Fully Dislocated

In conclusion I feel I started off very well and had a steady, well thought out film being prepared. It was in the dying minutes when it really counts that it all went a bit wrong.

I was always told that when making a student film, 'Never extend beyond your reach. Use two actors and two locations, anything more would not work.'  I used five actors and five locations.  As I was aware of the challenge I had set myself up for I think it made it a lot easier to appropriately prepare.  You just can't prepare for things you don't see coming.

Overall I really can't fault my crew.  I had a few sound people who all did their job, no more no less.  My cameraman used his camera beautifully and captured some fantastic shots.  My producer did above and beyond what she was asked and did it with a smile on her face throughout, which made my life asking her to do things so much easier.

When I am preparing for my next film I will definately use a lot of the techniques I have used on this production.  I set up and planned a detailed, challenging and fun film to work on. I will have to pay a lot more attention to after the actual shoot next time.
I think I am guilty of believing the hard work had passed after the final scene was shot on the last day of shooting when really it was only starting.

This year has taught me a lot not only about the art of putting together a successful film but also about the kind of director and writer I want to be.  Mostly I know now for sure I will do my utmost to keep the drama on the page.

Class Work

The end of year show has now been announced:

Thursday 12th of June
Odyssey Cinemas
6pm

This is exciting yet scary news.  Exciting in the way that the last two years come down to this one night.  Scary in the way that everything I have produced over my time in BMC will fairly or unfairly be judged on this one film.

As Odyssey Cinemas is where I work it will also be a strange feeling to see my own work up the screen that I have seen so many many films on before.  Only this time someone else will be cleaning up my popcorn.

Editing Attitudes

I wanted to get cracking on editing the film the day after our second day of shooting.  My trusty cameraman didn't bring the files in for me to start.  That's the first full day of potential editing lost due to me making rookie assumptions. 

On this day however my cameraman offered and agreed to help edit the final film. My second big mistake came from allowing almost a week to go by of expecting my cameraman to show up when they said they would to start editing on their lap top.  The third was assuming they would reply to any form of attempted communication. 

When a reply finally came it was flooded with yet more empty promises and assurances that reminded me ever so much of the phantom shot list that never was. Why didn't you just start the edit yourself I hear you scream? This was my fourth big mistake.  Allowing my panic to be calmed by words that are a lot easier to say than to do. "I have made a start" and "The rough cut will be done for thursday" will both now echo as a constant reminder that I cannot expect people to have the same drive and passion for my project that I do. 

The day of the deadline arrived and as agreed (again) I am waiting on my cameraman's arrival with the highly anticipated rough cut. I had decided that I would just finish off whatever he had started and hand it in that day. Phonecalls, emails, messages and a few smoke signals were not enough to make me accept the obvious, he wasn't coming. 

A few days later and having left the country and missed the deadline I gave my producer the instructions to hand in whatever he done how little or small.  I had still not got any sort of reply but my ever reliable producer managed to track a reply down that he was not actually aware that he was meant to be editing, he was doing his own film and didn't appreciate this shoddy and informal treatment. 

Well there we have it, all I had to do to get a reply was send my messages out with an official BMC letterhead. 

I can honestly put no blame for my film not being edited yet on anyone but myself.  A relaxed attitude can only take you so far and I see this a massive yet harsh learning experience.  

Trailing Behind

Having took the video files home to edit over the weekend, I discovered that my lap top just is not powerful enough to edit at home.  The file sizes are too big and the quality is too good for me to watch anything as I assemble.

My cameraman has agreed to edit with me all next week and have a rough cut done for us coming back after the weekend/May day.  I have heard similar cases from him that stunk of 'telling me what I want to hear', so I wanted to at least make a start just in case.

Even though I could not gather a full assembly I was able to put together a short trailer using some of the smaller video files.