Last night I worked on the first three episodes of the new season of Tough Times. For the first two episodes, I was the director, and at first I found it really difficult, but once the whole team got into the swing of things it was alright.
First of all, I’d like to address the fact that I am quite introverted and find social and professional settings hard to deal with sometimes, but almost everyone on set was really nice and friendly. I find that I have very good leadership skills, but I think the way that I come off can be either cold and clinical when I know what I’m doing, or nervous and stuttering when I’m a bit lost. So in my direction, I was between these two states, which most people can tell is because I’m nervous and take my work very seriously. One person was not happy with my direction, and I think I handled the situation very well. I listened to what they had to say and what everyone else on set had to say and settled on the fact that it was a training experience and most people there didn’t have much experience at all on set, so I let it go and had a great time for the rest of the evening.
This experience made me think about how I want to approach my Film 3 final project as a director and project leader. I want to make sure that I am fully prepared so that I am confident in leading my cast and crew and realising exactly what I envision. If there is one element of the project that is underprepared, I know that will make me very anxious, so I am going to try my best to get on top of everything in pre-production. I also want to work on being a more relatable leader and team member, because I don’t want to intimidate anyone too much, but I also don’t want to compromise on my character and work ethic. I guess it is important to find that balance, and hopefully this project will give me a chance to do so.
