film memo
timeline
Prior to the filming day, I made a schedule in order to maximise efficiency during shooting and make sure all scenes are shot on time. The timeline contained the amount of minutes allocated per scene, description was also indicated as to be clear on what we should be doing at that point in time, along with who should be doing it.
schedule
Luckily, everyone made it on set right on time. However, due to slight delays from the make up process, the schedule was pushed back an hour and a half. Thus production ended at around 3:30 AM instead of 2:00 AM.
film memo
Click the file above to download the full memo we sent out!
Prior to the filming, we were asked to send out an official form to all actors & production team members. This is because some of us were still minors, thus needing parental consent. The form includes all the need to know information & details about the filming day. In addition, to adhere to the COVID-19 restrictions and precautions, the form also included safety guidelines in which must be followed.
production design
setting
"Captum" primarily takes place in one location, KC's Bedroom. As mentioned before, we decided to only have one main location compared to multiple as to cut down time for production and is a safer bet, due to the pandemic. Fortunately, Valerie generously made her house available for shooting, specifically her guest bedroom. Prio of how the room looks like without any of the decoration for the reference of my teammates. Eldride & Kianna were in-charge of Production design, thus with their approval, we finally established Sam's bedroom.
Set "KC's Room" Before Decorating
set design & Props
The opening sequence was set on the living room of Valerie's house. For its set design, we had planned the setting to be around Christmas season, thus we needed props and the set design to look the part. Luckily, not much were added, since during the shoot, the Christmas tree & gifts were still available from the previous Christmas celebration. However, We did add Christmas lights to be able to have a source of light when the composition. This way can imitate available lighting when adding more of our pocket lights into the composition.
Living Room
KC's Bedroom
Props
As mentioned previously, the main "haunted" object in which encases the entity is the Super 8 Camera. Thus this prop can be found laying around almost all through out the short, namely the opening title and ending.
The super 8 camera prop was purchased by our group mate, Klinton Ang. We decided to purchase one since, none of us had one and this would bring realism in terms of accuracy of the prop to "CAPTUM", and also it is the most important & distinct prop.
KC's Bedroom is considered to be the most important part of our set design. To present KC as a teenager, Sharren, our set designer, made sure to prepare posters paintings, and collectables to evoke a girly teen atmosphere. Luxury items like Gucci bags, Big TV, Expensive Perfumes and a MAC laptop was also included to further provide semiotics that KC has a wealthy or privileged life. Warm light sources were also added such as the fairy lights, lanterns and lamps were evident as this interplays with the concept of the bedroom being a "safe & homely" place yet, ironically it is where all the hauntings would occur.
I. Super 8 Camera
II. Sticky Note
The sticky note is another prop often found along side the super 8 camera. Its main purpose is to somewhat provide a convention of horror as it changes faces when ever there is danger. Therefore, it is used to symbolise the shift in mood and a symbolic code for danger.
III. Vanity table
The vanity table had several props that are actually symbolic codes further representing KC's wealth and high-end nature. In addition, provided us more props to rampage upon seen in a later scene (the entity knocks them over).
costume
the "entity"
Besides the set design, Sharren was also in charge of costume design. She was tasked to create the "entity". Since the beginning, the plan was to always make the entity seem like a shadow or silhouette. We had a general meeting and concluded with its design being a black cloth layered entity, with long nails, scared appearance and glowing eyes. The main objective being to make sure the entity looks as mysterious as possible. The image above are some of the references used when making the costume. with coordinating with the actors & extras on what to bring and wear during filming day. She had written all the costume details in the spreadsheet above.
One of the challenges Sharren had to over come was applying prosthetics to our Entity actor, Klinton's, hand. The process took over 2 hours and cause a slight delay on our schedule. Initial, plans also included adding prosthetic to our actor's face, however, due to time constraint and the well being of our actor, we voided the idea and stuck with simply make up.
During production, said costume design came in handy, due to the nature of the two shot composition I wanted to achieve. The entity was placed behind KC and the reflection of the laptop is suppose to present the imposing form of the entity with glowing eyes.
The silhouette effect was achieved through lighting the background. While the glowing eyes was accomplished using reflective paper and a low light source directed to it. I learned both practical effects from David F. Sandberg's tutorial videos.
KC
(Protagonist)
For KC's costume, Sharren had given us multiple choices of style. To accommodate to the actress' available clothes, we all agree upon the middle choice. The top clothing is in red, besides our colour scheme, KC is in red as this allows her to stand out in the environment as she will be the main subject to all the hauntings.
At the end, it was briefly shown that KC wears a old styled black dress. This was a symbolic code that represents the entity's possession over KC's conciseness. KC's soul now being entrapped in the super 8 camera, while the entity has taken over KC's body.
KC's costume design sketches
KC's Costume in film
KC in black dress
Joshua
Joshua's costume design sketches
Joshua's costume in film
Considering Joshua's supporting role in the film, KC's brother is a contrast to her bratty attitude. His appearance being seen briefly at the opening sequence, we decided his costume to contrast KC's sticking with white. It is a convention of the colour white to represent innocence and purity, while KC represents the opposite (danger). Furthermore, his clothing was composed of jogging pants and a sweater to present his comfortable and laid back personality.
filming day experience
After call the careful preparation, we proceeded with the planned shooting day, January 16. The call time for Luna Film members, was at 1 PM. Luckily, we came in Valerie's house on time and prepared the set for the shoot later night. My experience on set is quite different than my last as there were health/safety protocols we needed to follow such as; wearing face mask & shield, keeping physical contact at a minimum and being as sanitary as possible.
The call time of our Althea, our actress playing KC was 3 PM and fortunately she came earlier. With our full cast present, I began briefing everyone regarding the blocking of each scene and how it was going to be shot. I used my storyboard and script to visually explain to the team my vision before we actually started, a lesson I learned from my last production experience. Pre-Blocking was important as this allowed us to save time when filming officially started.
Everything was on track until a problem with the makeup arose. The time Sharren would take for cosmetics to be applied on Klinton's hand took longer than expected. Nevertheless the show must go on, thus we started 2 hours later than intended, 8 PM. Furthermore, another unexpected challenge presented itself when Klinton, the actor for the Entity, had to leave by 11:30 PM. With that in mind, we had a limited time frame to work with Klinton, thus we adjusted the schedule so that all scenes with the entity would be filmed first.
By the time Klinton left, 11:30 PM the production was only 30% through and needed to film a handful more integral scenes.
A really challenging shot I really insisted in getting perfect on was when objects started falling or thrown by the entity. During production, we tied some props, those at the vanity table, with a thin nylon string. This scene needed an impeccable amount of team work as the crew needed to:
1. Stay out of the camera's view
2. Get their timing right
3. Making sure the strings were attached.
4. Making sure the object fell/moved in the correct position or direction.
At the end of this scene, it took more than 10 reshoots until we managed to get it right. The end result was worth the hassle.
With a tired voice, "CAPTUM"'s production was completely finished at 6 AM instead of the planned 2 AM end time. The journey was one of the most exhausting yet fun experiences I've ever had through out my media course years. Everyone was half awake at that point and tried to keep each other sane through out the shoot.
It is with pleasure to say that my experience and the output of our horror short's production can be considered successful and improved compared to our AS course work film. Despite there still being set backs, it was kept to a minimum and was addressed efficiently. I have definitely learned more about directing and filming, noticing places where I can still improve on in future projects. Nevertheless this was a fun & memorable experience.