Finally! After so much hard work and effort we are finally done with the film itself. It was quite difficult but quite fun too and definit...
While we were shooting we took several shots of the same cut so later we could choose the best ones while editing so we sorted out the shots that we will use in the portfolio. Below I will be sharing links to some of the some raw extra footage:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AVLdgVAqbHKGw4q6hwc2t8-eKAiDWwm-/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hAUSBjvOFfTrc0ULPJaSuGiiHU51gHnq/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KpgVFOOo3iJCaAu9dHn4nfKvMAycV5mU/view?usp=sharing
The 3rd and last location to shoot was our school library which is shown as a public library in the opening. So before we could start shooting we went over to the librarian to discuss the schedule so when we shoot there is no one in the library. And fortunately ended up reserving the library for one period to shoot. Now this scene was the lonest and the most important one for the film as it had the most cinematography and took up the most screen time. We had around 15 different shots that had to be shot.
We faced a little difficulty here because the actor couldn't get into his character and I as the director had to make sure that he got the expressions right so we ended up having to do 25 re takes of the same scene until it finally looked somewhat acceptable. We also created the mise-en-scene by altering the time on the clock to show that it's almost night and had to turn of all lights except one to create the empty environment. in addition we evacuated the library and locked it. Fortunately at the end we managed to get some pretty good footage.
Our second location was supposed to be a house, and the shooting was to take place in a dark hallway and room. So as it was my place so we shot at night so we wouldn't have any issues due to lighting. Fortunately this shoot went by smoothly. This consisted of the camera shooting a dark hallway and then dolling in towards a door which leads to the dark room. Then the door of the room creaks open slowly.
Afterwards there is a scene in which the shadow of the entity's hands. So there were a total 3 shots that were to be taken. It took us a little time to adjust the lighting of the hallway in a way that it is a little visible but overall the ;lighting was to be low key and dull to create the eerie environment. Other than that everything went pretty smoothly and we faced no issues.
Our first location was the public park which looked like a forest. We wanted to shoot at this place at night to create the terrifying environment however, due to safety reasons we shot it at evening. One problem we had was the sunlight coming so we shot at the lowest exposure. Since we only had one shot which was the flashback so the shooting ended pretty quickly. It was only one shot of the entity from top to bottom.
Originally we had planned for Siniestra, the entity to have white eyes which we were going to do using white lens but we couldn’t find white lenses. We went to commercial area and checked online but full white lenses weren’t available. After searching we ended up finding a site which did sell white lenses from abroad but the shipment was ahead of our school submission deadline so we decided to cancel the idea of full white eyes.
Another change in narrative we recently finalised was tye change of second location which originally was intended to be Khizar’s house. But we couldn’t get permission to shoot in a house and arrangement was difficult furthermore our actor wasn’t getting permitted to come to someone’s house so we decided to shoot the last scene in library. So basically the guy(Khizer) falls asleep while studying in a public library and sees the horrid dream and sees it’s quite late. He feels that his throat is sore and touches it to find blood and a deep scratch mark. Then his vision falls on an old beat up book sitting in front of him. This is a journal and talks about the entity similar to the one in his dream. He reads the CHANT and Siniestra shows herself.
SCENE 1: The boy's dream of a dark hallway leading to a room
1. Camera moving forward showing the dark hallway.
2. Dutch tilt while the camera is moving forward
3. A long shot of the door slowly opening
Scene: Boy wakes up in the library, discovers an old book with an account about an entity, and experiences a supernatural encounter
1. Close-up of the boy's face as he wakes up, confused and disoriented
2. Medium shot of the boy as he looks around the library, trying to gather his bearings
3. Close-up of the clock, showing the time is past closing hours
4.Medium shot of the boy as he quickly packs up his things to leave.
5. Medium shot of the boy as he sees the book and picks it up
6. Close-up of the cover of the book, which has an old and mysterious appearance
7. Close-up of the book opening, revealing the first page
8. Close-up of the words on the page, which are written in another language
9.Close-up of a section of the page with the picture of the entity
10.Close-up of the boy's face as he recognizes the entity's hand on the page
11.Flashback to the boy's dream, showing the hands he saw
12.Close-up of a drawing of an ashy black women in the book
13.Medium shot of the boy as he reads the account in the book, becoming increasingly intrigued
14.Close-up of the boy's face as he tries to read a bold phrase from the book
15.Close-up of the boy's hand turning the page, revealing an illustration of the entity
16.Close-up of the boy's face as he reads the text on the page and feels a hand creeping on his shoulder
17.Close-up of the boy's face as he turns around and sees the entity, screaming in terror
For one of our location, the library we had to take permission from our HM to shoot in it. We chose to shoot in our school library instead of a public library because it would be more secure as we would be in the school premises, plus it would provide a more comfortable environment to shoot on. SO me and Fatima went to our headmistress and explained her our whole situation that we have to shoot for our Portfolio and fortunately got permission to shoot there. We did not have to follow an any standardized procedure and it didn't take a lot of time either.
Scene 1(The room and lobby): The camera moves along the lobby until it finally reaches the door. Here the camera dollies in towards the door. The door slowly creaks open
Scene 2(library):
The props we had to make were a journal which was made by me
and the entity's hands which were designed by Maryam. Other props were:
One of the main props needed for the shoot was an old journal which Khizar(Main character) finds in the library from which he reads the forbidden chant. So I found an old green book from my grandfather's study and changed it a bit to make it look like an old journal. I wrote a little account of someone(supposedly a Spanish man named Matias who came in contact with the same spirit ages ago) I wrote it all in Spanish by using a translator. The passage talks about the Chant which is read due to which the entity takes control, Furthermore, there's a rough sketch of how the entity looks like and some information about t so the text can actually be translated.
Another thing that was needed is long, black nails for the entity, We already had an ideas how we wanted the nails to be and with Maryam's great art skills she made some very spooky nails. We also are to order white lenses for the entity as it's eyes are all white.
Edit: So there was a change in narrative, in the book it is written that the entity has white eyes but since we couldn't find pure white lenses we decided to put hair in front of the entity's face so it isn't visible.
Our first shoot was supposed to take place in a dark bedroom, This would be Khizar's actual bedroom. We wanted the scene to look eerie and show the character's confused feelings so for that we used very dim lighting so the room doesn't look very clear . As it was Khizar's (main character) dream there is a dream effect added to it to further add to the mise-en-scene. To maintain the verisimilitude we also showed clothes lying down on the bed and a dressing table with stuff on it. We also are done with designing the entity(Siniestra) costume. Maryam made long black nails/fingers using paper which will belong to the entity.
Furthermore, we got a long black dress for her which is suitable as black symbolizes mystery and as neither the main character nor the audience know much about the entity. Moreover, black also symbolizes death which shows that the entity is dangerous. Plus we have decided to bring entity's hair in the front of her face so the audience won't be able to the face which would further add to the enigma.
