Tristan Winter

 

My final piece is far from polished, but now that we are on the other side of the shoot and the edit, there are many many things that I would change so this exercise has actually proven to be extremely beneficial, as its given me some perspective and I now know what to do and what NOT to do.

Firstly, I just want to say how bizarre and amazing it was to see my script come to life in front of me. It was so surreal hearing my words being said by the actors on set.

As the director, there are a lot of things that I would have personally done differently now looking back. If we had more time, I would spend more time with the actors beforehand, to make sure they knew their lines inside and outside. I guess the fact that our leading lady arrived hungover, added to her character’s mess. However, I think when I do eventually make this into a film sometime next year, I will be spending a lot of time with my actors before hand to make sure they know their lines. I think Dana’s performance was amazing, however it could have been spectacular if she knew her lines well. Again, there is something really cool about seeing your words come alive in front of you, however there is something really sad about seeing them butchered in front of you. Yes, it is the actor’s job to know them inside out, but I still feel I could have helped out more. But now I know this!

On top of that, I should have done the blocking better. To be fair, when we arrived on the set, it was the first time any of us had been there (besides Nelson because it was his place – amazing place by the way) so if it were the actual film set, I would make sure I knew the layout well so I could block it out better. This is purely for the sake of post-production and continuity. There were some amazing shots and amazing acting in some particular scenes, but I couldn’t use them because the boys were either standing or sitting down, and it wouldn’t match the scene at all. SO, that was my bad entirely!

I actually really enjoyed working with this group for the most part. Usually I hate school projects because it is usually horrible. However, I honestly felt the weight was carried equally. I do however want to give a BIG shout out to Caitlin who really went above and beyond as the producer. On the actual day, we all kind of just helped each other where it was needed. I thought there might be some butting of heads with certain things, but it all went fairly smoothly and every one was KIND to one another which was the main thing. Again, usually I hate these kind of collaborations because people are awful and usually there are just so many creative ideas that people want to get across, and that’s usually where the issues start… I think everyone in our group has a great work ethic and we just bounced ideas off each other to see if anything stuck. In pre-production, we all kind of let everyone just do the job they were assigned, and we all had similar ideas and took a vote to see what we wanted to do.

SO – the shots. This would be the main thing I would change. We really did need to shoot the exiting scene of the boys because when it jumps to Dana’s final monologue, there is no smooth transition. It just jumps. We really did need to get the exit shot because, to be honest, the ending just completely falls apart and is a little bit ridiculous and tacky. Technically – I really should have paid more attention to what was actually being filmed, because you can see the light and microphone in the refection on the wall and in the shower. I was so focused on the actors, that I didn’t even think to look at that. Alas!

I was hoping that there would be a bit more of a fast pace to the scene, but it was hard to do it because of continuity. I enjoy the sections 0.50 – 1.30 and 1.35 – 1.55, because there seems to be pace and a solid back and forth between the characters, but again the ending just falls apart.

In post-production, I decided to make my main focus on the colour grading. I feel like we did the wrong white balance in the scene, but by making the shot intentionally underexposed, it made it easier to digitally brighten the scene on Premiere pro which made it grungier and “underground”. The final footage was way too bright, however some of it does work with the red light it has to it, but I spent most of my time focusing on making more cool colours.

Before

After

Before

After

In regards to the audio mixes, I chose to use the song Kream by Iggy Azalea and Tyga. It has that really sexy, smooth, dark vibe to it, however when I was playing it in Premiere Pro, I had a bit of an issue due to the fact that it was hard to actually focus on the dialogue and what the actors were saying. This was distracting because you have two rappers rapping in the background. So what I did was, I found the instrumental version of it so you’ll notice the start of it where Dana comes through the door you hear the vocals, but then rest is instrumental so you can focus on what is actually being said in the scene. Given more time I would have had more bathroom sounds in the scene, but I feel it still works.

The audio itself is pretty average and honestly, I just think it’s because of the space we were in. That bathroom was so tiny, but there was a constant echo in that room which was pretty annoying. In the future, I would just have more props in the bath to muffle the sound. I found it hard to understand some of the actors because of that reason.

Syncing videos is basically the bane of my existence. I’ve said it in previous blog posts, but I haven’t done anything about it because I’m lazy, but I really need to learn how to do it because I’m just not good at it at all. It took me about two hours and one giant panic attack to get it done. Not fun! My cinematographer friend is coming to stay with me in about three weeks, so I’m going to tell him he can stay with me free of charge, BUT he has to give me a lesson in syncing files on Premiere Pro. I know it’s a super easy thing to do, but I don’t know why I struggle with it.

I also drafted up a new opening to the scene of the script now, and I added a set up scene for this scene. Which is:

So they get to the bathroom earlier, and are freaking out about an actor that they met before, and how they planned to get out. I think this addition to the script will add extra urgency to the character’s need to get on this mini Hollywood they’ve found themselves in.

Throughout this project/semester, I’ve really been exposed to a lot of things that I’m glad I know more about . Although I’m not amazing with the camera and sound, I feel like I have the basic knowledge so in the future when I’m on set and someone asks me a sound related question, or asks my opinion of something, I can actually give them a proper answer, rather than just look the other way.

I’m going to step away from this script for about a month now that I have my first draft, and go back to it with fresh eyes, and add more. It’s going to be my little summer project.

So all in all, even though at times I found this project to be super stressful, I really did enjoy it, and mostly just found it to be super beneficial and a good lesson in the basics of film making and collaboration.