Thursday 29/01/2009 (Filming)

In this lesson, we spent the first hour searching for open shops that might be able to give or loan us a mannequin; however, this proved unsuccessful. Miserably defeated, we went back to college to get a tape recorder, postit notes, and rope. Whilst there, we ran into an art teacher, and Nicole asked again about borrowing a mannequin. He said yes (problem solved!) so we all went upstairs to get the various body parts. On our way back downstairs, we suddenly realised that I didn't have a change of clothes, and refused -point blank- to freeze to death while we filmed the mannequin; so we went to the props and costumes department to ask about using a costume to dress the mannequin in to make it look more like me, as I was to be the one filmed "hanging". Another problem solved, as we were allowed to use costumes. We didn't need to find a shirt, as we were going to use my long coat, zipped to the top, to hide the fact that the mannequin didn't attach properly, so all we needed was a pair of trousers that looked like the ones I was wearing. This was a lot more difficult than we'd thought; however, we found two identical pairs of trousers (much better), so I changed into one, and we put the other on the mannequin. We also found a wig that was almost my hair colour, so we borrowed that as well. Finally ready, after about an hour and a half, we left college to film.

The park we had originally planned to use, proved unsuitable, as -not only were the overhanging branches far too thin to support much weight- the trees had recently been fenced off, which meant we wouldn't be able to film there. This meant needing to look for a new location. Thankfully, Fatma had a good idea of where to go, so we went to have a look. It was a pathway running alongside a canal, and almost every tree had a good branch that leant out over the pathway. It was perfect, except for some of the canal boats that occasionally drove through our shots, ruining the sound.

Our next problem was actually stringing up the mannequin. We decided to film all the parts we needed the mannquin for first, as this would mean not having to borrow it again. First, I threw the rope over an overhanging branch, and we looped it around the mannequin's neck to give the actual hanging effect. Then, using the rope as a pulley, we hauled up the mannequin's top half, and attached the bottom half, wrapping the rope around it, and then tying it to the knot at the neck, to make it look like a whole person. Then we put my coat on the mannequin, covering up the second layer of rope keeping it all together, and zipped it up to hide the fact that the mannequin wasn't wearing a shirt. The mannequin didn't have any arms, but that didn't matter, as my coat was thick enough to make it seem as though there were arms in the sleeves. We added the wig -as a final touch- and put the tape player -with a blank postit note- on the ground beside the tree we were using, and we were finally ready.

We then filmed the mannequin, and Nicole's reaction to the "dead body" swinging from a tree, several times from varying angles, so that we could do match cuts in editing. We got a lot of strange looks, as many people passing by thought the mannequin looked very real (which can only be a good thing). Nicole then had to pick up the tape player, and pretend to read the note, which we also filmed from several angles, including one from between the mannequin's ankles. We also shot a close up of the tape recorder, so that we could add titles to the postit note in editing. Once we'd filmed everything we needed with the mannequin, we had the difficult job of actually taking it down, and making it look like I was the one hanging. The first shot in sequence for our film is a close up of my bare feet dangling. This was not easy to film, as it was extremely cold, and I couldn't quite get high enough to hold onto the branch. So we found a different tree with a similar background that I could climb a little way up, and sit on to dangle my feet down. We filmed it from one angle, to make it look most like how it would have if I'd been in the right place. Whilst there, we filmed a shot from later on, when I'm actually in the process of "hanging" myself. For this, we had to make it look like I'd dropped down, and was struggling and jerking before going still and lifeless. After this, we went back to our original tree to film my top half doing exactly the same as my feet - first swinging, and then dropping down and jerking. We were a little worried about this bit, as it meant having the rope around my neck. However, we did not tie the rope to the tree, as this would have been a serious safety hazzard had I slipped off the ledge I was standing on. Instead, Fatma held the rope behind the camera, and gave me some slack at the approriate moments. Each time we reshot that section of film, I had to adjust the knot in the rope, as it was slowly getting tighter; however, it was all perfectly safe in the end. I never slipped off the ledge, and Fatma never let the rope get tight enough to actually touch my neck. Once all of this was out of the way, we filmed a section of me running up the path to the tree. Originally, this was supposed to be bare-footed as well, but I didn't get half-way down the path before my feet were far too cold for me to be able to physically run, so I had to put my shoes and socks back on. We only managed to get this from one angle, as we ran out of time. We packed up, and hobbled back to college, very cold, and a little in pain. Once there, we took eveything back to the appropriate departments. With what we filmed today, hopefully we won't need most of the props next time.