Blog Post #47 - Filming Scene 5 [Possessed Blair Kills John]

 After applying the blood prosthetics, I began to film scene 5, where Blair(Romen Basu) comes back to the party possessed, and kills John(Cole Bryant) after he tries to ask him wether he found the dogs yet. This is the most eventful scene in the film, and the most complex as it utilizes practical effects Rig 2 Head Impaled. 

Above is the first encounter with Lord Dajti Karabash (reborn in and possessing Blair's body). This shot was filmed only twice as the performances in both takes were quite perforable. This shot may seem like it was complex to film, however it was extremely simple, actor Cole Bryant(right) simply stood on a stool, and positioned himself down, and stood up when actor Romen Basu(left) lifted him up. This simple tactic made it look as if Blair(now Lord Dajti Karabash) lifted John's body by his throat.

Above is the final Rig for John's head getting impaled. This rig was built to have the likeness of actor Cole Bryant, and we matched the shirt Cole was wearing with the dummy, so that the audience could easily tell that it was John, even when his head was dismembered. This shot took nearly 6 takes, as the Rig was not working as expected, there was not enough blood for my liking, eventually I was able to get it to work in one of the takes, and even used multiple of the takes in the final cut, but to make sure the gore was lasting, I went unscripted. I decided to rip John's face in half on camera, to make sure extreme gore would be prevalent in the film, even if the rig did not end up working. 

Above is Bruce(Robert Sokoll) finding John(Cole Bryant (Cole's Dummy for this particular scene) once it's too late. We did 4 takes on this scene, with varied amounts of blood, and for one take I even used my own hand(however the Picture above is actor Robert Sokoll's hand). This shot was made easier by the puddle of blood created by the Rig of Cole, and it's multiple takes adding up.

This was my favorite scene to film, but also the most stressful. After the first attempt at the rig did not work nearly as expected I got very worried, and started making different batches of blood, to see if they would work better, and as a back up plan I ripped the face in half to make sure there was still blood spill, and this 'back up plan' worked so well, I decided to move on with it and use it in the final cut, even though the blood rig did eventually work for Cole/John's head.