that worked really well.
The filming was good experience as we had roles assigned, so people took it in turns to be First AD (Assistant Director) and keep a check on schedules, whereabouts of cast and crew and to shout reminders and prompts. The director ran through the action with the actor (me) for each scene before the cameras rolled, and looked at the framing through the camera to make sure that the shot looked right and there was no obvious discrepancies on set.
The cinematographers did a really good job in setting up the lighting. They created a very gothic mood and used carefully arranged lighting levels and shapes (using the barn doors on the lamps) that highlighted the action being shot.
Some of our CPR group have been working on rigging a mechanism to get the book to 'bleed' after I have thrown it on the floor. I suggested that when we filmed the close up of the book bleeding that we put something under the book to raise it slightly as there is supposed to be a small man trapped beneath it. This was taken on board and we used rolled up tape to lift the book slightly to make it look more realistic.
For the door scene Charlotte watched my actions and gave me a director's note that although the way I was acting was natural in real life, for the film I would need to get a lot closer to the door handle. This made sense when I thought about the scene in my head and when we did it that way it looked a lot better. So that was an interesting thing that I learned: sometimes for the camera the actor's movements have to be exaggerated or closer than would happen in real life.
We filmed all the shots for the whole bedroom scene in good time and with little fuss. It was a very quick turnaround between takes and all credit goes to the two groups and two tutors that everybody was well organised and even the changing of personnel for the crew roles for each scene was hassle-free. As the actor for this exercise I was really impressed at how everybody took to their roles and how good we all were. I felt that it was all done very professionally.
After a break, when the cinematographers had left, Bex and I stripped the set completely and moved the fireplace, furniture and props back into storage. We unscrewed all the screws from the flats and took up the carpet so that the flats were left in a respectable state for the next group to use.
The next scene that we filmed was the corridor scene with bleeding walls. We set four flats up with the green screen at the end, so that we could composite footage depicting the end of the corridor afterwards.
To secure the flats I had to drill bolt holes for the A frames, that was good practice for me using the tools and set building.
Our group and Susannah arranged the lighting for this scene using three Dado lamps making a nice strip light corridor type lighting effect (again using the barn doors on the lamps).
The bleeding walls effect was created by drilling holes at the top of the flats just out of shot and syringes of fake blood being emptied through the hole from behind the flat.
From the front the blood spurted and dribbled down the walls creating the bleeding walls.
After this shoot we cleaned up the flats and floor and wiped down any cables and equipment that had been splattered, we then moved the flats out of the way and tidied away all the equipment, tools and props.
This has been my favourite session so far. It was great experience seeing how all the scenes got filmed and gave me a good idea of what goes on on set.
I am really enthusiastic about this module (and this course), and love throwing myself into these practical exercises.
The session was incredibly useful and really good fun.
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