Production blog: Last filming day - Search and Garage scenes!

                  Hello there my enthusiastic friends! In today's blog I will be talking about the final stretch of filming. Today is the day we film Marissa looking for Riley and Riley being found in the garage.  Peyton started by filming Marissa with a tracking shot of her getting off the couch saying, “here I come,” which she would put music over in the editing process. The montage of her searching would then begin. It was a bit of a challenge to steadily film her while walking from low on the couch to the stairs. But Peyton did a good job. Next, we all moved to the bathroom where Marissa would look for Riley behind the shower door. Peyton wanted to film this scene in a certain way, where the camera would be inside the shower, slightly showing what is past the door of the shower, and then Marissa would open the shower door. To do this, she gave her phone to me since she didn’t feel right standing in their shower. I definitely wouldn’t want anyone but myself standing inside my personal shower at home. I realized that it was a bit difficult to make it obvious that it was the bathroom, so Peyton filmed a short clip of Marissa walking into the bathroom from behind that would then switch to the clip that I filmed of her opening the shower door. I had Marissa stand slightly to the side so that I would have room to put a title card next to her.  

We then moved to my room where Peyton laid on the ground to film from under the bed. For this shot, she wanted the camera to already be under the bed, showing a title card as Marissa’s head pokes out from the top when she looks for Riley. We had to move some things out of the way, but we got the shot of Marissa walking in, getting down on her knees, and looking under the bed. To add some variety, the next scene was Marissa looking for Riley outside. We all went outside into the street to have Marissa walk down the sidewalk looking around for her. I originally didn't like the idea of having her put her hand on her head like a visor as a gesture for searching around because I thought it was a bit stereotypical and cheesy but without it, I felt like she just looked lost, so we decided to keep it in. This was filmed from the front as Peyton filmed it walking backwards. Back inside, Peyton then filmed Marissa entering through the door, shutting the door behind her and saying her line, “Riley where are you? Its been half an hour this isn't funny anymore.” The following scene was the scene everyone was anxious to film. For this scene, we wanted there to be a scream and a bang off-screen, but we weren't sure if we wanted to add those as sound effects or have Riley actually scream. Riley ended up actually screaming and we created the bang by banging a chair on the ground in the garage so that it sounded far away. We were initially considering clapping our hands or banging a pot and spoon together, but we thought that chair would sound more realistic and more specific to the situation.   

Next, Peyton filmed Marissa running around the corner to the garage door and looking into the open laundry room door. She stood right outside the door in the hallway to catch Marissa running into frame, then twisting the track her looking into the open door. This is where she will then put the flashback of Riley and me playing hide and seek in the room. We then had to prepare for the next scenes which would use the garage. Riley had to go outside and move her car out of the driveway so that I could get in my car and move it out of the garage. We had Riley sit down in the chair once she was back, and loosely tied her up and put some blood on herself. We then went and retrieved the fake knife that Riley and Marissa had bought to eliminate the risk of using a real one. To pick up where this scene left off, Marissa stopped outside of the garage door, and Peyton walked over behind her to get another over-the-shoulder shot as she slowly opens the door. In our storyboard, we were planning to have Marissa go up to the attic door and pull it open, but we quickly realized this wouldn’t work since their attic was in their garage, and it wouldn’t look right if she was shown going up the attic ladder only for the next scene to be her back in the garage where Riley was tied up and waiting.  

Next was the bottom-to-top reveal of Mackena. I had her stand a bit far to the left, so she had room to walk forwards. I started really low filming at her feet and followed her, moving the camera up, as she walked behind Riley’s chair, and I moved backward a bit to expand the frame and show both Riley and Mackena.  Peyton then positioned herself up for a close up shot of me holding the knife saying “Now it’s your turn,” and walking right towards her and into the camera. My goal with this was to have a smooth and dramatic transition to the black screen showing “directed by” by having her walk into the camera so that it goes black. But that thankfully was the end of our filming. Thats all for today! The journey isn't over yet! Till next time my enthusiastic friends!