VIRULENCE REFLECTION

Virulence is an environmental extrapolation that speculates the future of our world if we continue to ignore the warning signs of global warming and climate change. The mushrooms represent our ideas of the Earth turning against humanity to wipe out the virus infecting its ecosystems. By using these ideas and interjecting a “family drama” it will evoke the sympathies of audiences in both senses so that we can get our message across while captivating the audience.

We planned for a dark almost film noir aesthetic with a limited colour pallet of reds and mainly yellows for the toxicity. I had so much fun doing this project, but it wasn’t without its issues. i think what we set out to make and the final product were pretty in line with each other, but we did hit a few issues along the way which made it hard to keep to a structure of the script.

The role of producer is something that I am aiming for, so for this project I decided to try my best to make the production documents as in depth as possible as if we were doing a feature rather than just a scene. We did run over time for some of the scheduling, but not by much so I was pretty happy with my documents. I found it quite difficult to translate some of the shots into a schedule not really knowing how long it would take to shoot them and really in the end I should have allowed way more time to shoot all the scenes as I felt like some of the shots we ended up with were not good enough. I think because it was a night shoot we had to try and get everything done so that we weren’t keeping people past midnight, and also so that we weren’t infringing on the people who lived in the house that we used as a set.

I am so happy with the performances. This is the first time that I have successfully used StarNow for a full cast and I was really happy with the actors. I think mainly because it was a physical performance rather than dialogue there wasn’t much to mess up in that regard, but all of them moved just how we wanted them to.

I think one of the main issues was the communication with lighting. We did not have a consistent person on lighting and you can see it in our raw footage. Luckily Tash is a great colourist and was able to conform each of the clips to match each other. I believe Isaac did amazingly with the sound design and overall I’m really happy with the final project, which is a complete turn around from our rough cuts. I think by adding the after effect and sound elevates the short to a new level and completes the film. This is a bit of an obvious statement, but as someone who is not that adept at AE and even less so with sound design I’m really impressed with the difference that it makes.

Honestly, this has been my favourite studio of my degree and luckily so since it is my last. I’ve loved the freedom of creating something within the genre that I want to work in and I am actually really interested to develop this idea further. there is so much more to the story that we just did not have the capacity to film and if we did so i think it could be a great short film.

THANKS ALAN! I’ve shared the google drive with all of our content, but here are the key docs as well.

Shot Order Virulence_
Shot List

Location Release
Personal release HARLEY
Personal release ISABELLA
Personal release RICK
VIRULENCE call sheet copy
VIRULENCE call sheet
VIRULENCE Filming Schedule copy
VIRULENCE Filming Schedule day 1
VIRULENCE Filming Schedule
VIRULENCE Risk Management Safety Report