Filming of 2 minute opening (production)

Last minute decisions before filming

This took place whilst me and Olivia were apart due to Covid-19 issues. We used this time to call each other and discuss elements such as costumes and how to use the fake blood in the scene. Then, on the day of filming, we both called a few hours before meeting to shoot the opening to check over what we had and anything else we needed. We also prepared the gimbal, getting it steady to balance the camera, as it took time to do and we didn't want to spend too much time on it during production.

[The checklist we made before filming to ensure we had everything we needed]

The cooking scene 

The first scene me and Olivia filmed was the cooking scene, which took place in her kitchen and starred my brother, George (14). The scene was really interesting to film as we got to play around with ideas using the food and make the work area look really disgusting as time went on. 

[The food we used for this scene was cucumber, tomatoes, lettuce, pomegranate and bread with strawberry jam]

The salad scene was particularly interesting because our aim was to make it as unappealing as possible by squeezing the pomegranate juice over it. This turned out really effective as the juice turned it slightly pink which made it look gory and disgusting.

I had been told before shooting by someone I know, who does photography, that microwaving a pomegranate helps pop the arils inside and make it more juicy and squishy. This proved really effective because when we cut into it the juice leaked out everywhere which temporarily stained the cutting board and made it look like blood. The pomegranate was also a lot easier for the actor to rip apart, therefore making the shot look better and overall it was a really useful tactic.

Experimenting with mirror shots

Our friend Emily (16) played our female character. We wanted the character to come off as fancy and high class, despite the psychotic undertones of her and her partner's actions in the film. She is seen in the film wearing a fancier dress than her partner, with jewelry and painted nails, as if she's going somewhere fancier than just a picnic in a field. There was one shot we wanted to experiment with, featuring our actress looking into a mirror and putting a pearl necklace on as she is getting ready. We really wanted this shot in the final film, but the point we also wanted to make was that the viewer never sees the characters' faces. Therefore, we did a few experimental shots with me instead of Emily beforehand, just to see exactly where the camera needs to be so that her face wouldn't fully be in the shot. 

Filming the ending scenes 

For the ending scenes, we drove to Alexandra Park in Singapore and filmed on a hill that looked out onto a view of the forest. A challenge when filming there was that there were a lot of other people there and also that we had planned for the last shot to include a nice sunset, something we unfortunately didn't get on the day we filmed. The day was quite overcast but we just filmed the shots anyway and decided to colour correct when editing. 

[Figuring out how to position the body in the car and how to capture the blood effectively]

[Alexandra Park]

[Setting up the gimble]