BSA 231 W7 : Open Heart Surgery

The biggest set piece in my film is probably the tense open heart surgery sequence, in which the main character goes through surgery to get the curse removed as the monster attempts to put a stop to it. It's an important scene because it's honestly one of the most exciting parts about the idea, a big step up from the shaving scene and a very important part of the plot. I see it as one of the big differentiating factors of my film and would be very displeased if it was absent from the final work. It also seems hella fun to do so:

I did some research -



The thing that bothers me about this kind of footage is that, while real, it's hard to see and shot very close, which makes sense I mean it is real surgery, but still, would have liked a better quality vid. In The Killing of a Sacred Deer there is a heart surgery bit that is shot better than this, but still so uncomfortably close. Not doing it in this fashion could be a big part of making my film unique.

I looked at some diagrams of open heart surgery as well  -







This photo's not too bad:



I have to make a note that my story isn't entirely set in the real world though, I mean I've got the doctor doing heart surgery, not sure that's the way it usually works. I don't really care much though, it;s a movie and when people watch it I'm hoping they'll be too invested in the story be taken out of it, might even have him do the surgery with the patient upright since that's a more interesting visual.

Found these weirdos making hearts from clay, one of them even has it pumping (which is exactly what I want):





The surrounding tissue and blood and stuff shouldn't be too hard to do, fixing it to the body should be easy to hide to since surgeons always use that blue fabric to cover the patient.

This will be difficult location wise though, I am considering the use of a dentist's office, there are a lot of dentists in Invercargill, one of them is bound to let me film in there. It gives the surgical vibe, but has a unique aesthetic of its own.

I'll give the clay heart thing a go next week, we've already done fake blood in the past so that shouldn't be too hard.

I probably should plan this sequence pretty well before hand so that we get everything we need on set, plan it almost like I would a VFX sequence.

Already just for this one scene I am stacking up a lot of things that I need, like scrubs, the blue fabric, the surgical tools and of course the surroundings...