Shoot Day

The shoot day overall was a success, but it did start off very difficult. First of all, all of my actors cancelled last minute, and so I had to change the script last minute so that I could still shoot, but I would have to act in it alongside someone else who agreed to help me. With now only two characters, male and female, there would be no lesbianism involved and so no contrasting blonde and brunette lead characters. Still wanting to keep the contrast of light and dark as a Lynch convention I decided to try a new approach, similar to the one used in Lost Highway, which I had considered previously. This involves the same female actress playing both a light haired and a dark haired girl in the film, so essentially they are the same person but in different circumstances (one potentially being in a dream sequence, which is why this character change would make more sense). 
Firstly I dressed the set, which involved putting a black cloth over the leather sofa, putting a glass table in front of it with whiskey glasses on top and adding a unique-looking side table with vintage phone on top. When setting up the camera though, we realised it was far too bright to shoot when trying to get the eerie effect that I wanted; it was sunnier outside than I anticipated. To overcome this, I had to run into town to pick up some pegs, to hold up opague fabrics over the curtain rails to block out more light. Although it did help a bit, it was still quite bright so I decided to take a new approach. I added a blue gel and a red gel over each of the two redhead lights I was using, to create an eerie filter over the scene using this light as well as the natural light. This is a convention of Lynch films anyway, as seen in Inland Empire and Rabbits, to make the scene more surreal and distorted, representing the subconscious darker parts of the mind, and not just what we see on the surface in the real world. 
 After a few run-through rehearsals, we shot the scene. It was difficult to direct and act at the same time, but it also meant I could act exactly as I wanted the character(s) to be. I asked my camera operator to shoot a wide shot (two-shot), two mid-shots from each character (at obscure unconventional angles), and then a few close-ups and cutaways of the main props in the set that showed significance (telephone, whiskey, pistol etc.). We first went through all the lines with me dressed as the blonde character, and then through the ones where I had my normal hair and a new outfit. Each time something didn't go how I wanted, I simply asked to repeat until it was how I intended, as well as giving useful tips. 
 Overall, the shoot day was alright but I got the footage I needed to create a David Lynch style film now, which I think which look better once it has been edited together properly.