What I’ve Gained from Small Things

The “Small Things” studio has been an amazing opportunity to learn and get a taste of a wide variety of film making and production aspects and technics. It has allowed me to ‘dip my toes’ in lighting, sound design and recording, camera work, “firsting”, directing and so much more, and from there, submerge myself into the roles that stand out and interest me. Furthermore, these base understandings have given me more of an idea of what I would like to pursue in the future, both in regards to university study and work placement/experience. A real standout skill taught in Small Things has been lighting setups and first assistant director knowledge, teaching me that lighting is an absolute necessity to have an idea about on any set, and that being the first AD is a lot of hard, but satisfying work.

However, the thing I’ve most enjoyed about this studio is the people and the classroom environment. Small Things really connects and bonds people, learning at the same pace, with enough of a skill balance that you can learn from everyone. Both Paul and the class as a whole have been immensely enjoyable to work alongside, and will definitely be a highlight of my time at university.

Going Up  Final Cut

Reflection

The concept of Going Up, the short film that David, Esther, Leslie Tessa and I made was created and presented by me during the Week 8 Presentations.

From there, I had no major script or scene ideas, so David, Leslie, Tessa and I worked together to collaboratively come up with and write the scenes for the final script. I wrote the piece about the mature woman flirting with a criminal, Tessa wrote the scene with the teenage girl on the phone, David wrote the murderer scene and Leslie wrote the bulk of the preparation scene.

We all collaborated together throughout the pre-production stage of our short film. We had an active group chat that was constantly thinking of new ways to do something. I was in charge of casting, which now looking back on, was very rewarding and enjoyable. It really gave me a good understanding of how to write out a casting call,  contact and inform actors and most importantly, the courage to decline an actor who wasn’t going to work.

Leslie, David and I also did some test shoots throughout the pre-production stage, playing around with the preparation montage, experimenting with shot types and whip pans. This can be seen below.

While this didn’t end up being how we shot the preparation scene on set, it was a really great experience for operating with part of the crew on set, and was also the first time I got to see Leslie, in person, operate a camera. She is a gun and the whip pans!

For a more comprehensive read of where we were at post-shoot, view here.

The two production days themselves were also quite collaborative. Since 3 of us had written our own full vignetted scene, we decided to divide up the director role, depending on who’s scene we were shooting. This meant that I played the role of boom mic operator during Tessa’s directed scene, director of my own scene, and was First Assistant Director on David’s directed scene. This process and experience of swapping roles were almost all positive, with a majority of people getting to play around and experience new roles, as well as each scene having a different style and flavour to them.

The actors were for the most part, really easy and enjoyable to work with. We made sure they knew we were very much amateurs, and if they had any suggestions, we would be more than happy to consider them. This proved really useful, as they had thought about their motivations, and really built off their characters, which were written bland for this exact reason.

In the post-production phase, we were still collaborative, but in different ways. We edited solo, but would share our drafts, scene experiments and colour grades across the group chat, constantly keeping everyone in the loop on our scene construction ideas and music and sound libraries. For the screening, we chose to show two cuts. One is Leslie’s cut, which has a totally different vibe and feel to it than any other, and is a lot of fun. Watching hers for the first time was an eye-opening experience on how the short film could be edited, rather than how I thought I had to edit it. The other cut was a collaboration between David, Tessa and I. We used David’s preparation and murderer scene, my teenage girl scene and Tessa’s mature flirtation scene. We did this because our three cuts had a similar tone and feel, and combined the best bits of each for the screening to give a more digestible and diverse viewing

My favourite aspects about making Going Up were the challenges in both set design, lighting and sound production. These three things were not necessarily my strong suit, and while they seemed daunting and unachievable at first, they worked out for the most part (one aspect I will discuss in more detail below). The set building was a personal highlight, as the corflute on the walls ended up looking great! Furthermore, the script and comedic nature of the film really allowed for the production process of Going Up to be really enjoyable for both cast and crew. Every take would end with us barely able to hold in a laugh, and the cast got really into it too.

My least favourite aspect of Going Up was the lighting. David and I spent hours and hours the day before the shoot, just trying to get a soft wash over the set, without casting too many shadows. We never truly got it how we wanted it, but decided to leave it until the others arrived tomorrow at a basic setup that worked. Furthermore, each new scene would have a slightly different lighting setup, meaning that colour grading was a bit of a pain. This was also the case for anything that wasn’t a mid shot, as the wash would either be way stronger or not strong enough in comparison with the main shots. We managed to salvage a lot of it in post, but it is still the aspect I am personally the least proud of or happy with.

If I didn’t make Going Up, I would have loved to make a small and complete story, similar to that of Where do we go when we don’t know or Do you want to go to the Circus. These were films that were short, sweet and easy to digest, and while I am proud of Going Up, I am envious of the aforementioned projects tightly knit stories and aesthetics. While we did make a series of ‘small things’ experimenting with shooting in a built set, and using sound to create a location, I do like the idea of a small, small thing.

One of the best parts about the filmmaking experience was the crew, who I love very dearly, was how open and communicative everyone was through every stage of the production, even know. No one has been afraid to ask questions, suggest new ideas during the pre and post-production stages, and most importantly, everyone is really nice and lovely! Here are some cute pictures of us on set! If any of you are reading this, thank you, truly!