The first individual directing exercise we did on the Friday of week 3 was interesting and challenging on a number of levels. Since we had 6 people to get through, time was clearly the biggest issue. It is hard enough to articulate a vision to a crew and actors, especially if the actors have very little experience. The location we chose gave us a variety of choices, the building which served as the background for most of our scenes is an interesting old (possibly gothic) style building with lush green plants in garden beds along the side. This would help us ad depths and contrast without having to do anything too tricky with the camera. On top of the building, there are ledges/benches bordering the nearby lawn, which we used as seats for the actors as well as a platform we could (and did) use for the camera set-up.

This was also the first time this semester that we used the mixer for the microphone, so it could be said this is the first time we had used a “full” kit as a group, minus lights etc. Each time we shot a scene we would swap roles, which worked really well for us, I specifically remember Simone asking about the mixer and expressing an interest in working with it.

For my shot, the intention was to pan from a mid shot of one character placed in the left of the screen, to then pan across to the other character in mid on the right, then continue to pan as she walked away until eventually stopping at a long shot as she turns around to address the other character. The most difficult part of this was the panning itself, Jason had to pan the camera pretty much 90 degrees which made it difficult to control. The other issue with this shot was the pacing of the action, given that it is meant to be a smooth continuous pan. My direction was for Simone to wait 2 beats after Maddie delivered her line, to the stop at a spot I marked while blocking. The end product, which I only saw once in class the following week, I was actually really pleased with. I achieved a very rough sketch of the shot I had imagined in my mind, so mission accomplished I suppose.

Another revelation that came out of this exercise is that I noticed how much more comfortable people have become acting in front of the camera. While in the early weeks people would immediately express their reluctance to be in front of the camera, there is basically none of that now. People are even enjoying it. I did drama at a very young age and continued through my high school years, so I would consider myself a confident actor, despite not having really done it for a few years. I have felt a little uncomfortable doing it in these exercises, I think this is because there is a difference between playing with acting around actors and people that don’t want to do it. This is certainly changing, and I think this fact has been an invaluable lesson from this studio.