I was so excited to finally be writing this blog post that I refused to sleep until I had documented everything! Today was my first day filming, and I decided to focus on the realist portions of the film (tackling the opening and the aftermath of the episode). First and fore mostly, I want to accredit my actors: Michael Valladares and Amanda Ribnick. These two unbelievably talented and mature young people have defied every expectation that I had, perfectly emulating the representation, age, and complexities of my characters. This is extremely important and exciting to me particularly because believably and emphasis on acting are a large component in the conventions of a drama.
The experience that I had while filming was probably some of the most fun and meaningful work I've ever had the pleasure of creating. Inspired by the sporadic style of filming that Malick used during
Tree of Life, (as I mentioned during one of my previous posts, and I plan on sticking to even more when I film the formalist aspect) I used more of a free form style of directing so that I could easily cater to my filming space and adapt to the abilities of my actors.
My filming space proved to be the most challenging element of filming, considering that the space I wanted to move also consisted of another bed, a treadmill, and a bureau with a flat screen TV (things that weren't exactly typical of the 1960s). The reason I chose that space to begin with was because of the simplicity of the white wall and almost detached aspect of being in a completely blank yet enclosed area that reflects the closed off nature of Michael. The best way I could circumvent this was with multiple angles taken with the intent of utilizing editing. Long shots would have been almost impossible, so I took up to six alternate multiple angles of every shot, each with different
purpose so that I can piece together the best shots later. Probably the most creative filming I did was attempting to achieve a long shot in order to symbolize the isolation that Michael feels. In order to do this I had to stand between the foot of the bed and the top of the treadmill so that I could get a high angle shot, making him seem inferior to himself. It was an amazing accomplishment and I will be posting edited ships of it soon!
Other interesting parts of the project were instances when I made impromptu decisions about the plot to further establish the character relationships. A whole process unfolded out of me deciding that I wanted to place item that would characterize Michael on a small table near the door of the bedroom. I decided this because the space was to isolated that by placing something on the table that represented him it would add such a simplistic emphasis on his emotions (which you all already know when enough by now). However, I ended up not doing this because I couldn't find the right objects on hand that would properly emulate him. Growing off of this idea, though, I still wanted an item for Michael to have that added a relatable poignancy to the scene. I instantly thought of a picture, one of lovers that their man take to war with them. Unfortunately, it was too late into filming to produce a picture of Amanda and make it authentic. Instead, I created the back of the photograph with a message written from her, and decided that later I would shoot a close up of her actual photograph that I could properly edit into the scene with an eye-line match. I had to make this "photo" look like it had been through war: I simply cut a rectangular slip of hard paper, folded it, scuffed and scratched the edges, wet it, and then used dark makeup to make it appear dirty and weathered. The finished product was beautiful and completely impromptu, and I used a red pen in order to represent (in a dichotomous nature, like everything else in this film) passion and blood.
Finally, the last thing I had to create was Theresa's makeup. I wanted her to look clean and beautiful and pure, not only to represent her character but also to provide a sharp contrast to her face once Michael hits her. This makeup was just don with simple stage makeup techniques that I've aquired over the years from being in drama. I wanted to emphasize the force of the blow (showing how unstable and violent Michael's state of mind it) so I made the bruise darker than is anatomically accurate, but I am also continuing some of my formalist elements of expression with mise-en-scene to create a stable transition back into the realism. I started with a red lip liner as a base, putting it around the edges of the welt and in the natural splits of her lip to make it appear like popped blood vessels and raw skin, but also make it look believable. Then I added different shades of purple and brown eye shadow (since green and yellow are typically for bruises that are almost healed) to add depth to the welt. The end result was chilling.
As I said, I was so excited to find meaning in all of my spontaneous and creative decisions, and all together I'm elated to continue editing (I couldn't help myself I had to start right away!). Here is a excerpt.
By the way I must give a quick disclaimer, there is no sound in this video because the filming space we used was far too unavoidably loud. So I made the decision to completely mute the entire film and add use Foley sound editing techniques. It seems like it would be long and arduous and far above my skill level...but I'm up for the challenge and feel like I am equipped enough to execute it properly!
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