30-11-14 Production Diary

Initially Rosie and Layla were supposed to shoot today however last minute we found out Rosie was unable to attend, this could have meant a wasted day of filming as it one of the only days everyone was available to film. So we had to use some initiative and decided to film the scenes with just Layla. To start with we had to get Layla prepared for the shoot, this meant hair and make up I had a specific idea of how I wanted Layla to look, working on this image I decided her scary look will be centred around her dark eyes and ghostly white skin.

As Layla is not exactly in the age range we hoped for we had to use certain techniques to achieve the 'scary old lady' look as best we could. Rosie and I worked on her look using my dark make up and flour for the skin. Wetting her hair to achieve a scraggly effect made her look even more haunting. Draping her hair in front of her face not only made her appear more threatening but also you could see less of her face which worked in our favour as it made her age even more ambiguous.

The scenes we then filmed were to begin with just clips of Layla stood still in a
shadowy setting, we plan on having a sort of 'blink' effect in which she quickly flashes on and off screen that will frighten the viewer as through researching other horrors we discovered this was incredibly horrifying. The next proper scene we filmed was of Layla walking up to the house, it was incredibly cold outside and Layla only had a thin dress on so I provided a coat so in-between filming Layla was able to get warm again.

The next few scenes involved Layla walking with a knife which could have been a potential health and safety risk however this was easily avoided by setting up a few guidelines in-between filming so no one was harmed. These were:
Carry the knife away from the body and never run with it in your hands. Always firmly hold the knife by its grip and walk with it facing away from themselves, especially if you're outdoors where you might fall. Also be conscious of other people around you.

The next scenes that followed were the nightmare scenes where Layla laughs hysterically in a menacing manner experimenting with the lighting we decided that using a bright white portable light because it was a dream scene the lighting could be unrealistic and scary. The flickering lights flashing on and off Layla's face gives of a incredibly disturbing effect as every time the light fully shines in her face you see the full effect of the scary make up.

I believe today we were incredibly efficient and used a lot of initiative with today's shoot this is noted through the bandage used to cover Layla's festival bands. As they looked childish and not scary a last minute decision was made to cover them with bandages and ketchup to give a blood stained effect.

To improve today's shoot I believe the scene where Layla walks up to the house could have been done much slower this comes down to an issue of doing a lot more takes with each scene to get the perfect one rather than rushing.