Crimson Desire Shooting

Shooting took longer than expected, usually because technology finds a way to mess up at the best times.

Setting up everyday took a while. We got better as the days progressed but of course there was hardly the luxury of time. The first few days we had to try out various things like :
camera positioning
how much to zoom
what props were not visible enough and had to be replaced
colours & contrast
sequence


We also had to prepare various props.
Calendar:
1) This was problematic because Rebecca had prepared them according to my script which said he tears off Feb 14 each time. She pointed out that it made more sense to tear out Feb 13 and show Feb 14. So she redid this.

2) During shootings we had no room for error because the calendar was done in sequence. No re-takes possible.


3) We realised it was not bold enough. Being on a tight deadline we shot a calendar scene then Devi coloured up the date for the next shot while we shot other sequences, then we got back to the next calendar shot.

Rope around fingers:
1) The cinematic vision for this didn't come out right because it didn't look sinister nor red enough.


Framing:
1) Some wide shots were difficult to frame because we wanted to keep consistent with the artistic partial body shots rather than reveal his whole face

2) Marijn moving in natural motion also disrupted framing of shots. Working with non-professional actors is of course a cause for issues like this.

The seal on the envelope:
1) We couldn't find a good seal so spent some time trying to rework some props for the same 'wham stamp!' effect.
2) Using a red kiddy chop I had, we tried out with poster paint if we could create the effect. It took some time before we found the right consistency but it worked.
3) We had to conceal the kiddy stamp so we adjusted the frame to be really tight and wound rope around the stamp


The killing scene:
1) We shot the knives layout and the bedscene on separate days. So from Day 2 onwards, in most aspects, the tiring part was making sure we were consistent
2) We switched from ropes to bands to ties to make a convincing tie-up
3) We tried to find the best lighting position to get the knife to glean in the light.

The Eating:
1) The red meat turned grey upon cooking instead of red. Problem! Again we used framing to focus on the reds on the inside.
2)Marijn also had to drink the horrific juice/syrup/dye combination in order for the juice scene to be consistent with the one before.

SHOOTING:

The Lead:
1) Without David to star in our movie, we finally cast Marijn into the role. The tough part? He was supposed to be behind the camera. He & I set up the shots before he got in front and did his part. Runnign back n forth was time consuming.


Getting Dressed:
1) ALready tired by this time, it was tough to do the dressing up 7 times over and make sure we got every single sequence down
2) Especially tedious because it would only be used in rapid sequence but real time shooting took ages


The Girls:
1) We did shooting with the girls on the 3rd day so the order was pretty much in order and was not too difficult

2) The difficult part was rushing to finish and trying to keep track of year-outfit-tie-girl to ensure consistency. As the overall producer, I had to ensure this was all in track when everyone was taking care of the more immediate tasks. It was very difficult to be director, camera woman, oversee what props needed to be in the scene, manage everyone to do their parts, motivate the tired actor and keep track of the outfits when everyone was eager to just get it over and done with. Details are important but ridiculously difficult to ensure when cramped for time!


Outdoor Shoot:
The shoot at the 2nd location went fairly quickly and was done very efficiently.

1) Problem: Our main problem was that some of the actresses we used had changed their outfits or decided not to show up for part 2. We had to work around this immediately. We employed the help of passers-by and improvised to rework the script. We were after all using rapid sequence that was meant to get shorter with each year (so as not to bore the audience). This turned out to be very quick and effective. Thanks to some helpful Singaporean ladies.

2)We had 2 options for our bar shoot. We were lucky enough to have Crazy Elephant agree to host us for a while. We did get shooed out but shooting outside the bar turned out to be more productive in the end. Thanks to them for helping us out.


Overall the process was quite taxing and very rushy but worked out.