A comedy of errors. Our group really didn’t think enough throughout this process. In fact, I dare say a combination of things occurred with Exercise 3-7. Not reading the script, not understanding the script in preparing the scene, not understanding the script in shooting the scenes and not understanding the script in assembling the scene. The worst part was that in regard to the scene that I directed at the cafe, we literally attended to every single note on the page except the most critical one and that so easily could have been avoided and should have been avoided.

Rewind to production day, I would have been quite content to be 2nd AC and just be smacking the sticks together all day. For the first scene, that was exactly what I did. What was sad about that scene was just how many things we didn’t do that were evident from the screenplay. Just basic things like the character turning to look out the window. I think time is an important consideration here too. I think the time pressure made us panic and not read things carefully. I was also slightly disappointed by the decision to use the CTB gel in the classroom scene. It didn’t need it, in fact I think the lighting could have been used to create some more visual interest. I think the crew just wanted to use the gel because it was there and ended up including the windows in the shot to try to make the scene more interesting (which was specifically forbidden in the scene notes). Not only that, the inclusion of the window meant that we couldn’t be creative with the lighting, we couldn’t really bounce it off anything because that would have made the exposure impossible when there’s a big, bright window in the background. When it came time to do the cafe scene, I was roped in to direct, because the general sentiment was slating isn’t enough of a real job. We shot the whole thing in the one location, the worst possible mistake I could have made. We were too focussed on making the scene work from an acting perspective and getting coffee at the end of it that we missed the whole point of the exercise. I felt suitably awful.

Overall, I think this proved a really good point, don’t just read the script, read it carefully. We all should have read the script before we came to class. When we rushed, we panicked and when we panicked we rushed.