SHOOT:
We were somewhat prepared for shooting task 1. Karl shared photos of the shots he wanted to everyone in a Facebook group message. I requested that Gina make a final shot list so that I could convert it into a shooting schedule. I made a shooting schedule based on Gina’s shot list and Karl’s photos, and then messaged it to the whole group, giving them an idea of the small amount of time we had to set up and shoot each shot if we wanted to get through them all.
On the morning, I gave printed shooting schedules to Karl and Gina, and Karl handed me one of his printed storyboards.
One problem with my shooting schedule (other than it being ridiculously optimistic) was that it was based on an 80-minute shoot. I’d heard that we’d get 90 minutes for each shooting task, so I put down 80 minutes for shooting task 1. The big talk at the beginning of class cut right into that time, and I should have foreseen that happening. Nonetheless, we worked it out.
During the shoot, we actually got most of the shots we had planned on getting. However, we weren’t that faithful to the shooting schedule – some shots were changed, and a couple were cut. I was sort of OK with this, considering the circumstances. (I normally have a thing about directors deciding to change the shooting schedule / change their minds about shots last minute, but time constraints negated this.) But, still, I like to be able to see around corners when I first – i.e. I like to be able to do my job properly. So, it doesn’t impress me when the director impulsively changes or adds another shot.
But, then again, I can sympathise with directors, so I always try to help them realise their vision anyway. It’s a strange position, first AD. I know why I keep doing it though. I always find it an incredible mental stretch to think logistically about a project that you want to direct / are directing. It’s exhausting and sort of harmful because you have to remove yourself emotionally from the project. You kind of have to un-invest in the creative part of it all in order to focus on the logistics. I always find myself being daunted by the logistical side of the projects I want to direct. There’s no mental space left for thinking about things in that dimension, because you’ve already invested so much time and energy and effort delving into a different dimension. The prospect of bringing a project to fruition can feel unachievable. Unimaginable. That’s why I often take first AD work. To remind myself that whatever vision I have, it can be realised. I just need someone who can work that magic for me – someone who can think in that dimension for me, someone who can imagine the details of how while I imagine the details of what. I like to practice that kind of thinking so that I’m less daunted to make my own movies. So that I know that it’s possible to do what I want and to do it well. I also like the idea of helping fellow filmmakers bring their own visions to fruition… Anyway, back to the shoot!
What should have been better was communication. Again, this was because of lack of preparation. I couldn’t see around corners with the shot changes. And that meant that I couldn’t keep the crew on the same page as much as I’d have liked to. That kind of thing just makes things so much more inefficient. Nonetheless, we got through it all!
I initially found it difficult to call the shots – which I had anticipated would happen anyway – because people didn’t recognise that as the first AD’s job / didn’t recognise the calls. But it became a lot smoother about halfway through shooting task 1. The crew gradually got onto the same page and were communicating to each other with the simple announcements of “sound speed” and so on. I was much happier when we fell into that calling/communicating practice.
We finished shooting on time – after about 55 minutes. That time meant that we had about 55 minutes for shooting task 2 as well.
It was a relief to switch to an order-taking, performance-concerned, in-front-of-camera role. I could be quiet and let the others worry about time and safety and communication and stuff. It was nice.
Of course, there was still the performance challenge. I found it really difficult to think of a story on the spot for my character to babble on about. I scraped by though. I can’t actually remember much about what was going on behind-the-camera-wise because I was so focused on trying to think of a story for my character to tell. I made her a self-involved, annoying, gossipy, teenage-ish girl. I may have ended up genuinely disliking my character, but she was fun to play – less serious and more animated. And – being the secondary character – I didn’t have to carry the film, so that was also good.
What we forgot to do were log sheets for shooting task 1. But at least we did rough log sheets for shooting task 2.
We finished on time and used all of our 55 minutes for shooting task 2 as well. All in all, we did pretty well for the constraints we were working with!
EDIT:
I chose to edit shooting task 1 (the one that I didn’t act in). I tried to focus on the shot selection and cuts rather than concerning myself with colour grading.
In regards to my shot selection, I tried to align the audience more with Charlie than Lucy. The opening shot is a lingering backwards-tracking shot of Charlie walking while we hear a conversation between two girls. Then there’s also the relatively lengthy point of view shot of Lucy when she confronts him. And finally there’s the Jim OTS of Lucy as she walks away. I’m not quite sure if this works, though. We don’t remain on Jim’s side for the whole time. We’re with Lucy when she turns and confronts Jim.
In fact, there was a particular shot that I originally wanted to cut to straight after this Lucy OTS of Jim shot. I liked the blocking in the Lucy OTS of Jim: starting with front profiles of Lucy (on the right side of frame) and Martha (on the left) approaching the camera; Lucy turning sideways to Martha and their foregrounded side profiles talking; Martha exiting left of frame in the foreground as Charlie enters the background in left of frame; foregrounded Lucy turning around (her back to the camera) as Charlie continues to enter the background. What I wanted to cut to was a similar shot – Charlie’s OTS of Lucy. I really liked the blocking in this shot as well: Martha walking upstairs and exiting the right of frame in the background; foregrounded Charlie enters from the right of frame; background Lucy turns to face Charlie while he is walking into frame; Charlie stops on the left of frame, facing Lucy. If I cut at the right moment during the action of these two nicely blocked shots, it worked really well. It was visually interesting and flowed smoothly. However, I couldn’t then cut to Charlie’s POV of Lucy, which is what I wanted for the confrontation. Charlie’s OTS shot and Charlie’s POV shot are far too similar. I could have gone shot / reverse shot of the OTSs, and then maybe cut to Charlie’s POV, but that still wouldn’t have flowed properly. And I wanted that POV shot for the dialogue, which occurs immediately and quickly and is too difficult to stall. So I decided to surrender that cut. I decided to omit Charlie’s OTS of Lucy in favour of his POV of Lucy.
As a whole, I’m not sure if the edit works, perhaps because I’ve watched it too many times. I have quite a few lingering shots that I purposely implemented, but they may be just a fraction (or more) too long. Or I might have just watched the edit too many times that I think they’re too long. For example, the HA WS of Charlie and Lucy on the stairs probably goes on for a bit too long before Martha interrupts and Lucy exits. I wanted it to be awkward for a while though. I wanted everything to stand still for a while. However, I didn’t want it to become flat. There’s a fine line between what I wanted and flatness, and I hope I didn’t cross it.
The sound was the most difficult part of the edit. One issue was that it was incredibly quiet, so I raised the volume as much as Premiere allowed. But it’s still very quiet. That wasn’t the hardest thing about the sound though.
The hardest thing about the sound was that it required a lot of editing for the scene to flow. I replaced the sound at the start. Originally, I replaced the the sound in the outside walking shots with the one conversation about Martha going on a trip. This worked because it was a single subject (so it made sense / didn’t jump around randomly / developed from beginning to end), and it introduced the two girl characters in the offscreen space. It worked until I realised that the dialogue was out of sync when the two girls are shown chatting. That part is actually the opening of the conversation – the part that I wanted to use for Charlie’s first walking shot. So I had to find a new dialogue section for Charlie’s opening walking shot. And I did. But it didn’t flow as nicely because it changes subject (from homework to holidays) when we reach the shot of the girls. It also didn’t make much sense for the story because it was only Martha talking – the audience isn’t made aware that it’s a conversation between two characters / Charlie is following these two characters. So, I then had to solve that problem by cutting in some “yeah”s and vocal responses from Lucy so as to build her offscreen presence and make sure she is introduced in that opening shot’s sound space.
A lot of the sound editing was like this – replacing dialogue for other dialogue, or cutting dialogue and replacing it with room tone. It was messily done. For example, I replaced the original dialogue on Charlie’s POV shot with dialogue from another shot, and then I slowed down the conversation rhythm (because there were originally few pauses between lines of dialogue) by intercutting more room tone between dialogue.
At the end of the scene, I made the choice to cut to black (after Charlie’s OTS where he watches Lucy ascend the stairs and then leaves the frame to descend the stairs) while keeping the sound of Jim’s fading footsteps descending the stairs. I’m not sure that it was the right decision for the task – it made the scene more short-film-like. But I did it to further align the audience with Charlie – we open with a visual on Charlie while sound shows us the other characters, and we close on the sound of Charlie exiting the space. I thought it had a nice symmetry. But, for this scene-specific task, it may be a little superfluous.