Major Project Production Unit - Shoot Day: Stonewall Park

Stonewall Park was a very exciting shoot day for me. Knowing how much this property was worth to shoot at, I felt very lucky to get the chance to film here for our project. I made sure I really knew what I was doing in terms of the schedule, scenes, shots and performances as originally we had two days to do all the scenes but the property owner cut it down to one day. This created a really tight schedule and I knew that I had to make sure we was running on time.

We got to the barn at 6am to start hair and make up and then traveled to the location at 7 to make sure we made most of our time. When we got there we immediately put the equipment where the first scene was and started setting up. This was going to be really tough to shoot as the dining room had mirrors on every wall so we had to make sure we weren't going to be in any. We tried several different angles and kept going adjusting our movements slightly to allow for the mirrors which took time but eventually we got there and did the shots well. I wanted these shots to be cinematic like previously. Since this part is coming in after the scene where she dreams of killing Lorna, which is going to be shot differently to the rest of the film, I felt going back to the cinematic, slow moving shots would help the film flow rather than completely changing. 

Once we did this scene we moved onto the drawing room where Sophie is drinking a glass of wine. I wanted Claudia sitting on the sofa at first but when we looked at it, I felt the chairs next to the window looked a lot more classier and shooting into the light coming through the window gave a really nice effect. We lit her from our side too to make sure she wasn't a complete silhouette. These shots came out really nice as static to break the other moving shots. Her costume and hair have changed to give the effect that these shots are at a different time and I was aware that this scene is a lot earlier on and would have to blend as if its in the same house we shot at before. Being meshed in between the other scenes should give the illusion that its all at the same location. We put yellow coloured cordial in the wine glass to try and give the water a white wine look however it didn't show as well as I would have liked on screen. 

From this scene we then went upstairs and did all the walking down the corridor scenes. I wanted this to be intense and slow. Claudia changed into a shiny Mac coat and put her hair down, again showing a different time. We then shot in different areas of the house including the downstairs by the pillars, up 2 stairways, down 3 corridors and on 2 landings. This was great as it really showed the largeness of the house and how many different areas there are which is what I wanted. It also will allow me to show the actress on her journey with a bit of length rather than repeating clips. This scene is long and drawn out so it was important for me to get as many different shots as possible here. Her expressions still show quite a blank look but as she gets closer to the bedroom it becomes more aggressive. This is what I wanted in order to show the increasing danger and appearance of whats actually going to take place. I made sure to include some shots with the Iron that Sophie will eventually kill the other character with to build tension and create questions of whats going to happen. I got a good range of movement and coverage to help make this work well in the edit. 

From this scene we moved into the bedroom where Lorna is sitting at her table dresser in the bedroom. Sophie approaches and strikes her with the iron. I wanted this scene to be tense so slow movement was what I wanted right up to where she strikes the iron. Obviously, Claudia does not actually hit Karen at any point but she gives the motion as if she is hitting her over the head. Unfortunately these shots came out quite grainy and the decor was not what I had in mind of the bedroom. I aim to reshoot these scenes.

We finally moved onto the bath scenes. Since Claudia was in the bath and in her underwear I wanted to make sure we were professional and she was as comfortable as possible. I made the call to restrict the amount of people needed in the room and just worked with Andreya to ensure she could deliver on performance but not feel intimidated by other crew members watching. This worked well and I ensured we got great shots here. I added some bubble bath and had advised Claudia to not wear anything with straps to ensure it looked as natural as possible. I also decorated the bath room with roses in vases to give the room a more luxurious and striking look rather than it being plain. I decided to do a shot where we run level with the side of the bath along the bottom of the flowers and then we reach Sophies face. This worked really well. I also got a more wider shot to give us something to cut to as well as getting Claudia to look straight in the barrel of the lens. This I feel will work well as I want the audience to feel like she's looking right at them breaking the fourth wall and making them a little on edge for the first time.

After this scene I got cut aways of the corridors and some of the rooms to help with the edit if we need it and reviewed all the footage to ensure the bulk of it looked great and was up to the standard I wanted it to be at. After reshooting a couple of scenes because of grain I am finally happy with how most of it looks and I look forward to see it coming together when I help Drey in the edit process.