While I am not the director of our group, I found Sandra’s guest lecture incredibly useful and I took a great deal away from the advice she had to give.
While not quite related to our project I really enjoyed hearing Sandra’s story about how she got to the position she was is and I found it particularly interesting when she mentioned very briefly about being a woman in a male dominated industry.
In relation to the advice Sandra imparted, the most vital piece that I took away was about having B-scenes which may be nice to include, however aren’t integral to the story, and further designating them to be shot at the end of the day. In doing this it can be ensured that if too much time is spent earlier in the shoot with more vital scenes and something needs to be cut, the more insignificant scenes can ultimately be culled.
Sandra also spoke a great deal about the importance of building a good rapport not only between the actors themselves but also between the crew (especially the director) and the actors. While shooting we definitely ran into problems with our relationship with certain actors, so if we had followed Sandra’s advice about organising a rehearsal we definitely would have overcome these issues as well as ensuring that the actors were well acquainted with their lives.