Directions | Project Evaluation

What worked?

Unlike the previous project, I am proud of the finished film.  I feel that I communicated my directorial vision very close to what I had in my head and the developments I made from the script translated well into the final edit.

I found the casting process went fairly well - whilst I did not hear back from any Casting Call Pro actors and resorted to asking my friend to fulfil the lead role, I feel that he acted well and suited the character very well.  I was also very happy with my casting choice for Shane as he was aesthetically just what I was looking for and he played the role with ease and delivered a solid performance.  Both actors were also very easy to work with and responded well to my directing, even when we had to take numerous takes for some scenes - they have both expressed an interest in working on my future projects as well, which I think reflects well on my directing.

I am happy with how I dealt with the shoot on the day with regards to my general attitude and directing ability despite the unfamiliar pressure of working with an actor I had never met and filming in different locations.  This allowed us to keep going and capture all the footage we needed through what became a 12 hour shoot.  In the previous project, the most prevalent issues came from how well the shoot was scheduled, so I ended up wasting a lot of time so I am glad I have rectified this for the Directions unit.

I am pleased with the overall edit, particularly the sound design and colour grading of the finished edit, and I feel my skills with Adobe Premiere and Audition are also blossoming.  I was quite disheartened looking at the initial footage for the second half of the shoot but once I had added the extra audio and graded it, I was pleased with how well it fit in with the rest of the film which was shot in an entirely different location.  Though it is a very minor aspect of the film, but even trivial aspects such as the font choice gave the film a professional and well-polished feel to the production.

If I was to be specific, I feel I am most pleased with the the transition from Rick's hallucination of Shane to the time-skip to post-apocalypse.  From the ticking clock to the flowers, I feel I approached this effectively from a directorial point of view to create a sense of mystery and to ensure the audience knew that a lot of time had passed since Shane delivered the flowers to Rick.

The practical effects and mis en scéne of the film added a lot to the atmosphere and authenticity of the production.  Though it is far from perfect, I was impressed with how we got the gore effects to look as good as they did on such a minuscule budget.  The medical training room was an almost perfect location and I feel it contributed to this realism and authenticity. 

What didn't work?

Whilst I am happy with the edit, there are certainly some parts of the sequence that could have done with more coverage.  This was largely due to the time constraints we had with the second location, which meant we rushed some scenes so we could finish on time.  This also affected the pacing of the film as it made some parts seem a little disjointed - the part where Rick leaves the hospital room and enters the corridor comes to mind, as there is no bridge between reaching for the handle and leaving the room.

The second location we used was not ideal and I had a lot of trouble trying to find somewhere to shoot the corridor and stairwell scenes.  After I contacted the Maidstone Studios and several schools and colleges in the area, I was losing hope as I thought I would not be able to shoot these scenes.  Had I not been working as boom operator for Sonia's shoot, I would not have found the location I did end up using and I am very grateful that she offered it as time was running out for me to shoot those scenes.  That being said, this did not come without limitations: we were now unable to shoot before 7 PM, and since my lead actor was not available on the Sunday evening, we had to shoot the entirety of the film in one day, which put a lot of pressure on the whole crew.

In order to save some time shooting in the second location, I opted not to record audio for some of the scenes.  In hindsight, this was probably not the best course of action as it meant I had to record more sounds after the shoot.  Even for simple things like footsteps and breathing, I recorded a large amount of the audio in the weeks after the shoot, and whilst working as a Foley artist is lots of fun, this ate into a lot of my time and became quite tedious matching the audio to the video during the edit.

What did I learn?

I worked with around almost ten actors from casting agencies - on other students' shoots as well as my own - and I found them to be incredibly down-to-earth and lovely to work with.  Of course this will not always be the case, but this project made me realise that I am not wasting their time to help me with a project, they are working alongside the crew because they chose to be there and they do what they are told.  This has made me more confident with working with people I do not know, as we both have a mutual interest to create engaging films and to expand our repertoire of experience in making films.

I learned that properly scheduling a shoot can benefit the entire creative process a great deal so that everybody knows exactly what should be going on and where they need to be throughout filming.

I also learned how important communication is both before and during the production process.  This is something that nearly every book and website on directing I have looked at advises and since I am not usually very good at communicating and organising on this level, this project forced me to do this so that everything could run smoothly.

What could I develop?

Though this is a fairly general comment relating to any work I do, but I feel I need to try not to get so stressed and worked up about the shoot.  Even though I had completed all the preparation I felt I needed, up until the day we shot my film, I had been getting very stressed about any potential issues that may arise to the point that I was losing a lot of sleep.  Therefore, I feel that simply taking a step back and clearing my mind may do a lot to help my general ability to work and allow me to feel more comfortable with dealing with unfamiliar working situations.

I think that I need to take more consideration in regards to the editing process whilst I am filming so that I capture all the video and audio I need to on the day rather than relying on recording more later on when I am already editing the film.

I feel I need to push myself even further next time I need actors as well.  Whilst I am very pleased with Aidan's performance in this film, he is a very good friend of mine, so I was very much within my comfort zone by working with him, so perhaps trying harder to reach out to actors so that I can get more experience with working with people I have not worked with before.