A day on set with Lily Cheng doing Makeup and SFX.
" The difference between the impossible and the possible lies a man's determination"
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"Will Be Done" - Lily Cheng WILL BE DONE is a psychological thriller/slasher that revolves around a group of friends, Leeah, Kellan, Hyde, Theodora, Flint, Sam and Amy. After a brief memorial held on behalf of the deceased Leeah, Sam injures his leg. They make a trip to the nearest hospital only to find it is in the renovation process. Soon, they realise that they are trapped in the empty hospital with something malicious that is killing them one by one and is connected to their lovely Leeah.
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It has been two and half years in the making, but Lily was determined to finish what she had started. Lily's film was coincidently titled 'Will Be done' as it truly reflects one of her many qualities, determination. Everyone spoke extremely highly of Lily's beaming dedication as they embraced each other with open arms after what had been a large gap between filming the final scenes for the concept trailer for this film. I was also greeted with open arms and a warm smile. I felt like I was instantly apart of the family in which this film had allowed them to create. A beautiful thing alone.
I received a phone call from James, a fellow cast member, in regards to doing the makeup and SFX for the film just a week prior. I jumped at the opportunity, calling her within minutes of my previous conversation to tell her I was on board. I was exceedingly excited to say the least and could not wait to get on set. I spent the following week surrounding my self in horror movies and filling out my SFX kit full of all sorts of crazy bits and pieces.
Straight from her lips.
Once everyone had arrived on set we were straight into it. Stunts in the court yard, makeup on set and and props flying everywhere. I was so curious to know more about this film and the depths that Lily had gone to to make it become a success, but on set it was all business (the best kind of business). Having been surrounded by elements of horror the entire day, I was quite aware of how the story line was progressing, but wanted to know more about Lily's inspirations. I asked a few little questions.
With Love From Lily Cheng - Executive Producer/Writer/Director
This project was full of ambition. It was a feature that is now to be turned into a concept trailer in order to generate as much exposure as possible for potential investors to make this into a feature film again. I wanted to jump on board with the feature with the belief that we could provide a scary joyride with a solid psychological background. I didn't write a stereotypical slasher film. It had the potential to be something different and great, something that would make people think about their actions, their thoughts and their sanity. (Essentially a panorama of blood laced with intelligence.) In particular i wanted to have a strong female lead with an ethnic background. I wanted to showcase multicultural Australian actors (regardless that the setting was in America). I wrote many of the characters specifically with a different ethnic background in order to emphasise this. Although I do not have the resources to fund this myself, I truly hope that someone else who does can see what a truly unique project this is and take it on board with as much dedication as my cast, crew and I did. :-D
I could not have done any of it without them.
Fine Tuning. Final touches. The beginning of the beginning.
On our earlier arrival to the factory like location, Alex and I explored the 'Old Flour Mill' from head to toe while we were waiting for the rest of the cast and crew to arrive. We found ourselves searching through old food laboratories filled with old office furniture and rusted bunsen burners. If not there, it was into the large industrial warehouses that surrounded, jumping in and out of old tubing and pipes that had been long forgotten. It was the perfect location for the set of 'Will Be Done'.
The 'Green Room' atmosphere was quick to check in. Before long we were all bouncing around and sharing stories while sipping on hot tea. I think we kept drinking the tea and coffee just to keep our fingers warm. It was only a matter of minutes before the 'family-like' atmosphere filled the deserted building.
We worked hard for twelve hours straight, long, strong and dedicated. Although, to me it didnt feel like work, I felt like I was having more fun than ever! Makeup, hair and SFX were happening behind the scenes, on scenes and in between scenes. I couldn't get the smile off my face. They say that if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life. This, I strongly believe.
It was 1.45am when Shane announced it was the end of the day. As he turned off his exquisite camera, he bellowed out a loud 'thats a wrap up guys!' down the echoing corridor and engaged in a huge smile of relief. Lily (Director) and Miri (Assistant Director) had smiles raging on their faces as they cheered with a quick hi-five before it was off to clean the copious amounts of fake blood from the walls and pack up the remaining equipment. The twelve hour day had come to an end and everyone was extremely pleased with the result, especially Lily. I secretly could have gone on for hours, I didn't want the day to end!
Bianca and I walked out and into the intense night air during the early hours of the morning with our adrenaline still pumping. The frost was nibbling at our toes and every breath we exhaled looked like a cloud of smoke. We had just walked off the last scene of a horror film and into the pitch black night. All we could see was one car ad it wasn't ours. How ironic. We knew Bianca's brother Sam would be watching over us so we continued to laugh off the situation and made a quick dash to the car. Almost a horror film in itself.
It was an amazing, memorable and constructive day. A fantastic one to was had by all. This kind of work truly was incredible. I literally walked into an old warehouse with nothing but a makeup bag and flat coke and walked out with so much more. Experience, knowledge, friends and a whole lot of memories.
Thank you so much Lily for taking me on board, it was more than a pleasure. Thanks to all the cast and crew it was SO fun to work with you all and I hope to do so again in the near future.
BL.x
