Twilight Zone: Third and Fourth Shoot - Scene 6-7 / Scene 2

18th December, 2016 

Today, we went to Clearwater Bay Beach to film the beach scene. We modified the story as we thought that it was weird how good Charlotte follows Evil Charlotte into the ocean. Instead, Evil Charlotte will be pushing Good Charlotte off the cliff / into the ocean. Therefore, we had to decide on the framing of the shots on the spot, but we had sufficient time to plan and complete the scene so the shoot went well. There was a shot where Good Charlotte was yelling to Evil Charlotte from afar, and to create the yelling effect, we placed the microphone further away from the actress than usual. The sound of the waves was quite loud, but I made sure to record ambience so that later on if the sound covers the dialogue we can record a voiceover and lay the ambience track under it. We may also have to do foley for the footsteps. 

19th September, 2016

We wanted to film the street scene and reshoot two shots from the rooftop scene today. The reshoot went well, but afterwards we realised that there might be a problem with 9costume continuity because in the previous scene, Evil Charlotte puts her hood on, but in the rooftop scene she doesn't have her hood on. We need to check the previous footage and decide whether we need to do another reshoot.

I suggested that we should incorporate some more chasing in our film. Originally, we wanted to do a split screen with the crowded street scene - where Evil Charlotte is chased by Good Charlotte, but we realised that we couldn't do so because the people in the background will be different. We figured out another way to shoot the scene - I will be the stunt double (Good Charlotte). However, we encountered another problem. Since the cameraman has to follow the actresses who will be running on the street, there is no one to look after our bags (Charlotte Lai wasn't here for this shoot). Due to safety reasons, we decided that we will shoot this scene on 31st December.

Twilight Zone: Second Shoot - Scene 5, 8-9

13th December, 2016

Our original plan was to film the convenience store scene (scene 5), the bathtub scene and reshoot one shot from the bathroom scene. However, considering how we may not be allowed to film at convenience store and that our current footage already takes up almost 2 minutes of our film - in addition to the fact that our actress had to leave at 5:30 that day, we decided to cut out the convenience store scene. We will still be able to meet the production requirement (at least 2-3 portals) and it will not disrupt the storyline. My only concern was that there wouldn't be enough chasing in our film because the convenience store scene initiates the chase. 

We had to reshoot the shot from the bathtub scene where Evil Charlotte and Good Charlotte walk out the door because there was a noticeable change in lighting and framing in the two shots we filmed last week. However, there was too much light coming from the windows since the sun hasn't set yet, but we could not wait till sunset to film because our actress had to leave at 5:30 PM. We pulled all the curtains in the house and used towels to cover the window inside the bathroom to make it as dark as possible. We also used some masking tape to cover the camera's reflective surface because there was a glass door opposite the camera. 

We made sure that Evil Charlotte and Good Charlotte stayed as close to the sides of the door frame as possible so that the split screen would work. However, we were careless and accidentally moved the tripod, so the framing of the two shots were different. Also, despite our efforts to make the setting dark, you could still see our reflections in the glass door in the background, which we did not notice at the time. Therefore, we have to reshoot this scene again. Next time, we should make sure that the tripod is stable and film it during nighttime so that it will work well. 

We then filmed the bathtub scene. We filled the bathtub up with water and because the sounds of the water splashing was really loud, I brought the microphone outside the bathroom when we were shooting. Lastly, we also tried recording the sound of the clock ticking, but it was so soft that the microphone could not pick up any sound at all. I decided that it would be a better idea to use audio from Audioblocks instead. 

Twilight Zone: First Shoot - Scene 1-4

We finalised our schedule and found Charlotte Headey to be our actress. (We changed the gender of the character.) We will be filming on the following dates:

6th December (Tuesday): Tess' Place & Dark Alley in Causeway Bay - Scene 1-4

13th December (Tuesday): Tess' Place & 7-11 near school - Scene 5, 8-9

18th December (Sunday): Clearwater Bay Beach and Crowded Street in Kowloon (TBD) - Scene 6-7

We've also found solutions to all the problems of the script: See Google Doc

6th December, 2016

Today is our first shoot and we are all very excited to start filming. During class, we started recording the voiceovers for the flashback scene. Our plan was to first go to Causeway Bay to film the dark alley scene, then go to Tess' home to film the bedroom and bathroom scene, because the bedroom and bathroom scenes are set at night. 

After we arrived at Causeway Bay, we had to scout for a good location to film the dark alley scene. However, it was very crowded everywhere in Causeway Bay and we couldn't find an un-congested / quiet place to film. It would've been perfect to film the crowded street scene here, but we forgot to bring an important prop (the cigarettes). We filmed on the roof of an old building instead, which still achieved the same effect as we had hoped for because the place was quite shady. However, because of the location change, we had to think about what shots we have to film on the spot and the transitions between cuts to make sure it will be coherent and continuous. We filmed for about one and a half hour, then we went to Tess' house to film the bathroom and bedroom scenes.

One of the major challenges is that because the script requires the actress to act as both herself and her evil conscience (and they appear on screen at the same time), we have to film each shot twice with identical camera positions and think about where normal Charlotte and evil Charlotte should be on screen, so that later on we can use the split screen technique to combine the two shots. For the scenes where the character doesn't need to show her face, we used one of our film crew members (Charlotte) as a stunt double so we don't need to film two shots. There were times when we accidentally moved the camera in between the two shots because the bathroom was very cramped, so we had to refilm the previous shot so that it matches with the next shot. We also realized that there were some noises in the background coming from the living room in the bathroom scenes. I have to be more cautious with the background noises. 

Idea - place wash face cut after all the voices