Saturday, July 2, 2011

Report from the filmset

It seems like every muscle in my body is hurting right now...especially my upper arms...but I didn't lift anything, so how can it be possible?
No matter what, it was all worth it! It has been some really long days and nights, have been tired as hell, sweaty, hungry, cold but in a way I enjoyed every single second of this amazing experience!
Especially the last filming night, when we went to this amazing location in the middle of nowhere and shot the final horror scenes, everything felt just magical...like another dimension...I was really living INSIDE the film!
I can never forget this...this film got me drugged...as much as it is painful and boring to wait hours ( at times even the whole day) for one's filming turn to come, I cannot get enough of this. I need it, it sends my adrenaline to the top and just like a drug addict I need more and more doses of it to feel good again... to feel on top again.
I can totally see myself working as actress fulltime. I always wanted to study acting and I guess it is never too late to do that. You don't need to be beautiful or young, you just need to be good at what you do and be dedicated and you have a passion and work for life.
I have no idea if my performance in the movie was good or just lame, it is the first time for me to have a true role in a movie and the very first time ever to act as a zombie...and I can tell you that I gave 100% of me as far as will and dedication.
I just hope I did a good job...for me it was definitely a unique and unforgettable experience which I guess I will keep talking about all my life.
I have done things I never thought I would do for this movie....like having cow blood in my mouth...fortunately it had been cooked and then frozen, so it didn't really had a smell and it tasted kind of sweet, so it was not that bad really. Considering I do not eat meat, I thought I was going to puke, but it didn't disturb me that much I must say. The worst part of it all was to put in the red contact lenses I needed for my role. It took about 40 mins to get them in and it wasn't a very pleasurable experience having someone else putting their fingers in my eyes, it felt ackward, but without their help I wouldn't have been able to put them on at all. I didn't like to wear lenses, I had the sensation that my eyes were really big...but after a few hours I got accostumed to the feeling and I must say they looked really great on me.


FIRST DAY

My first filming day (which was the second for the others) we went to this abandonned house sorrounded by fields. What struck me the most is that the house was fully furnished, there were personal objects inside, even clothes, silver, photographs on the wall...and even a funeral urn!  What creeped me out the most was a rocking chair with a big teddy bear sitting on it. The strange thing is that it is like the people who lived there ran out all of a sudden and never came back. Something must have happenned there.
All drawers and cupboards were full of things...the people who lived there probably died and their relatives never cared to come and remove their personal belongings.
I really wonder who owns that place and why they left everything as it was and just left it unguarded for so many years. It is something I am not accostumed to, it is something that makes me wonder.
At the same time maybe it is not that strange...now that I think about it even my granma's house in Italy is left untouched as it was when she was alive. But at least the house is locked.
Anyway the place (especially the house itself) was extremely creepy. I wouldn't be surprised if there were ghosts in there for real. When I was inside I was feeling observed all the time.
Just like there were presences all around me, waiting for me to do what I had to do and waiting for me to leave...like they were the spectators and I was indeed a misplaced actor...like noone not belonging to their family was meant to enter that house.
I didn't sense any evil vibe though. It felt just creepy, but not evil.
The floor on the first floor was a bit wet. It seems the cellar was completely flooded. Some parts of the wood were moist and were very unstable.
As soon as one enters the house there is a door on the side, nearly unnoticeable as it almost looks like a wardrobe door in the wooden wall. This door leads to the upper floor. The staircase had some tiny tiny steps which are almost an invitation to fall down and break your neck. The upper floor was right under the roof, more of a storage really. Although one of the rooms must have been used as a bedroom as there were a few old small wooden beds in there, maybe it used to be the children's room.
The floor was really unsafe, especially in some spots. When someone was walking in the room, it would just shake like it was about to tumble down. Thanks God nothing happenned when I filmed my scene up there.
I cannot really give much details about the film plot because it would be a spoiler and unfair to all the people involved in the filmteam, but I can just tell you we have some great footage that I can't wait to show you.



Our main character Diana enters the abandonned house


A really scary image of me reflected in the mirror inside the house
 (this image is not part of the film footage)


Shooting my first scene
I shot a really awesome scene in the barn outside of the house. I did a really cool stunt there, I cannot wait to see the final result on the movie. I cut myself a bit with a wooden door because the surface was not smooth and it had some rusted nails on, it burned a bit but nothing major really. I was more worried about getting infected than anything else, just a small cut really and it is healing now.
The best feeling of all came when I removed the zombie make up. Normally I wouldn't go out without make up, but when I saw myself in the mirror and saw how my face truly looked I felt extremely beautiful.


THE SECOND DAY

The second day we filmed Amr's scenes, the looters gang. We spent all day in the forest and it was hot as hell. It was a bit boring for me because I didn't have any scene that day, but it was definitely interesting to see things proceed. I spent my time helping out with small things here and there and most of all I filmed with my camera some footage "behind the scenes" which we will be using for "The making of...".
I must say that the guys were looking awesome in their outfits, especially Amr.
What I hated the most was the large amount of insects, mosquitoes and ants in particular, flying and crawling everywhere. I am not a fan of insects, on the contrary I dread them...but they are God's creation and deserve respect, after all it was us who went into their natural environment.


a picture of the second day


THE THIRD DAY

The third day for me was actually the fourth for the film. This was by far the most exciting and interesting day of all. Unfortunately, thinking that I was going to shoot my scene early in the afternoon, I had put in the red eye contacts already at 1 PM...and I had to keep them in until the next morning! My eyes got really dry and I was feeling really uncomfortable all day. My turn didn't come until the morning early hours, I hadn't had much sleep at all so all day was a big wait and I wanted to take a little nap but couldn't because of the eye contacts.
I didn't want to go through the whole torturing process of putting them in again, especially when we were in the forest and didn't have much water with us (not to mention a bathroom).
Another element that made me highly uncomfortable was the fact that my hair was dirty and sticky, something I really find disgusting. Normally I would never show myself in public with dirty hair, in fact I wash it every second day so I never even give it time to get really dirty. I decided to keep it this way because of my role in the film, to fit in better.


Here is a picture of me on the set in the afternoon
...sweaty, dirty hair and red lenses on

Anyways we filmed some extremely cool scenes with the Looters the whole afternoon.
At 10 pm we went back to Umeå to pick up Linda, Horror Girl nr. 2. I enjoyed very much seeing her transform into a zombie, she looked absolutely gorgeous.
When everything was ready, the extremely tired filmteam made its way into the wilderness to find this other abandoned house were we had to film our horror scenes.
We drove for like an hour to find this place and got lost twice. It didn't bother me that much, although for the others was really getting frustrating after filming all day, because I was enjoying the wonderful spectacle of nature at night...here in the north of Sweden it doesn't really get dark in the summer, but there was a lot of fog which created a wonderful atmosphere that really set the mood right for the scenes we had to shoot.


check this out!

When we finally found the location everybody got extremely amazed by it.
It was a dream landscape for any kind of horror film... a big beautiful house in the middle of a field, with a well, sorrounded by forests...bones of animals laying in the tall grass, the fog creating a surreal and creepy atmosphere...it was a blessing!
I was tired as hell but most of all I was hungry. My stomach was making the most horrible sounds you can imagine...non stop.  The air was really cold...I cannot tell how cold that was but I guess around 5 degrees. Let's say that in the little dress I was wearing I was totally freezing.  I had a lot of blood on my dress which was beginning to stink and I kept wondering if that could attract wild animals...like bears for instance... I wasn't scared though.
The house was really beautiful. In much better condition as the first one where we filmed, but didn't have much furniture in it. It looked like a haunted place though.
As soon as we came in, we saw laying in the corridor a handwritten sign which said: "Gå!".
Of course it means "Go!". Not very reassuring.
A part from that I had lots of fun filming the horror scenes! It was amazing! The other horror girl was really good too. We had a great time.
In the end we took some funny pictures, I will only post a few.


This is an amazing picture of me at the location above mentioned that we are using for promotion



With our director Tonie



I guess my parts are pretty much done...can't wait to see the final result!!

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