With a lot of improvisation and adaptation we got all the footage I need to make the film. Is it good enough, well maybe not the best; however we worked damn hard and got the job done which is something we can be very proud of.
We worked well as a team considering we had never had a production meeting with all members. Naturally many things could of been done with a professional attitude but when you're behind schedule and things aren't going to plan you just have to wing it.
Evans was over 2 hours late. Luckily for him he arrived 20 minutes before our actors who were late due to buses. I asked him why he was late and he casually said he was sorry his car wouldn't start. He's a cool guy and I'm all for a laid back approach but sometimes you have to step up to the task. Ben noticed he smelt booze on his mouth and we had to call him to find out where he was which speaks for itself. To his credit he listened to my direction and filmed some lovely rich shots. His close ups of the girls are crisp and he knew his way around the camera when we were filming inside. Outside he didn't adjust the ISO so our shots are grainy which isn't the end of the world. Due to style of our film we can use that low quality to exasperate the drunken viewpoints of our characters. At one point he wasn't quite getting that I wanted one scene to filmed in a 'shaky cam' style that followed a characters face. As a director do I trust my DoP or watch them like a child? With Evans I found myself doing a little of one and a lot of the other.
Zak, bless him he tried but hadn't prepared. He had no idea what the role of being a producer required him to do and be. For example I had to ask him twice to write down the shot call so he knew what to say and even had to physically open unihub for him. I had a feeling he wouldn't be pro-active so I posted a facebook message to him on 16th of March which is below. He states he's read it but showed up to the shoot with no paperwork. Me and Ben discussed this last night and both feel that it would be unfair to call him our 'Producer' when in fact we did all of the pre-production work for him. Due to this we may credit all three of us as co-producers.
Ben has been a blessing as a team mate throughout this and all our previous struggles with groups. I honestly think I would of failed this module without him. He knows what his doing, he's reliable, professional and personable. I can't say enough good things about him. I found I stepped up my game when working with him. For example I wanted him to have the best voice recordings to work with so I asked the actors to record all their dialogue in a quiet room without the camera. my logic was that if the shots didn't look good then we could still use the vocal over footage from the party scenes. Ben has a great ear for music and my hope is that my visuals and his soundtrack can make this footage watch-able.
Myself, well I'm extremely relieved to have it in the can and enjoyed the role of director. Without sounding big headed, I wonder what it must be like for a director to just sit back and solely direct. The shoot day was, at times, like being a primary school teacher chasing after kids that aren't doing what I want them to. Saying that I loved the whole experience. Designing and creating the set, planning and experimenting with lighting, working one on one with the actors was bliss. I wish I could of been more prepared regarding the shoot schedule and more disciplined with myself as I tended to always want one more take. Though saying this we scarily did several one take wonders due to time restraints that I hope look ok. The experience has been a BIG learning curve for me. I just hope our amateur touch works for us rather than against us. Can't wait to paint over all the cracks using quick cuts and a ridiculous amount of graphics!