Okay. SUCCESS.
Firstly, I managed (with much help) to, for the very first time, entirely film on my own, upload my own work and edit it from start to finish. For that reason I am overwhelmingly glad because it was something I felt so anxious about for a while.
Secondly, I learnt aspects of what to do and what not to do and to that I say: SUCCESS!
- Informing the actors about the background of the story before we had started filming made the actual recording process run so smoothly, while I had to guide them for the first two runs, they immediately understood the pacing and physical gestures by the third run. All I had to do was follow the action with the camera. For me this is a wonderful thing. These kids are not actors, rather dancers in my studio. Obviously it was much easier working with dancers who understand elements such as music, pacing, footwork etc. This illuminated my mind to the fact that I should pick ‘actors’ who have a familiarity with the type of work I like to do. You see, a trained actor can try to adapt to whatever the vision is, but for this particular instance what I need was a dancer who understood pacing.
- I am not saying I will always edit sound in post, but perhaps as a dancer I think I am drawn to this idea more so than filming with present sound on set. I think, with the knowledge of the post-editing sound in mind, I acquire a particular method for filming that relies heavily on choreography and pacing which I will then match in post. This proved successful, as I was able to guide the actors through recording (Fellini style). BUT, in saying that, my speaking did hinder the fluidity of the camera movement as I found myself unstable whilst trying to speak and track with the camera. Next time I want to direct out loud I will make sure I have a camera person.
- Telling the dancers that I was particularly focusing on framing just the feet was perfect because they understood that they needed to exaggerate movements, much more so than If they were to perform with their entire body in the shot.
I really learnt a lot from this process; I learnt a great amount about interaction with actors and how having them on board makes the filming much smoother