Small Things was definitely not a ‘small’ studio in its undertaking. I did have my concerns when beginning the studio that it may be too similar to the ‘Box’ studio I completed in Media 2 but at the same time consoled myself with the fact that I could use the time to create something completely different than I did in Box. As it turns out, this worry of mine was unfounded and Small Things turned out to be my favourite studios thus far. I loved the fact that Box taught us real technical skills that we are able to take with us and use practically out in the ‘real world’, such as how to light a shot properly, the roles you must delegate to crew members, all the pre-production work involved pre-filming and, something that was very new to not only me but I feel most of the class, was working with new actors- amateur or not. I think it was this process that we followed, having to meet short deadlines, that was really beneficial overall (albeit stressful at the time). Overall, Small Things, in my opinion, is a really beneficial studio for those interested in really getting back to some of the basics of filming and working as a team to create a short piece of work.

Collaboration- what can I say? This semester was a bit of a nightmare in terms of collaboration between group members. While I know I have been no saint myself, it felt like having all members contribute equally was an ongoing uphill battle. I feel like this is something that is unavoidable overall- I mean if someone doesn’t want to show up or help or do anything, you can’t really make them can you now? I feel like the work of the group was broken up into two stages, pre-filming and post-filming. When we came together as a group I feel like we were all filled with a lot of hope and ideas and were all really motivated to create something special in this studio (which that’s not to say we didn’t), but as the weeks went on everyone’s alarm clock seemed to be broken and all communication was done via messenger and (not that I’m going to name names), but it was as though we had a ghost in the group who only read over messages and never saw again until shoot day.

Unfortunately, due to unforeseeable circumstances, I wasn’t able to make it to the actual shoot day at Josh’s house but despite this, I feel as though I did a large majority of the pre-production work to ensure that the day ran smoothly even though I wasn’t there. This included organising the actors and making sure they all received an information package with not only my details but the crew’s as well in case something went awry (which it did), as well as having a plan for the day mapped out.

The major issue of shoot day, which we found out in post-production, was our sound quality. The sound operator who had one job didn’t test the volume properly so half of our audio peaks which, as we all know, cannot be fixed no matter how much you yell at your computer. Unfortunately, we have to live with this mistake and try and work around it in the editing process, which we did by switching between the camera audio and the zoom audio. In future though, this is something I know at least I will be acutely aware of.

Overall, we managed to work around everything and produce a piece everyone (as far as I know) is happy with- despite all the hiccups along the way.

Final

So this is our final edit. Honestly, I think it has a bit of a way to go to order to be completely polished. Some of the audio, as mentioned above, is ‘off’ because of the fact that our zoom audio was peaking. Personally, there a few things I’d like to change in this piece. The final closing shot of Tiff, in my opinion, is unnecessary and somewhat tacky- I just think we could do without it. Some of the colour grading could also be lightened a tad as I think it loses the claustrophobic effect it previously had. Although, that being said, the saturated blacks really lend to the ‘movie land’ effect that this is in fact inside of a container and not a decked out basement. In a truly final edit, we need to actually shoot some shots of containers ourselves as while the stills do work, you can still kind of tell that they’re not a) at night and b) not actual footage.

Rough Edit

This was a very rough, initial draft created to see the potential order of shots. With an added soundscape, I think the ambiguity of the opening shot with Tiff adds to her disorientation. Personally, I think this works well in placing the audience in a state of confusion, just as she is. The glistening of her sweat/tears/condensation on her face I think really makes for a stunning shot as it contrasts the dark harsh background. It definitely needs to be cut down and paced a bit better, but I do like how