Props Used

Homemade Blood- We used this throughout the majority of our film, when combined with the red food colouring it proved effective at making realistic wounds. We found that on its own the blood was really faded and pick, so I came up with the idea of putting normal food colouring where the blood would be coming from.

Plastic sheets- This was used to make the setting look more like a crime scene, it was also helpful when clearing up the blood and making the blood stand out from the red floor. It was heavily inspired by TV shows such as Dexter and Breaking bad.

Masks- The masks we used were bought by Cam and came to a total of £12 excluding the flame mask which I already owned. These masks helped to improve my mise-en-scene and were used to keep the identity of the killer hidden.

suit- This was used to briefly show the background of the killer showing that he may be working in an office, he may be a sixth form student or he could just be wealthy. You will find that in a large amount films the killer will also wear a suit, an example of this is the film American Psycho.

Poster for The Art Of Evil

This is the poster we created to go with our opening sequence, we found that the most effective posters are the ones that are simple and mysterious. We also linked the colours of the poster to the 3 main colours used in our opening sequence. White was used to make the viewer focus on those objects, that are important to the story of the film.

Locations to film

When finding the set for our film we started by looking for what was the best in terms of mise-on-scene. So the first place that came to mind was an abandoned set of buildings in Annerly. This was an appropriate location as it was destroyed and burnt, I knew the owner and we were also allowed to mess up the floor with blood. The rooms were very wide and had a large space to film in and they were also covered in graffiti and dust. However, as it was an airsoft field we would be limited to a very strict filming schedule, only being able to film on Saturdays and eye protection would have to be worn. despite how nice it would have looked, it was just too inconvenient to film there and there would be too many safety precautions we would have to take as the roof on the building was very unstable.

The next location I looked at was a photography studio in Crystal Palace, this suited our film perfectly and was the right size for us to be able to film in. The lighting was also incredibly good, however there were some major issues, we weren't able to get blood on the floor and it would cost us £12 an hour.

Next I went to a friends farm in Otford, this was a similar case to the Annerly site, where we were able to do everything we wanted and the set looked amazing but it would also push us for time. As Otford was quite far away we would need to leave immediately, the lighting in the building was poor so we needed to arrive as soon as possible. We would also risk damage to some of our equipment as it was extremely muddy. It was disappointing not being able to film there as the building we were going to film in was incredibly isolated and was attached to a world war one bunker. 

I found that as our film played around with the focus on shots it wasn't 100% necessary to have a large filming location. So I started to moving the furniture around in my double length garage. I was able to clear half of the room and put up white sheets to block off that side. The red floor was a problem as it wouldn't show blood very well, so I put down some white plastic on the floor instead. The room suited our colour scheme well as it was mainly black and white once we had finished modifying it. One problem we did encounter was managing the light as, it was too dark and there was only one source of light. This was very close to us when compared to the other filming locations as it was only a few roads away from Phil and I lived there. 

Blood-How we did it

To make the blood used in our film we used the following ingredients:
Golden syrup
water
red food colouring
blue food colouring
yellow food colouring
corn flower

We started by pouring the golden syrup into a bowl followed by water and stirred. At this point I added the red food colouring and the corn flower giving it the strong red colour and making it less transparent. After, I added a small amount of yellow and blue food colouring to make it darker and more realistic. It took a few attempts to get right. One problem I did have was making the blood thicker, this was a problem as we needed it to stick to the walls and it did not, we resolved this problem by putting more corn flower in and filming very quickly. We additionally found that the blood faded in the white clothes, this was fixed by putting the red food colouring directly on where the wound should be, giving a more realistic effect.

Production-images

Our Pitch, The Art Of Evil

Shooting schedule

We will be filming on the 15th and 16th of February, leaving editing to be started on the 20th and continued on the 24th. Time does not matter as we are filming in a privately owned indoor location, this was a key part when choosing an appropriate place to film. Myself, Phil and Cam are able to make these days and will each have different roles, for the 15th and 16th I will be filming, Cam will be playing the part of the man in the suit and Phil will be the corpse. On the 20th Phil will be editing as Cam and I will be working on a separate assignment. We plan to be editing from 9:00 to 15:00, this is so that we still have time to spend once we come back if needed.