Task 9. Filming

First filming day, thursday 9th February. 

On our first filming day we were all set to go to Chloe Ravenscroft's house, to get started. We had to make some changes from the production scheduale, but overall, the filming day turned out to be a great success, where we were able to finish both the opening scene, and the ending scene of our film.

The location for both the scenes was Tamworth, and the setting was inside of Chloe Ravenscroft's house, which in the film was suppose to be Dolly Pocket's house. The reason for why we chose this setting was because it was a standard middle class house, which would give a sense of realism to the film. The fact that both the opening scene and the ending scene were going to take place inside of the house, made it convenient for us to film it both on the same day.

Scene 1.

We were very eager to start filming, using the tripod and the camera that our school had provided us with. Before we could do that however, we had to decorate what which was suppose to be Dolly Pocket's living room, before she lost her child. We made the made the room very light, turning on every lamp in the room. We also had white curtains in the background. On this way we wanted to create a sense of safety, and make a typical home-feeling.

Dolly Pocket, in her home, holding her baby.

As we were filming we chose to film it in a 'home-made-video', were the character Dolly Pocket is looking into the camera, telling her 'husband' how beautiful their new born baby is. To make it more believeable that it was her husband she was talking to, we decided that she was going to ask her him this "Oh, isn't she beautiful Nigel?". On this way we could get a voiceover later on, of a grown up man saying "oh yes darling, she is", so it would seem like he had been there the whole time. 

The whole scene was filmed in a hand held camera, as this would give a sense of realism.

The costume used in this scene, are as you may can see on the picture above, a comfortable white sweater and some normal blue trousers. We chose the white sweater, as the connotations to white is pureness and innocence, this indicates that she is just a normal mother, where nothing dramatically has happened to her. The scene ends with the 'husband' throwing the camera down in a chair, so the audience can not really see what happens, as he is running over to his child, were Dolly Pocket is crying, because the baby is no longer breathing.

Scene 4.

As we were finished with filming scene one, we immediately started to get ready to film the ending scene. Before we could start filming, we had to do the make up, needed for Dolly Pocket's face after she lost her baby. In this scene, she is no longer a loving mother, but an insane and brutal murderer, which is obsessed by her dead child. 

Before the filming day, we had already looked up on the internet, using google, on how to put on make up so it would look like a creepy doll. After finding the make up needed, we started to do the makeover in Dolly Pocket's face, played by Chloe Ravenscroft. 

Pictures from the transition:

The first thing we did, was painting her face all white, on this way we took away all the natural and good colour a human usually have in its face, and made it more ghostly. We did this as stereotypically ghosts are horror creatures. After this, she got some black eyeshaddow, both over and under her eyes. By adding these two effects, we made her look more scary and dead, and she was now closer to reveal her true nature.

After this we added big pink cheeks to her face. This was to create the image of a porcelain doll, to show how far Dolly Pockets obsession has gone. This indicates a very bad mental state

When the pale white skin, the black eyes and the red cheeks were all finished, we had to make her even more scary to get the horrifying effect we longed for. We therefore, as planned, gave her creepy black lips. The black lips gave the missing effect we wanted, and after them she looked like a mix of a half dead demon and a terrifying doll in her fac. We felt this truly revealed her true nature.

This is a picture of the ending result of Dolly Pocket after she has become an insane murderer.
As you can see we also chose to put her hair into pigtail. This was to reinforce the idea of Dolly's doll image as it is a very childish hairstyle, which adult generally do not wear.

As we started to film the ending scene of our film, we had to do something with the living room she was in. In the first scene it was very white and pure, now however, we wanted it to be more dark and eerie, but at the same time show that it was the same living room she was in. We wanted this change because the character had gone through a huge change in personality and in the way she looked. 

We therefore turned the light down, so the whole room was darker, this gave an immediate effect, however, we both knew that we needed to edit these shots in an editing program when we came back to school. This was because we both wanted the room to be even darker, wich would create a bigger sense of scariness and danger.  It will therefore not be natural lighting in any of the shots from the ending scene.

The props used in this scene is one knife with blood one. This is suppose to be the knife Dolly Pocket killed Tanya with. We can see her comming in with it, in a long shot, filmed in a low angle. The low angle gives Dolly more dominance. 

We also used a numerous toys, which Dolly sits on, with her dead baby. This is filmed in a long shot, as we can see her whole body.

We also had to use a blanket, where the 'baby' is laying in. In a over the shoulder shot filmed in a high angle, however we can see that there is no baby. This is the shot which reveals that Dolly Pocket really is insane, as she is singing to a blank blanket, believing her baby really lies there.

The costume for this scene, is, as you can see on the picture, very different from Dolly Pocket's costume from scene one. In this scene she uses a green doll dress, with white circles all over it. We thought this costume would give a creepy feeling, because it is suppose to be used in a cute way, possible young children using it, while they are happy and out with friends.In our film however, it is used while she is killing other people and is obsessed by her own dead child. This challenges people view over a doll costume.

Scene 2.

As we had finished up both scene one, and the ending scene we figured we had good time on us, so we started filming scene two. This is a very short scene we only needed to film Dolly Pocket in her doll costume taking up her knife and walking out the door, foreshaddowing she was going to kill someone. This was all done from the tripod, were we used medium shots. Because the room was still to light, we figured we also had to edit this in an editing program when we came back to school. Therefore it will not be natural lighting, but the location, setting and costume are still the same. The only prop we used for this scene, was the knife.