Immortalis Somnum - video project log/reflective document by Jackson, Stacey (UG)

At the start of pre-production week we began by our producer and director talking through the film with us and discussing how the film will look and what the story of the film is, we also discussed the way the film will look in terms of lighting and camera angles and we discussed any questions anyone might have as well and those questions were then answered by the producer and the director, throughout the week we then worked on character development and started to think about our character and the lives of our character. We thought about the background of our characters and what their life would be like before ‘the great fatigue’ and what they would have been like at home. I have also taken the time throughout the week to learn my lines and think about how I will say each line. Towards the end of the week we developed the characters further through a mixture of discussions and character workshops and hot seating to get us into the mind frame of the character and how the character would be thinking and what they would say when they are in certain situations.

During the production/filming stage of the film I have made sure from the start to of worked with the director to make sure that I am following the direction and vision of the director for the role of my character Harper.

For my first day of filming my first scene was in the theatre where we filmed the scene between Harper and Max when he is trying to barricade the door closed and Harper comes up to him angrily and demands to know what he is doing in case it could be help. There is anger and tension between the characters of Harper and max as they often clash and don’t see eye to eye. On this day we also filmed the scene between Harper and olive which takes place after Harper has stormed off from the group after finding out that Casey was allowed to leave the theatre and go home but Harper has not been allowed to do this when all she wants to do is leave and go home. This scene was where Harper finds out that olive used to live on the streets and is used to living rough and in these types of conditions similar to how they are living in the theatre.

For my second day of filming we filmed the scene where they are all arguing in the dressing room and Taylor comes storming in along with olive to demand what is going on, this scene is the one where my character Harper also finds out that Casey has been able to go home and finds it unfair that she has not been able to go home, this scene took most of the day to film due to the amount of shots that was required for this shoot, but everyone stayed focused and we got through them well.

For my third day of filming we filmed the scene in Hemsley house where the survivors are all saying their goodbyes to Taylor before she entered the nightmare world. When filming this I originally just said goodbye and hugged Taylor but CJ wasn’t happy with this as it came across as she was saying goodbye and never going to see her again so the line was changed to make it more positive so the line was changed to ‘I'll see you in a bit, yeah?’ which sounded a lot better than just goodbye.

For my fourth day of filming we filmed the campfire scene where they are all sat discussing with Morgan about if they can all trust him about going into the nightmare world, for this scene I only had one line so to make it look like I wasn’t just sat there doing nothing CJ had told me to get a bowl and a spoon and make it look as if Harper was distracted and messing around with her left over food but at the same time stay connected with the conversation that is going on around her.

For the filming of my fifth and final scene we filmed the flashback scene which we see Harper in a flashback/nightmare of seeing her family taken by the great fatigue before she leaves to go to the theatre, in the scene she is entering the bedroom to see her family lay on a bed asleep and taken by the fatigue, the next shot is then of Harper's reaction to seeing that her family has been taken and her knowing that she won't be able to see them again or return home as she then makes the decision to leave.

Harper is a 19-year-old university student who has been brought up into a wealthy family and has lived the life of luxury by always receiving the latest new gadgets and trends. She is used to spending time on her phone keeping up with the latest social media posts and all the gossip of her usual social life. Although she has many friends, she often struggles to let new people in to her life in the fear that people only want to know her to use her for her wealth and because she comes from a wealthy home. She is struggling with life in the theatre and just wants to be back at home with her family and friends and just wants things to be back to normal. She doesn't always get along with the other people in the theatre but she likes them and gets along with them because she knows that she needs them, she considers her best friend in the theatre to be Olive as she is always the one who sticks by her side when she is feeling sad and lonely.

Reflective document- Immortalis Somnum

For my role in Immortalis Somnum I took on the role of the actor and for this I played the role of Harper. For this role we all prepared by working closely with the director and the writer to ensure that we are creating the character to work along with how they imagine the character to be as much as possible. This involved a series of acting exercises and actor workshops all in character to help us get into character as much as we can before we began production the following week. This included creating a character back story and a biography for our characters, for this I included my characters full name, where she was from and what she did for a living and what her age was. After doing this further along in the week we then had a hot seating session in our characters and spoke and behaved like our characters the way we imagine them to and we did this with the director and writer of the film and they asked us a variety of questions which was different and individual to each character such as how they are feeling and who would they consider to be there best/closest friend in the theatre.

When filming I got myself into the character by thinking about how the character would be feeling in that moment in time and for my character she would be feeling a sense of loneliness and sadness as she wants nothing more than to be at home with her family even with the knowledge that her family has been taken by the great fatigue and this is also the reason that she walks out be on her own during the argument scene as she finds it unfair that Casey gets to go home even if it is just go to and get games and then come straight back as this is something that harper had been wanting to do but was not allowed to do so.

As well as working with the director and the writer to make sure that we performed well to their vision to how they wanted each line to be said the actors also all worked together to make sure that we was all responding to each other well by doing line runs in between takes and shot changes and rehearsing movements for example during the scene where max is blocking closed the door to make sure that nobody gets in there is a part where he is about to place a pole into the cart but harper grabs it off him to stop him from making the situation worse for everyone and for this myself and James rehearsed this over and over to make sure that I get the pole on the right line and reach for it at the right time as we both discussed and with the direction of CJ decided to what line I would take it on.

After watching the film, the scene I think I could of performed better in is the scene which harper is arguing with max in as I felt like my facial expressions needed to show more anger as I had more of a smile rather than a serious expression and felt like this comes across as my character being in a happy mood rather than an angry and upset mood which is what she is in the rest of the film.

However, my favorite scene to film was the scene where all the characters are arguing in the dressing room and my character walks out after discovering that Casey was allowed to go home to get games, as I like the way this scene looked and felt that this was the scene which I gave my most convincing performance in as I was happy with the range of facial expressions in that scene.
'you need to understand who your character is, what they like, what they hate, whom they love/like and dislike, what they wear, how they talk and move etc.' (2018) Sheplykova.E. This shows the depth the actor has to go to know the character in which they are playing in order to give a more realistic performance.

If I was to do the film again, I would be sure to use a wider variety of facial expressions in the scene where harper and max are having a disagreement as I was disappointed in the ways I reacted in that scene as I felt like I cold reacted in more of an angry tone especially on the line, ‘what the hell are you doing?’ Immortals Somnum (2019)

I think that we all worked well together as a team, but I was really happy with the way the director worked with us to develop our characters with us and make sure we understood the character that we were playing and the emotions of the character as for example my character was always in a mood where she was sad as she wanted nothing more than to see and be with her family as she has grown up being close with her family and getting her own way so being in a new environment such as the theatre makes her feel very uneasy and sad. As harper says in the scene in the seating area of the theatre ‘This place will never feel like home’ Immortalis Somnum (2019) this line shows her feelings towards the theatre and shows that she views it as a temporary place and will want to be back home if she ever gets the chance to. Although she knows that leaving is far too dangerous as Casey finds out when a stranger follows her back to the theatre after she goes back home to get some games for her Nintendo.

Over all I am happy with the way the film has turned out and I am proud of the film and everyone who has worked on it and everyone has worked extremely well together to create the film and I would love to work with everyone again weather that be for acting or with the crew members everyone has done a great job.

Refrences:
Sheplyakora, Elana, (6th June 2018) subheading: learn your character
most famous acting techniques: how actors are getting ready for the new roles
thriveglobal.com

Immortalis Somnum (2019)
zaphi,CJ (director) Singh,S (producer)