Production Diary

 This is my post containing all the information containing my process and journey into planning, production and shooting and filming of my short horror film. I go over every day of filming problems within them and how i improved on it. I talk about how many days it took to film and why and as well as photos of my area and filming location as well as some bloopers and videos showing what was needed in the film and how we did it.

I am including a screenshot of the character types when i talk about production there is more of a understanding of characters and crew. The actors in this film all study and partake in performance arts BTEC studies. It was nice cast and have local actors want work and put effort in. (we also had a extra to play a dead body in the film as well. 

I asked to borrow some mics for three of my actors I borrowed them of my close friend Amy Kilbride, also peer in my class, i wanted to use the mics because of the overall sound quality and reach of them. I was a close help for her film and saw first-hand how the mic quality was. I kindly asked if i could use for my film and she said yes that was good because i good do more with the film overall.

After I getting all my pre production sorted and finishing the second draft of the script i wanted to update my castmates with it and fill them in on first day of shooting and plans after that and making sure everything is okay with the script and seeing what they think could change or if they were happy with the overall quality of it. After I proposed a certain day to film which was the 29th of January. Having four cast mates to film with is something that I haven't done to a degree and making sure all of them are happy to film certain days was a gruelling task. I had started to plan on the 29 - 30th of January but Tyler one of the main cast mates decided he couldn't film that day so I had to reschedule filming another day because he is integral part of the film. I wanted to film across 5 days and hopefully get done in about 2 weeks but that quickly went out the window so i had to keep my expectations in check for filming.

Once finding a day to reshoot I messaged the crew/friends and decided a day that was good enough and that everyone is free was the 6th of February. I coordinated this at 5pm because I wanted a late night shoot with a slow decline to night for the film, I thought this would look good and add to the overall feel of the quality of the film. Unfortunately Once again my cast mates did not come through. Corey (the killer) He had to pull out due to personal reasons that day. Since he was a big part of the film and I couldn't shoot anything without him I decided to go back into the film pre productions element. I then looked at shots and thinking of versions and different ideas in the mean time since I cant film. I came up with a slightly different opening that is more manageable and better for the crew and cast to film. This was a good decision once shooting it will wont take up as long since I don't want to rush the shoot. 

Before shooting on the 12th Tyler decided to pull out again. On the day of filming He messaged me saying he cant do it because he is catching up on his own work. I had two decisions I either recast him or I wait another time. I was wanting this done to get editing started because I knew how long that will take. I decided to re cast him luckily in my favour Conner, another cast mate, was with me ready to film and he offered that his girlfriend could fill in his shoes. She does performing arts with Conner so she was able and more than willing to film with us. I gladly and wanted to make sure of course if it was ok re casting Tyler's role because of time and effort I still wanted to be as professional as possible within this project. He was more than ok with me casting someone new. After receiving the support we went to film on the 12th of February.

12/2/2023 - first day of filming

This was the official day of filming that actually went through. We managed to get a decent amount done about 1/3 of the film done with prep. I had to explain ideas and the process of shots and what order it needs to be done. We got the makeup done and tested around shots of Corey with actors and without. After it was all done we managed to work our way up with the first 30 - 35% of the film. Once filming on the first day I realized we can hopefully get it done in 3 days and in 3 sections. Managing everyone's time and patience.

In this clip here you can see martin (dead body extra) I didn't add him to the script because this was a last minute added scene since Tyler left I wanted to fill it out and try something more for the film. In this clip we squirted fake blood on martins face so once he turned over to face Corey he would be covered in blood to show that he is severely wounded.

(this clip was uploaded via YouTube because of its length)

In these two clips, we recorded Corey in the costume making sure it fits right and it looks right, we filmed this in day time to get a proper look of the costume and how it looks on him seeing if we need to adjust it or take or add things to the overall look. In the second clip I film Chloe (actor and crew) putting a small amount of blood on Corey's knife i wanted to get a good look of the knife because you might not be able to see it up close in the actual film so that was important for me to document that.

The next day of filming was to be 3 days after the 12th, 15th, we decided to let the crew wait a while because they were also filming other college projects. They were also and trying to film Richard and Amy's film there are both good friends and local peers in my class. So it was definitely hard managing scheduling amongst all three.

15/2/2023 - second day of filming

This was the second filming day of hopefully three days. We started to film in the set we had to wait a bit longer than last time because it was needed to be darker than usual so we started filming around 8, 8:10 and quickly got into a sequence of film. We had to apply Corey make up again which didn't take long. We did it before so now we knew where we were putting it and how we wanted it to look. 

We also had to reshoot a scene of martin because the audio was acting up so we quickly reshot that as well. Overall day two was a success Chloe showed up so i didn't have a repeated situation to worry about. We waiting until dark was starting and we started filming and got around the second batch done in that limited time. At this point i have 2/3 done.

Martin and Corey after shooting - 

Martin and Corey make up took about 5 mins to apply for each wasn't much effort just knowing where to put since last time shooting. I wanted it to match and have continuity throughout. So I tried to stick to the original clips much as possible as filming.

After filming the second time i wanted to let everyone know that there should be only one day of filming left to do. we managed to get more than I expected done in two days then i thought we would have. I thought by telling them this I would get them excited and possible film the next day because i wanted this done as quickly as possible for editing.

I wanted to film on the 16th of February but unfortunately my cast wasn't complying with me. They wanted the day off to relax. I couldn't really do much other than keep asking. Chloe was more than happy to comply and help with filming and behind the scenes. Corey and conner were not budging throughout the process of asking i tried many times. I cant recast them and force them to film we were to far into film production to do anything but just wait another day to film.

17/2/2023 - third of filming - 

This was the final day of filming to get done with all the cast mates. I got everything i needed for the shoot needed. We started with reshooting the middle scene seg waying into Chloe's death as we were shooting throughout the second day of filming we decided (all together) that we should alter/improvise the shoot for the film we changed the idea from two friends getting attacked to two lovers getting attacked. i thought the the love story was a bit unique in my situation and could show a lot of range of emotions in favour of the film. Conner could act out Chloe death because there are so close together. This was a good change for the film we had more opportunities with filming as the shoot went on. 

During the middle of shooting we were filming Chloe's death scene we soon realized we could change conner reaction to seeing the body and and getting interrupted and fighting for Chloe for a while. I realised that  shoot was quite bland fighting endlessly for to fill up the run time. We changed it to conner getting interrupted like before but turns into a sea of rage against the villain (Corey)  and stabs with him in own knife until he dies. In the scene of shooting conner ended up breaking the knife (prop) and I  liked that it added to his rage and I kept it in. I wanted moments of the actors to feel like they could express their own ideas and creative input along the shoot. Overall they added so much more interesting plot lines and overall story progress. 

We finally wrapped towards 10pm at night after conner, Chloe, Corey, and Martin did an amazing job, there were some problems will shooting and certain times within that. but I'm happy its done and happy with the clips we got for the film. The film went through trial and error with script changes and storyboard problems and recasting decisions but I'm happy with how it came out and everyone contributed a lot to the film

Production set location images -

These are all the production set images i took. We filmed in this location throughout the shoot. The set pictures are the various locations we went to they werent far from each other and we kept on bouncing between each for the film. I Wanted the film to feel like tight and small to give an enclosed space and much more problematics finish. We mainly filmed towards night and a some at night i wanted it to get dark enough for us to give it a true horror finish. The film would seem dull and meaningless without some darkness as the backround. I wanted to provide set images for the locations I was filming to show exactly what the set looked like before i filmed. I took photos in the morning to get a better look at what was there. I filmed in this location because of the messy look toward it i thought it could it add more material and props for the actors to mess with and potential use. For instance the bricks was used in one scene to fight with and i liked the idea of keeping it in touch of realism which is why i wanted it here a house in building progress i felt was a good filming location. In the morning photos you can see the messy look where most of the fight scenes and end of the film took place. Providing set photos in daylight allows me to demonstrate and show what and why I'm filming in the location. However also providing night time photos shows what the set would look like on a regular day of shooting for the film. 

All filmed production clips - 

I started by gathering all of my production clips i filmed, including all the bloopers and behind the scenes i wanted to show evidence and all of it throughout production in my diary so i know what is what when editing. My clips are about a minute and a half long unedited and by putting them into a timeline and in some linear format this would help not only space but time. All the clips are accsessible in the video 

This is a image of me in DaVinci resolve, I didn't have access to premiere pro during this time, i gathered all the clips and slotted them into a linear format for viewing and easier accessibility. After putting them all into a minute or so long video i rendered the footage from 00:00 to 01:08 and after it rendering the footage and making sure the frames per second are smooth enough for final upload. I exported the video and uploaded it to YouTube.

Production diary video -

This is the final part of my production diary all of my clips in one long format to show every scene/bit filmed for the course of the film. Even if the clips are bloopers or not good enough for the actual film i still wanted to add them into the production diary.