It was strange being on set again for the taster shoot. As a result of Covid, the last time I'd actually directed a short film was almost a year ago, since our plans for Radio Underground fell through.
I've very mixed feelings about the shoot, but like all of these things, it was a learning experience. I was very nervous the entire time. I absolutely love directing. It's just part of who I am at this point. However, perhaps unusually, set is possibly my least favourite part of the film process. I know exactly what I want the film to be, but I'm maybe not the most natural people person when I don't know who I'm working with very well. The crew, I know well at this point so I really enjoyed working with them. However, I hadn't really had the opportunity to get to know them properly yet, so that was a bit more of a struggle. While I say that, the general vibe on set was lovely. It was one of the nicest sets I've ever been on. I really made an effort to make sure everyone was comfortable and happy, but it was one of the first sets I've been on where almost everyone genuinely seemed to care about the film. That's somewhat depressing to say! But for most films on the course, I find that you tend to work with people who are only in it for the grade at the end.
The actors, Alasdair and Ryan, where lovely to work with. They were very friendly and chatty. Ryan played Kane. I thought he did a good job. I think we was still a little over the top, however I didn't really have time to bring that done. However, I think he really understood the intention behind his line delivery. However, my biggest issue with Ryan was that I don't think I really got the impression of Ryan as a killer.
I wasn't quite so happy with Alasdair as Ellis though. He just felt frail and weak. He didn't feel like a hitman at all. I did my best with him, but at the end of the day you can only do so much. He didn't fit the character at all. This was clearly an issue stemming from casting. There's only so much we could have done in the time we had, but I'm disappointed we couldn't do better for Ellis.
I actually feel similarly about the cinematography! I think there are some nice shots, particularly the final wide shot through the long grass, however during the dialogue after the stand-off, the cinematography just feels functional and somewhat flat. I'd definitely like to experiment with Aaron to give the film a far more interesting, expressive look. I always get the impression that Aaron gets very stressed out on set, but I think he kept his cool for the most part, which was nice to see. The sky was very overcast all day, which on one hand kept the light very consistent for us all day, but on the other hand perhaps that's one reason why the film feels a bit flat to me.
I'm happy with the sound on set. Juliet and Mollie seemed to be in fairly high spirits on set. I didn't really hear much of what they were doing, but I did make an effort to talk to them after each shot to make sure they were happy with it, and they seemed confident, which was reassuring.
In the end, the production design wasn't quite what I wanted it to be. But again, we did what we could in the time we had. Kane had a long dark coat, which was actually something I'd more-so imagined for Ellis. Initially he had his hair slicked back, but this didn't really stay properly throughout the shoot. However, I think we looked decent. Alasdair didn't have the long black coat I'd wanted though, which was disappointing. He was meant to, but there was a miscommunication between the production designer and the owner of the coat, so we wound up with the wrong one. The main production design issue though, was that the guns looked extremely fake and plastic. This won't be an issue for the final film, but it was still disappointing.
I've never felt totally happy after a shoot, but I had particularly mixed feelings for this one. I'll need to think about the actors for the final film, but I'm very happy with my crew, although admittedly there needs to be a lot of work done in certain areas. These films are in a very strange place where they're meant to be test shoots, but you can't truly experiment, because they are a part of our pitches an so could determine whether our film gets green-lit or not.
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