We had actually engaged another student to be our make-up artist, but she couldn't make it, because she wasn't aloud out of lessons for the whole day. So we had to do it ourselves.
After we had everything together at 9:15 AM., we drove to our location a kitchen in Peaslake House. Once we had arrived and noticed the the whole outdoor location was covered in ice we decided to cut out the "chasing -preparing sequence" and to present the whole show as a self-made YouTube video including loading bar, annotation, etc. ... , where the killer comes to his victim's house and makes the show in her kitchen. However we didn't want to cut out the feeding scene and so we decided to place the victim in the show, but hidden and gagged lying on the ground, and to make the feeding scene to an actual part of the show. I think that using the video platform YouTube as the killer's room for maneuver fits very well with our thriller, because it gives the killer something real, which makes him more dangerous and gives the audience the feeling that he could appear on a real YouTube video anytime. Moreover, because YouTube is a very popular website, it gives the movie something very current for the 21st century and will expand our audience.Although we had changed some things just at the day of shooting, we didn't have lacks of knowledge what to do next at all and had no bigger problems than to find every little spatter of fake blood to clean it up. We had all the props and all the food we needed and always a clear image of what we were going to shoot next and how we were going to do it.
We shot the entire thriller at one location, the kitchen in Peaslake House. We didn't have to set up everything, like we would have had to, if would have shot in a studio. However we had to remove some chairs and fruit bowls because they took too much place and wouldn't allow Simon in his performance as well as us with the camera to move around as we wanted to. Moreover it did not look good on the screen.
We decided to make the island to the centre of the show. The island was pointing out of the kitchen and was flanked by the worktops, closets and stove plates around it. We placed our cooking-props as well s some vegetables, pepper&salt and some vinegar. We didn't actually use all of this staff but it made the set look more realistic and the different colours of the food and the props made it look more beautiful in front of the camera.
Because we wanted to make the opening sequence look like a YouTube video just made by the killer we weren't allowed to do moving shots with the killer on screen, because it wouldn't make sense if the killer is shooting and hosting the show by himself. Because we had a real cooking process we needed to film our opening sequence chronologically. The show started with an wide shot of the killer introducing his show and what he's going to do. Then we made a shot of him explaining what he is doing with the vegetables. We are going to use this explanation as an voiceover for CUs , ECUs, MSs, MCUs and variation of other shots showing the killer preparing the vegetables and used as cutaways. To shoot this cutaways (CA) took us a lot of time and we weren't able to finish them before we went to lunch at 1 PM. However we didn't need much time to finish the vegetable-session when we came back. After we had finished all the veggie-CAs we shortly discussed how to shoot the meat sequences and how to bring the victim into the show. We shot the meat-part of the show in similar shots as we used for the veggie part. However because in this part of the show we wanted to introduce the victim we didn't use a nearly voiceover over different cutaways, but we showed the killer more in action, how he talks to the camera, how cuts off the meat from the victim, etc. ... . The close up of Simon's face while he pretends to cut the meat of the victim was well thought. However I think this shot could have been improved in terms of medical accuracy - blood squirting. But except of this single shot everything worked almost perfectly.
The costumes we finally used were totally different to the costumes we wanted to use . This sudden change was caused by an unfortunate budget problem, which forced us to improvise when we were buying the costumes. Instead of using a white dress, we used a black dress with a white top for the victim and instead of using. However this still created the effect of innocence we wanted to create. The killers costume got changed, too. Instead of using a white shirt and white apron, we used a blue shirt and a blue apron with white stripes. Although this didn't match with our planning, it presented him - mainly through the gloves - as being crazy.
Although it took longer as we thought it would take the shooting day was a very successful day and although we had to make some changes we were able to get everything we needed. I think our grouped worked quite well together as we were rotating the jobs Camera, Sound and Director all the time so everyone could collect experience in all the jobs of filmmaking, that were possible to do in our production. Moreover when we had to make some changes we all worked together very efficiently to find a new way of doing it. Furthermore everyone payed attention all the time and when somebody saw a problem or something that could cause a problem he or she gave us all a call.
Next to the practical shooting, sound recording or directing jobs we were moving around all day, I was also the one, who was responsible for having everything ready on set and in front of the camera if needed. I had the overview about everything. I looked, if there's enough meet for cooking left, how many shots we had till all carrots would have been used. Moreover I was always the one who wanted to try new and maybe interesting and beautiful shots. This could have cost time, but there was always somebody else pushing the whole thing forward trying to get it through. This contrast and differences between the group members is also a reason why we worked together so well.
I think this day went pretty well and I wouldn't change anything about, because we got create material and it was a lot of fun.
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