Denise Hauser

The last two days of shoot were definitely the most challenging but also interesting talking about technical matters. For day seven, I had planned to set the attic floor onto a bunch of ladders to make space for the actress to open the attic door that was built into the PVC floor. Unfortunately, the ladders we received were not the same height and we spent some time balancing the surface out with wooden planks and books.

Luckily things worked out in the end and we had an almost even surface on which we could place the attic floor.

I managed to tack some black cloth below the door hole in order to cover ugly things. Half of the bed was laid onto a table and covered with a blanket. Then the tripod with the camera was placed just behind the bed. Voila! We had the perfect set-up.

The final image on screen. The greenscreen will have to be replaced with more floor.

In a different scene, it will look as if the protagonist was sitting on the floor when in reality she's sitting in front of the floor on some loud speakers.

We used some time on setting up the lights for the mirror scene. As backdrop we used the PVC wooden imitate floor and just hung it on some rigs in order to give the impression of wood in the background. Apart from that everything went pretty smooth. We just had to shoot a few scenes with the protagonist on a table in front of green screen. The hard part will be to shoot the miniature in the right angles.

This was the desk scene day.

It was a lot of fun setting up the table with all the colorful liquids in the lab glasses. For some of them I mixed food color with water, for others I dipped some glowing markers into the water. Lit from below with a light attached to the table the whole scene looked pretty.

Again, we had to move the walls and shoot them separately in order to be able to paste things together in post production.

Something I enjoyed particularly was observing the cinematographers Øystein and Stian Eriksen coming up with ideas for the lighting. For example, pointing a small torch upwards to the glass splinter lying underneath the microscope which gave it a beautiful glow.

Same case with the lab glasses. We lit the cotton wool and the seed inside the glass from below which gives the whole scene a magical touch.

On film it might look as if the protagonists were positioned or moving perfectly  normal when in reality sometimes the actors perform in very unnatural ways.

Magnus Børmark from the band 22 and former GÅTE member played order Nr.2.

A month after the first three days of shoot we finally had all the people and equipment together to shoot the remaining days. Even though it was an intense five days the atmosphere on set was good and everyone was working with a positive attitude and a lot of enthusiasm for the project.

On day four we set up the toilet scene which consisted of one wall, the PVC floor and all the props,  including an old toilet and a sink. The day was pretty much spent on the toilet for the main actress Mari Melilot.

I needed a running tap but the tap we had wasn't connected to a water source. Stian Eriksen went to get a hose and at last the guys managed to connect it and get the water dripping into the sink.

The protagonist's glasses were a beautiful vintage pair of laboratory glasses that I got from my chemistry friend in Zurich.

They were reflecting too much so we though it might be possible to cut out the glasses. However, this proofed to be an idiotic idea since the lab glasses were too strong. An hour later we ended up with a drilled pair of glasses that couldn't be used at all.

Credit to Mari Melilot for making the costumes for the Sun-God, The Snow Flake (hat made by myself), the silver Jacket, the work gown and the fur hat for the protagonist.

I have just completed the first three days of my film shoot. I am totally exhausted but it feels good to finally see a visual result. After several meetings with my producer Helmet during January and February I started work on a huge set-up plan and shoot schedule. From then on I carried several lists with me that were reminding me of things I had to organize, models I still had to build and props that had to be made. After February I started making the models, most of them 1:6. Thanks to my make-up artist I got in touch with the team from the theater. I got help with painting walls and floors and they helped making the miniature icebergs and a two meter long mountain. I learned how to make a piece of plastic look like ice or making wooden textures with paint and a piece of rubber. They also let me borrow furniture and props I needed for my shoot.

In March, I started looking for actors (friends and friends of friends) who were free and willing to be in my film during the set schedule. The main actress had to cancel her flight three days before the shoot took place. In a matter of a day my whole production plan had been jumbled up and I had to come up with an alternative solution. I decided to first shoot the parts with all the other actors and continue with the protagonist's shoot later.

Luckily, I managed to get together a great team of people.

For a Sunday, this was definitely the most exhausting day of shoot. We started at 12am instead of at 8am. By four o'clock the first part of the shoot day should have been over but we were still setting up the bed scene. The floors and walls turned out to be too small. We had to shoot the part with the actors first. Then we moved the floors and the wall to the right and to the left to shoot the missing parts of the scene. Everything will be composited in post production.

Once the lighting and technical matters had been figured out everything else was piece of cake.

"Order Nr.3" and the three ladies were being blown at with an extremely strong wind machine.

At 7pm, we where finally done with the first part but we still had a whole bunch of gaming scenes ahead of us. The game control was supposed to be smoking from the heat. The cinematographer Øystein from Helmet came up with the idea of drilling a hole into the remote and attaching a burning cigarette.

The smoke was then lit from the back and the excess light that reflected on the actor had to be covered with cardboard pieces.

At the end we had to shoot a scene in which the main actress throws a glass of water into the gaming guy's face.

We repeated the whole take three times, drying the actor and the surroundings with some towels every time. At 3am in the morning we where finally finished.

We shot all the scenes with  Anders Jullumstro, the "workaholic" (Order Nr. 2). In the first scene we had to film him in front of the green screen which will have to be replaced with the kitchen model in post production. For the scene I had imagined cold air emanating from the guy's body. For the close-up shots I wanted to use dried ice that would be held at chest height. However, we had to skip this idea after realizing that the ice moved downwards instead of upwards. Even a hairdryer wouldn't help. I have decided to do an extra day of effects shoot later on.

Another problem to solve was the next scene, a film noir inspired scene on TV. Since the main actress could not be here at the time of the shoot we had to film the man and the woman in the scene separately, marking the position of camera, lights, chair and floor. The light falling onto the floor from the opening door was created with a piece of cardboard that was held in front of a light and moved in sync with the actor's movements.

Endre Forbord from Theactionfive getting ready for his role as Order Nr.1.

The whole shoot took place at an old petrol station that has been converted into a studio. It's mainly used by Photographers and sometimes for smaller film shoots.

To start with I wanted to shoot a few simple scenes that were happening in front of a green screen without much props or many camera angles. Endre Forbord, the sun-god actor had to sit on a wooden board which was laying on an iron construction. The construction was moved up and down by Stian Eriksen and Stian Ward Bugten to give the sun-god a certain instability. Hence the impression of floating in water or being taken by waves. The drowning sun-god moved in a more realistic way.

Thanks to Stian Ward Bugten for having the guts to play the Snow Flake. A series of different body movements will be arranged to a star shape in post production.

Jenny Staalnacke, the business woman did her little speech in front of green screen. The background will be replaced with digital animation in post production.

A first sketch for the setup of the main exterior scene.

It's a bit over a year since I received funding from Midtnorsk Film Fond. End of 2009 I re-wrote the script for my short film. The idea has evolved and I can see that the initial budget is a joke. At times I've been feeling frustrated because I have been working on the script and preparations for the shoot for so many months without being able to see a visual result. Around December 2009 I had finally written an acceptable script. Beginning of 2010 followed an intense period of story boarding and cutting out scenes that were irrelevant to the story. I also started developing the first few visuals to get the mood and looks of the film.