16.01.16- FILMING DAY!

What we did today:

• Shir decorated the set the night before, so we had a clear idea of what we had and what was needed.

• We gathered supplies separately before meeting- I got wooden clippings (for the polaroids) and Shir bought a cake (for the tea party), the little details make the set a lot more believable and brings the character of the murderer to life.

• I arrived at Shir's house (where the set is) and we made sure everything was ready for when the actors came- Shir added more items such as barbie dolls and candles which gave the set made the set look definitely more eerie. Since I was the one who bought most of the blythe dolls, we also dressed them up and placed them all over the room.

• The actors arrived shortly after, for the killer's desk (where he hangs up photos of his victims), we photographed Tanya, April and Gale in their normal clothing around the house doing mundane things such as going to the car, walking, sitting, talking with friends and creepier shots such as sleeping and looking worried/paranoid, pointing at the camera or looking directly into the camera.

• While Shir dealt with printing out the photos we took and cutting them out, I got the actors ready. We needed fake blood so I made a concoction of corn starch, water, and red food colouring (goes on their dresses and face). I used makeup to give the actors the appearance of being dead for a while (pale face/ hollow cheeks/ bruises).

• We then filmed from about 1-2pm to around 6pm, since we already had the storyboard, the process of filming went by quite fast and it really helped us out with the organising which scene came up first. We changed a few things from our storyboard if it didn't fit or if an alternative way looked better.

• Right after everyone else left, Shir and I immediately started the editing process.

Here's a video I made of the BTS of filming Project AM.

Production Planning Week :)

Day 1: Monday
After buying more props, Shir and I definitely have a much clearer idea of what the actors are going to look like and how we plan to decorate the set. During the lesson, I drew how I want the actors to look like, this includes where the blood will go on their clothing, their make-up and hairstyle and the specific props that I will need to bring (polaroids, string, tea set etc.)
 Since the dead girls will have blood on them, I searched up a fake blood recipe and found one that wouldn't make too much of a mess. (I have tried making fake blood before with chocolate sauce, it was time-consuming, made a big mess, and felt unpleasant on my skin for the whole day- however it looked real). Hopefully, this recipe will look as good as I am not entirely sure cornstarch will make our concoction have the consistency of real blood.

Day 2: Tuesday:

Today, I wanted to make a final presentation to wrap up all of the ideas we have so far.

Here is the presentation:

Day 3: Thursday

After confirming with all of our actors, I created a group chat where we discussed the times and how some could carpool with others. The actors also asked for a more detailed plot, which I said I would explain to them (show them the storyboard etc. on Friday)

+++ Special thanks to our actors! Rute, Tanya, April and Gale :)

Day 4: Friday

Mr.Harrison gave us the camera (which he made us promise to treat with extra caution) to bring back to film over the weekend. In today's lesson, Shir and I decided to go hunt for some props from the Drama department (we still needed some items such as ropes and strings), however we couldn't find anything. We also tried out the camera in the darkest room that we could find in the building (our set will be really dark, and graininess is our main concern in terms of the camerawork). We played around with the camera and even tried out some shots with the dolls that we had in our lockers (this really gave us a head start for filming day). While messing around, we came across an effect option which we thought looked really nice- the filter makes the people in the shot look really pale while brings our dark colours such as their eyes (which makes them look ten times more creepy). 

After school, I took photos of some of my friends to test out, we initially were a bit worried about committing to a filter for the whole opening sequence (could go wrong and all the footage would not be usable) but after testing it out, we were pretty confident with the filter. Looking back, I think we made a really good decision.

Here is a photo I took of my friend using the filter:

Later in the night, Shir decorated the set (the location where we're filming is her house)

Some of the messages are in Thai so I translated them here:
Shir: Are we using barbies?
Pie: Yes if you have them, by the way I don't think we should use fake lashes because they might be sensitive. I couldn't get the clippings at the store so maybe we can think of another way like           pinning it or something.
Shir: Ok sure. Do you have a string? I got the super glue and blue tac but there were no kettles.
Pie: I'll bring the kettle.
Shir: Okay, the ceiling has this wooden plank where we can hang a string from but I don't know what to use it for. I need picture to hang around the room?
Pie: Just get anything.
Shir: *Sends picture*
Pie: Would that be too 'in your face'? I don't know... but if it looks good then use it.
Pie: By the way, can we send me the photo of the set, I thought we were going to do it together tomorrow but if you already did then thats good.
 Shir: Ohh... I still need your taste for a lot of stuff. Here it is but it's not finished though *Sends photos*
Pie: Woahh! Nice, you should but that on your blog
Shir: Later. Do you have the string for the polaroid scene?
Pie: Nope
Shir: We can use tape instead of clippings
Pie: I can go some of the things tomorrow
Shir: I don't have the rope, I will try tomorrow as well.

Props/Wardrobe- Ikea shopping

On Saturday, we went to the mall and got 3 dresses for the girls to wear, this is a general idea of what they look like:

We also went to Ikea and bought some stuff to decorate our set. We got a clock and candles, and the other things we already have at home. This is a picture of what we are modelling our set after:

Ikea Vlog: 

Lesson 6 (8/1/16) Planning- Storyboard completed & Fonts!

We completed the storyboard today and we changed some things such as the last shot, we initially wanted the last scene to be a long close-up shot focused on the victim suffocating, then the screen would fade to black. In the picture of how I drew it is a little confusing as we kept changing the idea, but finally we decided on filming the victim's hands shaking, then the camera would slowly go up, this happens while cuts of the killer eating his cake/ drinking his tea interrupts until the shot is a close-up of her entire face and we see her having a seizure, the screen then fades to black and ends there.

The idea of using poison to kill the victim was inspired by Game of Thrones in the Purple wedding (spoilers?), at first we had doubts whether poison would be too 'weak' of a killing method, but from the other ways of killing, I think the killer using poison shows a lot about his character, torturing his victim and watching them suffer while he enjoys his snack makes him a lot more psychotic.

As for the victim's face, we plan on using special effects for the last scene to create something similar to Joffrey's face, we will learn more on that to see if it would be too difficult, if it is really out of our hands, we could try using make-up and fake blood, although I would really like the veiny eyes.

We also picked out 14 fonts that we would use for the credits. 

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Lesson 5 (7/1/16) Planning- Storyboard start and Typewriter.

In this lesson, I started drawing the storyboard from the timeline that we had done the previous day. It took quite a lot of time (the whole lesson) to draw half of the story, this worries me as this may mean that our opening could be too long or too complicated. However, I thought the drawing turned out nice and it definitely made it less challenging to imagine the whole thing in real life.

Also, I found out how to do the typewriter effect and tried it out with the footage we got from yesterday (of the Blythe doll), this is my first try so it might look a little tacky.

Lesson 4 (5/1/16) Planning- Blythe dolls and Timeline

Todays lesson is the first lesson back from the Christmas Holiday! Since we made the ideas presentations, I feel that a lot of the things we want to include have become clearer and more our whole project feels more organised and sorted out. 

Shir and I decided over the break that we would use Blythe dolls as the creepy dolls in our opening, we asked some of our friends that had these dolls if they would let us borrow them for filming. 

Our friend Ten provided us with two of his dolls, so for the first half of the lesson, we experimented with the different shots and angles that we could use for the dolls. Blythe dolls are interesting that their eyes can change colour, so we decided that one of our shots would be a close-up of the doll's eyes.

Here is a test video we filmed using my phone, obviously it's a little shaky and not perfect yet :)

The second half of the lesson was us going over the plot again to make sure we know what and when exactly will be going on, after finishing the timeline, we felt a lot more prepared, plus writing out a timeline would make it a whole lot easier to draw the storyboard.

Another thing that we decided on was using a type-writer effect similar to the one in Se7en, I think that it would add a really nice (a little creepy) touch to our film opening (especially the sound). We will try to find a way to incorporate a type-writer into the film-maybe get a shot of the murderer writing on one, even if we can't find a type-writer, i don't think it would ruin the film or anything (might not make that much sense).