Owen gave Sophie five days so she would have time to memorize her lines. He was also open if she wanted to rehearse in a group with Matt, the director, to practice key scenes, work on their chemistry, and make adjustments in the direction.
During those days, Matt continued preparing the house. Together with Owen, they installed a mechanism in the main room that would be used for the film. This mechanism allowed the door to move on its own; on camera, it would appear as if it were moving by itself, the work of a ghost or demonic entity.
One day, after Sophie and Margaret had left Owen's house, ending rehearsal for the day, Matt was at the table eagerly writing ideas in his notebook that he was thinking of implementing in the film. At one point, he looked up and saw his friend deep in thought. By now, he considered Owen a friend.
"What's wrong? Sad because Sophie left?" Matt asked with a slight smile.
He had noticed that the two had great chemistry and real talent for acting, which bonded them and made them respect each other.
Owen looked at him and rolled his eyes. "Sorry to disappoint you, but no. I was just thinking about an idea for the movie's promotion," he said, crossing his arms.
"Oh? What idea?"
"Creating a social media profile for Drake," Owen replied.
"Explain more," Matt said, now paying closer attention.
"Create a profile for Drake so that everyone thinks he's a real person. He'd post stories or short videos on Instagram or TikTok showing strange things happening in his house. Obviously, I'd act like it was all real," said Owen.
"Interesting. Viral marketing strategy," Matt said, and Owen nodded.
This type of publicity is called viral marketing or ARG (Alternate Reality Game), which involves creating content that simulates being real to generate intrigue and online conversation. Horror and thriller films have used similar strategies to draw the audience's attention before release.
"I like it, though there's one problem. The film is set in 2007, and we'd be doing this in 2022," Matt said.
"Yeah, but we can just ignore that. Either way, once the movie premieres somewhere, everyone will realize it was just promotion," Owen replied, and Matt nodded.
"It's a good idea. We can think about it once we finish shooting and move into post-production, and of course, if we manage to get the movie into a festival or something," Matt said.
Owen agreed. Post-production could take a couple of months, and if they were going to use this marketing technique, there was no point in starting too far in advance. The idea would be to launch it just a few weeks before the premiere at film festivals, when the movie was already finished.
Matt smirked and added in a teasing tone: "Even if it's not in the contract, I'm sure Sophie would be happy to help you out by playing your girlfriend in the videos."
Owen rolled his eyes and, without saying anything, grabbed a pillow from the couch and threw it at Matt.
"Get back to work," Owen said, making Matt burst out laughing and return to his notebook.
...
March 14, 2022 – Day 1 of Shooting
At eight in the morning, Owen was at Matt's house. Matt's parents had already left for work and had allowed them to use the house for filming.
Owen introduced the entire team, which was small, so that everyone could get to know each other. In addition to Sophie as the female lead, there was her mother Margaret; Daniel, who would play the psychic; Alison, who would play Katie's friend; Eric, the lighting assistant; and Tyler, the sound technician.
The plan that Matt and Owen had made for this first day was to film the scenes involving the supporting actors and finish them the same day. Since there wasn't much shooting time, it was possible.
The first scene of the day was with the psychic, Dr. Fredrichs.
Drake and Katie wait in the living room of their house for the psychic's arrival.
Drake, with a camera in hand, jokes that he thought the psychic would be punctual. He treats the psychic profession as a joke, despite the fact that they had already witnessed several paranormal events through the recordings he had made in the previous days.
"Alright, in this shot, Drake has the camera in his hands," Matt explained. "It starts with you, Owen, making the punctuality joke, and Katie should react exasperated at how unserious Drake is."
Owen nodded, while Sophie was already slipping into character, mentally rehearsing her lines and how she would react.
Matt gave some instructions to the sound technician and the lighting guy, and within minutes everything was ready to begin the scene.
Everyone took their positions. Owen sat on the couch with the camera in hand, Sophie by his side, and Daniel stepped outside the house, ready to ring the doorbell and make his entrance.
"Action!"
Matt's voice marked the start of the first take.
Owen held the camera with one hand, focusing on Sophie's face as they waited for the psychic to arrive.
"And here I thought an old psychic would be punctual," Owen remarked mockingly, making sure to capture every one of Sophie's expressions with the camera.
She let out a small laugh and shook her head, visibly caught between amusement and exasperation.
"Maybe he couldn't predict the traffic and that's why he's late," Owen added.
"Very clever," Sophie said sarcastically.
Right then, the doorbell rang.
Sophie turned her head toward the door, then back to Owen. "Look, he's here. Seems like he heard you."
"Oh… how scary. Now I also have to worry about a psychic on top of the ghost," Owen joked in a tone of false concern. This line wasn't in the script, he was improvising.
Sophie raised an eyebrow, clearly not expecting that line, but she reacted immediately.
"Ha, ha," Sophie laughed falsely on purpose, then added in a serious tone, "It's not funny, Drake. We shouldn't be joking about ghosts or whatever's happening here."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I'll go put on that suspense music I told you about," Owen kept joking as he filmed Sophie heading toward the door.
She quickly snapped her head around and shot him a murderous glare. "Don't you dare put that on," she warned firmly before turning back and opening the door.
Dr. Fredrichs appeared in the doorway, dressed formally and holding a briefcase in one hand. His expression was calm.
"Hello, Dr. Fredrichs," Sophie greeted him kindly.
"Hello, I assume Katie, right?" the psychic said, and Sophie nodded.
"A pleasure," he added.
"Likewise. Please, come in."
Katie stepped aside to let him enter. Drake, still holding the camera, focused on the man as he crossed the threshold and walked into the house.
"This is Drake. Sorry about the camera…" Sophie said, introducing her boyfriend.
"Hello, Drake," the psychic greeted, looking into the camera, a bit confused as to why someone would be filming at home with such a conspicuous device.
As Owen returned the greeting, the word rang out: "Cut!"
The group relaxed their postures and Sophie looked at Owen with a slight smile. "I was surprised you improvised so soon, in the very first take," she said.
"Yeah, that was perfect," Matt added, visibly surprised. "Even I felt like Drake was taking everything way too lightly, it made me want to shake him a bit."
"Thanks… you also responded instantly and improvised really well," Owen said.
Sophie smiled modestly. "Well, if you're going to improvise, I'm not about to fall behind."
"You're too competitive, huh?" Owen teased, raising an eyebrow.
"Does that surprise you?" Sophie asked, holding his gaze.
The two stared at each other for a moment, the spark of competition clearly alive between them.
"Ahem… Can we continue with the takes?" Margaret said with a frown.
Sophie rolled her eyes, wishing she could hide somewhere. Owen cleared his throat and sat back down on the couch.
"Yes, yes, let's get back to work," Matt said, trying to stifle his own laughter.
They repeated the scene three more times to have several takes to choose from later, and to pick the most realistic and natural one. Though Matt was already set on choosing the first.
After that first scene, there's a cut, and Drake films the psychic sitting on the couch. Katie offers him a glass of water.
The psychic wanted to get to know them before addressing the problem, but when the conversation shifted to the strange occurrences, Katie revealed something unsettling: since the age of eight, she had felt a presence in her house, waking her and her sister with the sound of breathing in the dark. Years later, the figure returned to torment her in another home, and now it was happening again.
Dr. Fredrichs explained that it wasn't a simple ghost but a demon, something inhuman that would follow her no matter where she went and seemed to be tied to her family.
Drake suggested using a Ouija board to communicate, but the psychic warned that doing so would be an invitation for the entity to enter. Before leaving, he gave them the contact of a demonologist.
When the door closed behind him, Drake let out a snort, summing up his impression with a single word: "Lunatic."
"Don't you think you could have been a little less rude to that man?" Sophie asked with a frown, looking at Owen, who kept filming her.
"Cut!" Matt exclaimed, and the take ended.
Lastly, to wrap up the scenes with the psychic, they moved on to a much later scene in the movie that was easier to shoot.
Once again, they were waiting for the psychic's arrival, only this time things had gotten much worse. They'd had more dangerous encounters with the entity, Drake had used the Ouija board, making things worse, and Katie was more frightened and paranoid than ever.
All three had to change wardrobe, since this scene was supposed to take place several days after the first meeting with the psychic.
In the scene, when the psychic arrives again, Katie tells him she couldn't get in touch with the demonologist. The psychic replies that it's because he went abroad, while nervously looking around the house, sensing a terrifying energy.
He tells them he can't help them since it's not his area of expertise and insists they need to leave the house immediately. He ends up rushing out despite Katie's pleas.
Finally, it was time to shoot the only scene with Katie's friend, who would be played by Alison, a young 19-year-old.
The shot was very simple; they did four takes in total. Alison had very few lines, and they were mostly irrelevant. Drake shows both girls an audio clip of the demonic entity on his big set-up and says he'll buy a Ouija board, ignoring the psychic's warning.
There, Alison and Katie tell him not to do it, that it's too dangerous. In the end, after their insistence, he reluctantly agrees, promising his girlfriend that he won't buy the Ouija board.
"Cut!" Matt exclaimed with a smile as he checked the time on his phone.
In total, they shot about four takes per scene on average, with six scenes in total. This included Alison's scene and the five longer scenes of the conversation with the psychic, which were filmed in multiple takes due to the natural breaks in the dialogue.
Four hours had passed since they started. It was barely noon. The pace was excellent, Matt in first moment had thought it would take five or six hours.
Part of the credit went to Sophie and Owen, who never messed up their lines or forgot what they had to say.
Alison, approaching Owen with a smile, said: "Good job, Owen. You were great."
Owen, not noticing Alison's attitude, smiled faintly and replied, "Thanks, you did really well too."
"Her lines were super easy…" Sophie muttered off to the side.
"What did you say?" Owen asked, not having heard her clearly.
Sophie, realizing Owen was paying attention, smiled innocently, trying to cover up. "Nothing, nothing… Just that it looks like we're moving fast, that's all."
After those four hours of work, they took a one-hour lunch break.
Since Owen was the one who had hired everyone, he invited them to eat, and they ordered delivery. The only ones who didn't stay were Sophie and her mother. The latter didn't seem to want to eat with the group, and Sophie, with a resigned expression, had to follow her mother and go eat at a nearby café.
"That woman's scary," Alison commented, sipping her diet drink.
Everyone nodded, except Owen, who was completely lost in thought.
"Too bad you'll have to put up with her for nine more days," said Daniel, the actor who played the psychic, looking at Owen, Matt, Eric, and Tyler with pity.
"Yeah, luckily we're already done with our work," said Alison, who wouldn't have to come back to shoot again. Though she couldn't deny she would have liked more lines, since that meant more money and more screen time.
"That's true. Although when it comes to the lady… Owen knows how to handle her," Matt added with a laugh, patting his friend on the shoulder.
After lunch, Owen paid Alison and Daniel the agreed amount for their work. Daniel, with a smile, wished everyone good luck.
"See you soon. Good luck with the rest of the shoot," Daniel said as he packed his things and said goodbye.
Alison, meanwhile, looked at Owen and asked with a smile: "Can I stay a little longer to watch the last recordings of the day?"
"Of course, stay as long as you want," Owen said, accepting without much hesitation.
Shortly after, Margaret and Sophie returned.
Now, all the focus was on filming the scenes between Owen and Sophie.
Four hours later, the workday came to an end. The clock struck five in the afternoon, and although there were still nine more days left, everyone was tired but satisfied with the progress.
As the crew members said their goodbyes and began packing their things, Sophie noticed Alison and Owen, who were talking and laughing together. She couldn't help but watch a little longer than necessary.
Finally, Alison said goodbye to everyone, and Sophie approached Owen with the intention of finding out what had gone on between them.
"What were you talking about so much with Alison?" Sophie asked, trying to sound casual and appear completely uninterested, as if she didn't care in the slightest. And she succeeded, after all, she was a very good actress.
Owen, without thinking too much about it, replied, "Oh, not much. She just invited me to dinner, that's all." He didn't mention whether he had accepted the invitation or not, which left Sophie with a lingering sense of curiosity.
"Oh, I see…" Sophie said. She didn't ask directly if he had accepted the invitation, though deep down she really wanted to know. Her pride didn't allow her to pry further, so she simply said goodbye.
And with that, the first day of shooting came to an end.
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