We did it. Another semester comes to a close and, in all honesty, it couldn’t have come soon enough. I wish my experience with my first studio had been as smooth sailing as I had hoped, but boy was I wrong! Don’t get me wrong; Good Form was probably the biggest turning point in learning what the media industry could really be like, and I’m glad sooner rather than later. I feel like during the production of my group’s web series, Shriekers, everything that could possibly go wrong, went wrong! Which, while it’s happening, seems like the end of the world, but I don’t think I would’ve learnt how to deal with difficult actors, equipment issues, long days in the editing suites, lost footage, and unproductive team members if it weren’t for this studio. Jeremy did a great job of encouraging the Shrieker’s group to stay positive and on track, so I attribute none of the issues that were caused to him, though the studio as a whole was bumpy I had no idea really what to expect when I signed up, what i didn’t expect was to be given a script to a Slasher, and to make a Comedy web series.

The pitches were all very, very good, I remember thinking about what sort of comedy I’d want to be involved in. The Shriekers pitch was incredible and as a fan of both Scream and Scary Movie, I hopped on the idea so fast, and after initially clicking with the writers I thought it was the right one for me. I thought that it was maybe going to be a parody of the Slasher genre rather than a literal Slasher production, however, I was wrong. I feel like some of the writers were trying too hard to recreate Scream Queens, and weren’t trying to make an original series that would shine in its own way, and I guess that’s no one’s fault since it’s quite easy to get caught up in what you want to make, but I often felt like this way of thinking was selfish, and didn’t quite help the media students in their task. I feel like the writers had too much power, and did not consider how half of the media students were first years and not MTV crew members.

As we began our production I watched aspects of our team flake quite quickly; barely anyone showed up to meetings and classes, and scripts took an obscenely long time to get edited and rewritten, meanwhile production got pushed further and further back. Auditioning was not too bad, however with it occurring during mid-semester break, most of the media team was not able to attend. I, to this day, believe the acting in Shriekers to be incredibly sub-par. In my opinion, we also had too many actors to organize on a tight schedule. Most of the other groups used their writers as actors, but no, that quality idea was not for Shriekers. I found that I learned a lot about what not to do when trying to organise large amounts of cast and crew, such as: don’t organise shoots one week in advance, don’t ask your actors what days they’re  available after hiring them, don’t rely on them to get on set on exact time, and don’t shoot in a busy university, in a busy building.  I was often really jealous of the other groups who had great relationships with their writers and actors, because Shriekers did not! with a certain actor making a very hostile and scary environment for the media students it was hard to pick up the team again and again when I had little to, no faith in making something I had originally hoped to be great.

I remember, however, one shoot. We were very pressed for time and one of our, needed, actors was not able to come in. Instead of canceling the shoot as a whole, three of the media students (including myself) worked together in order to craft a scene out of the three actors we did have, without needing the fourth. Through the dramatic complaints of the actors that we were “taking too long” and the issues of having people continuously walk through our shots, we managed to make something that wasn’t only believable, but good! I don’t think audiences would have any idea this issue occurred, and although there are many, many issues with the web series, I can say this surely wasn’t one of them. That’s what this studio ended up being about to me, Magyver-ing our way around issues that seemed impossible and learning to make the most out of what you’re given; because rarely anything is smooth sailing in this industry.

We also had an abundance of major issues concerning filming with fake knives and weapons. These were all resolved, however, it did mean production was pushed back even further as we wanted to make sure what we were doing was okay and didn’t get us in trouble. In conjunction with this, we had a few issues with the techs. I was not on set one night, however, the shoot ran pretty late so the decision was made to store the equipment in the RUSU offices. I was under the impression the equipment had already gone back until I got a phone call from another one of the media students in a frenzy saying the person we had relied on to take the equipment back had thought someone else was going to, and the equipment was extraordinarily late. I wasn’t on campus and since I live 1hr away I was not able to help the situation at all. In the end, it worked out, though, the techs forgave us for issues in miscommunication and we were able to continue in production.

Jeremy received an abundance of, what I can only describe as: Crisis Emails. My lack of hope quite prevalent throughout the series was made no mystery to the group, or anyone for that matter as my cries echoed the editing suites (that’s a little dramatic but also true). A certain member of our group thought it would be a cool idea to leave us in our time of need, lowering the number of creators from 4 to 3. Not to mention we hadn’t seen  3/4 of our writers since two weeks prior, this was definitely not ideal. However, I feel as though I learnt how to pick up the slack due to these issues. There was no way I was going to walk away from this hellish joruney with nothing, I wanted to show people that I created something that was at least worthwhile watching for the meme if anything else. So; the other media members and I did just that, we formed a strong bond and worked hard weekdays and weekends in the editing suites pushing out something that was not that great, but at least it existed.

This studio taught me how to; not take thing too seriously, and I don’t mean that in terms of comedy. I feel like emotional betrayal is so easy to get caught up in during times of high stress and anger that it can drag you down and create unneeded problems, sometimes you just have to distance yourself and think about how we can move past the problems rather than engage with them. I learnt this after crafting a rather large Crisis Email  to one of the older actors who had sent a rude (and butthurt) email after we had cut him from production “unprofessionally” (because first-year media students are meant to be super professional but whatever) due to his lack of availability during times of shooting. Jeremy taught us to not respond to these kinds of emails immediately and to just give him what he asked for so he could get away from us. This was a great learning experience as I believe, most of the time, I let my emotions get in the way of a certain task at hand, and that can sometimes be damaging to a project.

Good From all in all was a unique experience. This was the first time this studio had ever run so it was a learning process for all who were involved. Some of the highlights were meeting the creator of Sammy J’s: Playground Politics, and watching a selection of different comedy web series with the class to get some inspiration on our own. All in all, this studio may not have been the barrel of laughs I was expecting, but it wasn’t unworthwhile. The finished product that is Shriekers may not be perfect, heck, it might not even be good, but it’s something that holds a lot of memories, trials and tribulations. I think that my favourite parts of Good Form were meeting and working with people in closer and more free environment, getting an insight into the realm of writing, and collaborating with people who were not already my friends, but can safetly say that they are now. Finally I’d like to give a big thanks to Jeremy for putting up with Shriekers and running this individual and creative studio, and I’d also like to thank my fellow team mates for putting up with my continuous complaints.

This is surely an experience I’ll never forget.

-Amber.