Late Nights are the Best Nights

Last night, March 27th, my group and I filmed a majority of our film opening. We maybe started filming around 8:30 or 9:00pm and didn't end until close to 3:00 in the morning. It was definitely a long night but we made great progress and I am proud of the shots we captured.

As previously said, this past night was the night that my group and I incorporated the blood component into our film opening. We only wanted to utilize one night for the blood because we knew we would use all of it. Might I remind you that this blood is a good 97% sugar; therefore, making my entire garage smell like candy. It didn't anything close to candy but it definitely smelled like it. We only made one batch of blood and it was surprisingly enough to cover our victim's body, as well as be used on top of the table we had set up in the garage.

We did have a slight issue with our actor not being available that night, BUT luckily we had someone willing to take over. I did feel bad for keeping him out so late but he was truly a life saver (shoutout to Fabrizzio).

We are still missing a few shots from within the garage. These shots would maybe only take a couple hours to get so my group and I plan to capture these shots Monday, April 1 or Tuesday, April 2. Over the weekend I plan to edit the shots we already have so all I would have to do later on is incorporate those shots into the video.

Here's a sneak peek of how our victim's body looked like with some blood poured over her:

Lights, Camera, Action!

WE HAVE A SET! I technically already said that my group and I will be filming in my house, but this time I will be showing some proof and talking about the lighting situation.

For the most part, my group and I will be filming in my garage. When we film we found it better to film at night so not much coverage is needed in the holes of the garage door. The set will mainly be dark with some flashlights and lamps be used for a more mysterious lighting scheme. In the photos below 2 hurricane flashlights are used, one LED and one covered with a red jacket. The LED gave off a slight blue tint which worked to our advantage to have a contrast in colors on set. We set the lights on either side of the garage to allow the lights to fill up more space. We have come to the conclusion that the LED light will be our primary lighting source because with the bright light our subject of the frame will be seen more easily than the other light. Also, the LED light allows for shadows to be sharply seen on the garage door which will help with the scene where the murderer “rips out” the victim’s heart from her chest.

Overall this lighting scheme worked better than we had expected. See below for how our set turned out!

Editing...what?

Hi everyone! I just wanted to take a moment to talk about what program I’ll be using to edit our film opening.

I will be using Adobe Premiere Pro CC to edit. I like using this program because it has a lot to offer. I am able to edit so many things from sound quality to image quality and even adding certain graphics. In the program I am able to see what I have imported, what clip I am currently editing, my timeline, and a preview of my product all on one screen. This makes it easier on me so I don’t have to keep flipping between multiple tabs. My specific laptop, Apple Macbook Pro 2017, isn’t made specifically for editing so working in Premiere Pro is a little slow but not too slow where I’d have too much trouble editing.

Learning how to use Adobe Premiere Pro does take some time but I think it is worth the wait. I had to play around the program to find where everything is but now that I know I find it a lot easier. I would personally recommend using this program to have more access to other resources and have a high quality product.

Don't go breaking my heart!

We have a heart! Granted we all have a heart, BUT for filming purposes we MADE a heart! We followed a recipe we found on youtube posted by Glam&Gore (video below).

The recipe wasn't too hard to follow. Mind you the heart is being made out of gelatin. The recipe said to put the "heart" in the freezer for 45 minutes to allow it to set, but after those 45 minutes in the freezer the heart was not set. I was a little frustrated at the time because my group and I really wanted to use the heart that day. Sadly we couldn't use it.

We kept the heart in the freezer the entire time we were filming so it could harden up. After my group members left my house, around 10:30pm, I went back to check on the heart and it FINALLY SET!!!
I took it out of the plastic wrap we put the gelatin in and it was tedious because I didn't want to rip off to much jello. It turned out definitely better than I had expected! The shape of the gelatin did actually look like a heart. It is very delicate, and cold at the moment, but definitely looking like a heart.

We used strawberry jello to emphasize a red color in the heart. I further did so by adding red food gel around the heart to make it look more bloody.

Overall, I am very satisfied with how the heart came out and I am so excited to start using it in future filming sessions. Up next, making some organs!!

It's about to get bloody!

We have started to film our opening but before we started to film we wanted to make our blood and heart so they'll be ready for use. In today's post I'll be telling you how we made our blood. We made our blood by following this recipe:

1/2 cup of red fruit punch
1 cup of corn syrup
2 tablespoons of red food coloring
1 tablespoon of chocolate syrup
2 tablespoons of corn starch
1 tablespoon of cocoa powder

The recipe called for red fruit punch but my group and I decided that it wasn't necessary and just substituted it with water. Adding the water gave the blood a thinner consistency but not too watery. We combined all of the ingredients in a bowl and mixed continuously until all of the ingredients were well incorporated. The darkness of the blood came out better than we expected. We thought it would need more red food coloring but it was not necessary.

On Tuesday, March 19, we were going to start spreading the blood around the set, but before we could start using the blood we realized that it was already so late and we came to conclusion that once we start using the blood we will need to spend that one day and one day ONLY for the blood. The blood will stain and take a little while to clean up.

I left the blood out on my counter because I was afraid that if I put the blood in the fridge it would either become thicker or possibly freeze. My group and I plan on using the blood this coming Wednesday, March 27th. We will also be filming most scenes on that day as well as Thursday, if necessary.

OH! One more thing...THE BLOOD IS 100% EDIBLE!! I personally wouldn't eat it but if anyone wants a taste let me know. I'll hook you up with the best shot of blood!

Stay tuned for my next post about our HEART

Who's Who?

I thought I'd take a moment and tell you who our production members are! I'll break it down for you and mention who is the director, producer, writer, editor, and actors. Just to let you know, names will be repeated since my group is small and my group and I don't plan on making up names. The names stated will be restricted to the film opening sequence, considering that the film opening is our main focus for the project. So without further ado, here is the team:


Director:  Gabrielle Hidalgo

Executive Producer: Isabella Restrepo

Producer: Thabata Gonzalez

Writer: Isabella Restrepo

Editor: Gabrielle Hidalgo

Lead Actors: Isabella Restrepo and Luis Gonzalez

Director of Photography: Thabata Gonzalez and Gabrielle Hidalgo


I am honored to be working with this team and I am confident that our effort put together will help create an amazing production. I can't wait to see our final product!

We've All Got Issues

As previously said my group, including myself, have other priorities in our life which ultimately interfere with our project progress. All of the group members have different schedules only allowing so much free time. My group planned on filming a small portion of our film opening today but there were previous plans that were made that interfered with our time frame; therefore, we could not film today. As a result of today the only time that my group and I will be completely available to film is a couple days during spring break.

I have taken the responsibility to edit most of the film opening, since I have the most experience in using Adobe Premiere Pro CC, but since we are filming relatively close to when the entire project is due I will be spending the rest of my spring break and most of my free time to edit the film opening and be confident enough that the project is at its best quality.