Once this was all done I moved the camera out of the way and spun the hospital bed around in the room to give us as much space around it as possible. The white tiles on the walls started about halfway down the room and the other half of the walls were painted yellow. I had to make sure that the camera would only film the white parts to make the setting look as clinical as possible. As I'd imagined, space was tight so we had to squish everything to the back of the room to create enough space to film. This means we put all our bags and equipment behind the camera creating what looked like a tiny explosion but which left the side of the room we were filming in totally clear. It was a very bizarre setup!
Once the set looked as I wanted we started on Lucy's makeup.
We wanted her to look as though she'd been attacked to such an extent that she was having to have her heart restarted. Without any professional training or makeup I was quite nervous about doing this. I'd practised on myself at home so I knew I could create something that looked quite realistic but transferring that onto someone else was a challenge. Luckily, one of my friends playing a surgeon helped me with the makeup and between us we gave Lucy a black eye, a severe head injury, a bleeding nose, a split lip and a bruise in the shape of a hand around her neck. I was every happy with how this turned out! However when we set up to film I realised her arms and legs were unharmed, therefore we put a bruise and a cut on each one to make it more naturalistic. We also made her knuckles bloody as if she'd tried to protect herself.
Once this was done I handed out the white coats, mouth masks and rubber gloves to denote the professions of the extras. Then we put the defibrillator on top of a small dustbin which one of my extras stood in from of to mask. This meant it could be reached easily but didn't take up room on the operating table with Lucy.
I set the camera up and, as I'm muting the sound to either use diegetic sound, voiceover or music, I talked them through the situation, slowly building up the tension up until the use of the defibrillator. I played around with the position and angle of the camera in order to get the shot looking up at the table but not underneath it. This use of levels will make the audience feel small and helpless in this stressful situation. I really like the angle I eventually used, I think it makes it clear to the audience where the scene is taking place whilst maintaining that bright white look I'd imagined. I also like the fact that we can see the faces of the surgeons as the mouth masks look really effective on camera and will really help the audience denote the location of the situation.
We did this a few times to make sure I had enough footage to use then we moved onto the next stage.
This was looking at Lucy's feet and legs. The slow progression of the camera up the patient's body will help build tension up to the final shot where the identity of the character is revealed. All the shots above the body were much more difficult than the original one on the floor because I had to try and hold the camera steady. I did it with this shot by keeping the camera on the tripod and resting the legs of the tripod just below my chest to help steady the camera. I think this worked pretty well but there is a slight shudder as the defibrillator is used however, after reviewing the footage, I've decided I quite like this as it reflects the tensions and uncertainties in the situation and will link nicely into the handheld style of the flashbacks.
The next shot was of Lucy's torso. This was more difficult to film as I had to stand at the side of the table and try to lean over her body to get the shot however, I think I did manage to keep the camera relatively steady. These are exceptionally short shots as well so any movement of the camera won't be very noticeable because there is very little time for the audience to adjust to the rapid scene changes.
Finally we did the close up of Lucy's face. This was the most difficult one to do and the only way I could actually get the shot was to be up on the table with Lucy to enable me to hold the camera directly above her face. It was very difficult for her to do because she had to open her eyes and sit up towards the camera in very quick succession before her vision had really adjusted. This meant she found it difficult to judge how far to sit up without head butting the camera. We did a lot of practices and, in the end, I just filmed them all because it varied from time to time if she'd judge it right. I have a lot of takes but I'm very glad because there are a few which worked really well that I'm happy with. Just like the other shots, when she has the defibrillator used on her the camera shudders but, again, I actually like the effect this gives, as the franticness of the scene is exaggerated by the deteriorating camera stillness.
In this scene Lucy screams as she sits up towards the camera. She did this in the takes but, because I didn't have a microphone, I'm not sure how this turned out. Therefore, when I upload the footage to the computer I'll test the sound and, if it's not clear enough, I'll mute it and use a voiceover scream.
This is definitely the most complicated section of my film opening and it took us around two and a half hours to film. I am very pleased with how everything looked on camera because, no matter how much planning I did, I just couldn't truly imagine how it'd come together. I thought it was very effective and the location and the props all came together to make a hospital setting better than I could've hoped for in a school disabled bathroom. Therefore I am happy with my footage and am looking forward to the editing process.
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