This is a story where nothing matters.

But that doesn’t mean that stuff can’t happen, right?

SYNOPSIS

In this story we follow a young group of rookie firefighters in training. The protagonist, Nice Nigel, has multiple interactions with the rest of the rookies in an attempt to feel like he is on the same level as the rest of them, who all excel at different parts of the training but him. This particular part of the story sees him trying to win over Grumpy Greg, the most difficult person he’s ever met with deep rooted issues, right after they have just completed an intensive training session involving dreaded stairs. This will be one of Nice Nigel’s greatest hurdles yet. Or at least, it should be.

But here’s the catch. Why can’t I as an editor help my little character get to his goal? What’s stopping me from changing the whole genre/ atmosphere/ mood/ everything about the scene in the middle of it happening?

 

PROCESS

This has been one of my favourite ideas and I have learnt so much from this experience. I know now, better than before, how to more properly direct my own film and all the tasks that come with it, as well as all the things I should consider and plan prior to the production stage. The errors and mistakes I made during this process will stay with me for a while to come and I will remember all the things I need to consider to make my life in post-production more easier.

I really hope that I get the chance to continue this story and possibly even turn it into a full feature film at some point. However, I will say that this project helped me to realise that just because it is a student film does not mean it shouldn’t be considered seriously. I genuinely learnt the importance of not just me, but everyone putting their blood, sweat and tears of passion into the one project and the difference it could make. Additionally, this class taught me the skills I need in order to get everyone on board and hopefully ignite their collective but especially individual passions.

I found that my rehearsal meetings with both the cast and the crew were significantly helpful in enhancing the quality and also in coming up with some of the best ideas to add to the script in order to make it more real for the actors and more unique and special for everyone involved. I believe this helped us all to better believe in what we were making, however there was obviously still a long way to go for it to be exactly as I envisioned.

Also I found that having a larger crew was a massive help, as through distributing roles I had  a much more manageable and less stressful experience trying to juggle everything myself. They helped me to lift a significant responsibility and because of that I was better able to focus on acquiring the best footage I could muster at the time, whilst having everyone on board present and up to date about what was happening and what we needed to do next.