It is the end of the semester, the hard work’s done, long hours at uni of class then waiting for our shoot are over, long days conversing with crew members on how to approach the next task, long hours in the editing suites are done. I’ll be honest, the studio (Nothing against Jeremy), more so towards the way things unfolded, was not as smooth as I would’ve hoped. Coming in I thought it would be a relatively easy task to shoot a web series however I probably didn’t take into account all the problems that could happen and for Shriekers, it did happen. However what came out of the end, was a product that was ultimately salvaged from a script that didn’t have a ‘comedy’ aspect to it, adapting it to a different genre to what the creator wrote for made my group members have a unique experience changing and blurring the line between two genres with editing.
When the pitches came, I thought this concept was awesome and could be a goldmine for comedy. I initially thought the series being a parody on the horror genre, much like Scary Movie in a lower quality production (for obvious reasons). I felt like I could bring a unique twist to the parody theme with some unique sarcastic and ironic editing sprinkled into the final product; I didn’t expect the sarcastic and ironic editing to be a centrepoint to production however (as it is now). The script our crew received was to put it into our words “too gay”, most of us felt that the script was the creator imposing his view through this web series, which even got to a ridiculous point in the production stage that we had to imply to him that he wasn’t needed in this stage. I at first also wanted to create at least some of the music accompanying the series (being a musician) however, with the direction the production was heading there was no way for me to write some scores for the series.
What we started was a structured plan with a auditioning stage, into a recruiting & planning stage, production and finishing with post production. I had initially pushed for an early push for production being able to film our series within a week so we can have about 2-3 weeks to edit and change anything if we needed. However that didn’t eventuate, although in the planning stage we did have a plan but it didn’t come out to play as we had a larger abundance of actors to deal with. The initial schedule of production in the first 2 weeks of proposed filming was very scattered for some of our main characters, with one we ran into another problem later on and another juggling this acting gig with year 12. Since the initial planning stage didn’t go to plan we had to create a makeshift schedule, asking what actors are available at what times within a given week and dealt with filming with whatever content could be shot during that particular day of shooting. One particular shoot we had a last minute cancel and we only had 3 actors for a scene that required 4 actors, so we had to rethink to what was shootable during that day. If anyone could notice in our first episode hallway dialogue, it was shot in a way that would only show 2 or 3 actors at a time, this was mainly due to only having 3 actors on set on a particular day and we were too pressed for time to reshoot. The process of rethinking an entire scene was a difficult one and was quite lengthy however it could be useful for my own improvisation in a shot, and shooting given a certain restriction. Although it would’ve been easier if I had all actors on set that day it gave me an insight to different approaches I could take in shooting a scene for future.
We had a problem with the techs with borrowing too, one day we stored the abundance of equipment in the RUSU offices (not advised to anyone who thinks of doing this in the future, the techs get angry) and I had organised with one group member to come in and return the equipment the following day as I had work. However there was a miscommunication where she thought someone else implied they were doing it. Upon receiving a call from the techs that they haven’t received the equipment, we were in panic mode. However, we had to bite the bullet and resolve the issue and fortunately enough we were forgiven and all was good as we resolved the issue from the techs. So next time, have a clear plan in mind for the equipment and be clear on what is happening when communicating between group members. I assure you, this won’t happen again… unless I get amnesia or something like that.
However that wasn’t the only problem, we had a group member go AWOL on us in our time of need. What we imposed as the leader of the group, went missing for the most crucial stage of production and post-production only to reappear when all the hard work had been complete. And the excuses used were in our opinion, not adequate enough. Our feelings weren’t immediately addressed as it would’ve created drama and tension within the group and at our stage of production that was the last thing we need. So in the end me and the remaining group members had to pick up the slack and do extra work to cover for her. In the end we got most of the project done, advancing our knowledge and skills as media practitioners in greater abundance than our AWOL member did. It put me in a position to assume a leadership role and address what is happening and at what time, and that makeshift happening caused our production to accelerate ahead of schedule where shoot days were finished earlier and we had a clear mindset going in.
We also had an older actor cut from production, although he was a key role in the series, we had to cut an episode out (due to time and continuity errors) as well because of this. Being university students we expected the ‘professional’… yes in quotations… actor to not take it too hard as we needed to meet a requirement to be content with our series and we detailed our apologies and thanked him in our email. However he did take it too hard, lashing back out at us with an email. Labeling us as ‘unprofessional’ and him as taking his job seriously. Well a serious actor wouldn’t be taking on a university project that had no pay or concrete schedule (which he knew what he was signing up for) just saying. His attitude on the few hours he was on set was not at a professional standard I might add as well. I won’t name him here but *cough* Jordan MacCormick *cough* (Sorry, that was my sister) didn’t contribute to a healthy environment to Shriekers. With consultation with Jeremy we drafted a reply e-mail and replied a few days later. The learning experience from this is that we shouldn’t play on our emotions, because it clouds our judgement and can result in further drama down the track. Moreover we learned that there are people like this in the industry, ‘dicks’ of the industry and its no one’s fault on our part, its just how people are, we just have to deal with the situation at hand and I feel that we did a decent job at it on Shriekers.
So to wrap up, Good Form was not the smooth experience I expected but an invaluable experience for me. Has it put me off web series? No, as a matter of fact it makes me appreciate them more and the next time I take part in one I’ll make sure I will do it right with little speedhumps along the way as I do have the experience now. So thanks Jeremy for the great semester, and thanks to everyone in Good Form who contributed to this project and all the others in the studio.
