So, I got picked to direct one of the Film Genre films. It was a film written by James Robert Bremner. I have very mixed feelings about this. While I’m thrilled to be picked to direct, I don’t actually like the film I have to direct! The screenplay has a lot of sexual imagery which I feel is inappropriate and takes away from what is actually quite an interesting idea. There is also a lot of dialogue and since it is meant to be a horror film, this isn’t very scary. I had a meeting with James and hopefully he will remove these for the second draft. Arthur was a bit annoyed at me, because he realised the script wasn’t very good and didn’t like the amount of effort I was putting in to make it better. In his eyes, James will be getting the credit for my work. I see where he is coming from, but I’ve experienced this on films for the course in the past and I think I’d rather make a good film and not get the credit than make trash and just blame it all on the writing.
The set aside date to shoot is only a few weeks away, which is scary, because they have given us a stupidly small amount of time to bring everything together. I won’t be able to do the same job I might be able to do with more time. This is made worse by the fact that James says it’ll take him over a week to get another draft done! I wish I could just rewrite it myself!
There is so much set design, casting and cinematography prep to do on top of this. I’m particularly worried about the cinematography. The DP, Alix, is someone I’ve never met before and she says she has very little experience. Last year I had a lot of trouble with conflicting visions trying to work with Calum, but I’ve no idea how to work with someone with no experience! I guess I need to meet and talk things through with her.
So, this has been a busy week. The sad thing is that I know it’s just going to get infinitely busier. It’s always extremely daunting at the start of making a film, because there is just such an insane amount that needs done. Probably more-so for this film than any I’ve ever made before. I’ve never worked with a crew (or cast!) this big and I’ve also never made a horror movie!
I was thinking of getting in touch with Calum Gundry and seeing if he had any interest in DPing the bank heist short film. Despite the trouble I’ve had with him, if we find out how we can work together, I reckon we can make something good.
I got Paul’s essay submitted last Friday. I’m not particularly happy with it, but I felt better researched than I have ever felt for an essay before. There is no point dwelling on this now though, because it’s all done and dusted.
This week, I watched:
Free Fire by Ben Wheatley. It was surprisingly good and I found it genuinely very funny at times. I will definitely rewatch it with my bank heist film in mind. I don’t know that the direction will be particularly useful to study, but I really enjoyed the dialogue. 7/10
Halloween by John Carpenter was also a good film. It was much better than I expected. I enjoyed the soundtrack and I thought that the direction was superb. While some of the dialogue came across as poorly written, for the most part it worked. Things which I picked up on in particular, were in the opening, the camera suddenly seems to take on a life of its own and then you realise it’s a POV shot. And the film frequently uses wide shots, really giving you the feeling that the characters are being watched. This could be very useful for my horror film I’m working on at the moment. 7/10
I have to submit a load of work for the other Paul tomorrow (or later today…) so I had better crack on with that. Until next week,
Dan
Halloween (1978)
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