We met up in the studio. Another group were filming there green screen scenes so we had to wait, while waiting we started sorting our props; we put out the costumes for the actors to wear. Our actor was there on time so that was sorted. We started getting everything we would need for our set, the “rock walls” the lamps, costumes and the stones. Meanwhile Adam drove to Peaslake to get the steel bed we needed for the water boarding.
As the other group moved out, we moved in. We started setting up the walls 3 black wooden boards against each other creating corner. After we had set them up making sure they wouldn’t fall we starting stapling our “rock wall plastic cover” on top. To start with we stapled all of it just straight on to the board but found out that it looked more authentic to bend them in different ways so they would stick out. So we took down the old ones, and did them all in a more natural curved way.
We thought that when it came to the floor of the set that we would pick the dark colour since it would give a more dirty interrogation effect. But since we only had two light sources we chose the light side because it lit up the room more but not so much that it changed the aura of the room.
We had two light sources one on the floor on top of some rocks and one hanging from the ceiling. In the “Room” we had on the right side a wooden table with one electric devise, a cloth and two watering cans. On the left we had the bed. We had a discussion weather the bed should tip more the one way than the other, because that’s what they do when they really water board, but we decided that the camera wouldn’t show the angle so we just kept it straight and had a bit more safety for Adam that had to be water boarded.
To be honest I would say that we didn’t quite follow our storyboard, yes we had shots that we also had in our storyboard but there were some changes and some things that weren’t necessary so we left them out. For example we thought we needed one more “terrorist” but found that there actually wasn’t enough space and that it wasn’t necessary two men. Instead of having Adam (The English Man) hang from a bar we had him lie in the bed to start with.
After setting up the set as we wanted, we used a phone to quickly photograph the shots that we were heading towards, so that we could follow that. Following we set up the camera and prepared to film. We had a talk before we filmed that if we had time, we would film a short action scene when then rescuer comes to rescue the guy that is being interrogated. Since we had to film that we did, and it turned out well.
We started to film and our actor Reef was very well prepared and was very convincing. George had sent him a script so he knew what he had to say when he came to do the scene. So that helped smooth things out. We switched one of our ideas, the one were we wanted to film the water through an aquarium we used a camera go-bo. That we put in the aquarium and let it sit there and film while “Adam” was being water boarded. That worked really well, when we saw the footage from the scene on the computer in the edit suite, it could be similar to something you would see in a saw movie, but not that bloody.
Our shoot went smooth and we didn’t have any big problems than the small ones I mentioned. In the end we filmed the “action” sequence. We used a smoke machine, fast lights and shaking the camera to create the feeling that a flash bang was happening. What our group created is really authentic and it is different.
