Does anybody remember last year when we created a movie using the story of Macbeth in a World War II setting? Well that project wasn’t exactly the classes best work. But don’t worry, we got another shot to redeem ourselves. This time the task was to create a horror movie with the whole class, similar to last time. You would think we would fix our problems this time and ace this project now that it’s our second time.
We began by applying for roles so that we would have jobs that suited our strengths best in hopes it would make us work better as a team. Some of the roles assigned were definitely not suited for the right people as we later found out during the movie process. I was assigned the role of makeup and costume as I assumed I would be considering basically nobody else in the class enjoys or can do any makeup or costumes. I was quite excited considering it was a horror movie which meant some extravagant makeup and I could experiment with some new gory looks. Unfortunately when seeing the script I was quite disappointed as there was absolutely no makeup needed besides fake blood which wouldn’t even be used as makeup. The costumes as well were extremely simple since they were modern day high school students, so for the most part everyone dressed in there own clothes with a few exceptions of some accessories that helped so build the characters.
I was frustrated with this as my job had become not needed so I stood my ground and for once in my life expressed my frustration and how I disagreed with it. My words were heard and luckily for me the teachers agreed with me as they wanted to see more gore in the movie as it was a murder filled horror movie. Some adjustments to the script were made, although the script writers and directors were not too happy about it.
I had spent hours watching tutorials, practicing the makeup and brainstorming ideas of how I could execute the extremely difficult makeup looks. The end product was very disappointing as the colours on one of the looks, a face burn did not show well on camera as well as the blood had dried before filming so the look of it was not as it was when I first completed it. The second gory makeup I did was a sliced head, although this one was difficult because I had been told to do a bashed in head from being bashed on the corner of the sink. The directors changed that during filming and had the actor get her head slammed against the door. I had nothing for that kind of injury and found it difficult to create a bloody enough look as that kind of wound is not very gory or deep. It ended up looking fine on film as we poured a lot of fake blood on the wound right before filming.
Speaking of the fake blood, I made two Tupperware’s full of it. It took some time to create as getting the right consistency and colour was challenging. Most fake blood recipes make only a small amount and doubling or tripling the recipe does not work well. In the end the blood looked pretty disgusting, (in a good way). The second batch was much better as I tried a different recipe for it. Although time consuming and a little annoying, this was the easiest task of my job. 
Although going into this project we expected it to go much smoother than last time, we still ended up falling back into our same problem sands mistakes as the last movie. I because frustrated as my time was being wasted once again by spending my time outside of school sitting around waiting for hours while everyone on set fought about how the shot would look. This started to get slightly better a few days before the deadline. However, if we had respected our roles from the start then that wouldn’t have been a problem.
Doing a project as a class is a risky idea. For our class in particular it’s dangerous. We are a group of headstrong people with great ideas. Everyone wanted it to be the way they thought it should be and this caused conflict, arguments, and time being wasted. Much like last year during Macbeth. People find it hard to just let go and let the ones in charge sort things out and make the final decisions as not everyone always agreed.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/iqoe32enyy7bxuy/Locked%20In%20Final%20Cut.mp4?dl=0
The end product was about the same quality if not worse than our Macbeth movie last year. Due to a shorter time frame, angrier people, and a higher expectation we basically failed this project. The reactions from our teachers were shockingly angry and disappointed and made us feel absolutely awful. Although I agree the movie was not up to the standard that it could have been, I felt that the reaction from our teachers did not help the situation or help us to improve. Instead it just made me feel frustrated and upset after I felt that I had done as much as I could to support a dysfunctional group that wouldn’t listen.
I was drawn to the movie, Hacksaw Ridge, because it focused on the strength and integrity of one man who was determined to stick to his beliefs at the same time as supporting his country. Hacksaw Ridge also intrigued me because it left nothing to the imagination. War was not glorified in this depiction of the bloody battle. The movie portrayed the reality and horrors of war quite graphically. Although the first hour of the movie was slow and drawn out, I realized how necessary the story build up was in order to truly appreciate the incredible act of bravery that Desmond Doss showed. He not only saved 75 wounded soldiers that night, he modelled and taught the men to follow what true dedication to ones own convictions can accomplish.
This is an assignment called 321. On the left side of the column we wrote 3 thoughts we had about World War Two before we learned about it in depth. Then 2 questions we had. And finally, a metaphor about World War Two. On the right side of the collum we didn’t the same thing, although it was after we learned about the topic. At the bottom is a connection, or a bridge, between our two thoughts from before and after learning about the topic in depth.
