Day 0 filming: Ali's death

Today was the day we filmed the scene of Ali's death, as it is the scene we need prepared beforehand, as the clip will be played on the phone when Ali's body is discovered. I bought a large dowel pole from homebase to fashion the spike from as it is long and made of softwood I can easily shape. I cut the pole with a hacksaw so it was roughly my chin height (I am much taller than Dan, but it will be buried in the ground anyway, so it needs to be taller than him). I then cut a separate piece about 12cm long from the excess. I cut an indent into the spike for Dan to bite on, as he will be needing to bite into it to make it look like it's going through his jaw. I then used a stanley knife to fashion the other end into a spike, whittling it down to the centre point. Once I had the rough shape, I used files and sandpaper to make it smoother, and into a more refined point. I then filed down any rough edges to make sure Dan was not uncomfortable with the spike in his mouth. I coated the sections that would go in his mouth with rubber sheets to keep it hygienic and prevent splinters.

We then met with Adam and set off to the location we had decided Ali would be killed with all the equipment and materials needed, which were:

• An iPhone
• The spike and pole
• Two head torches
• One video light
• Tripod
• Fake blood (safe for the mouth)

We arrived at the scene and we did a few dry runs of the scenes, to make sure they were familiar and that I got the performance I was after. I buried the pole in the ground and Dan stood on a raised bank of ground to make the height more inconspicuous and this makes the audience believe he has been impaled and is hanging from the pole. We had to change how we were going to film it because of practicality. Initially, Adam was going to place the camera down by a tree but we realised that the angle was poor and we weren't guaranteed to get a good shot. Instead, Adam placed the camera into my hands and I held it, which gave me control of the shot. 

Once we sorted out placement, I started setting up the lights, the video light was placed to the right of the camera so it wasn't in shot but still illuminated the scene as if the light was coming from the phone. We then experimented with head torch placement, as Joe and I were behind the camera. We tried having no head torches, but we couldn't see the killer at the beginning and it didn't seem like natural light was coming from the phone. In the end, we found that one torch on my head following adam's movement before he puts the phone down and then remaining stationary worked best.  

Then we applied the blood to Dan. I started putting blood on the top of the pole, applying blood where it needed to trickle down the wood. Once I was satisfied with the amount of blood, I began applying blood to Dan's mouth area, making it look like he had been bleeding considerably for a while.

The scene took about four takes to get perfect, but we got the shot within 20 minutes of showing up, which was great time in my opinion. I was extremely happy with the footage we've got, and it is exactly what I had in my head and it looks realistic, which is exactly what I wanted.