Beginning of the Masterpiece
Before we had offically started on our short film, everyone in the class had written a script on their own. These scripts were then presented to the class and one was chosen for our feature film while all the rest had the oppurtunity to be turned into our groups short films. After all the scripts were read and the feature film picked we got into out groups. In picking the script for my groups film, our biggest worry and factor in the decision was time. We were only given a week to produce our short film so we had to make sure we picked a script that could be filmed in a few hours on one day or that could be altered to fit this time constrant while still producing a good short film. The script my group picked was my script entitled 100,000 Likes. My film followed a Youtube vlogger around her school day as she is being stalked, with the stalker being visiable in the background of certain shots. That's all I am willing to give away because I don't want to spoil it, you'll just have to watch the film to see what else unfolds. The film can be described as a comedy with just a sprinkle of horro/thiller in it. This being the last project we would be able to produce ourselves before the feature we wanted to go wild with the concept and make it stand out.
Watching the Brush Strokes Happen
Since we had chosen my script for the short film I was director so that way I could guide the rest of my group and the actors in what needed to be done and how I imagined certain aspects working out. Miles and Josh were editors, Cas was cinematographer, and Shelby was art director. The first thing that needed to be done was edit the script to a simpler idea that could filmed more easily. This is where we decided to have the vlogger be in high school and just vlog her school day instead of going on a camping trip and vlogging that; the week of this short film was also really cold so we didn't want to film outside. Once we adjusted the idea of the script to fit our needs at the time we started searching for actors as well as rewritting the script to fit the concept. We never did a story board for this film but so many new ideas were brought during filming the story board would have been useless. The filming day itself was so much fun and was everything we needed. Our actors were the perfect people and fit the roles perfectly while also bringing fun and creativity the day as well. While we filmed and ran into problems there were so many creative minds together several ideas were being thrown out and it became hard to choose which one. However, all these different ideas made our film stronger because instead of doing just an okay idea because that was the only one, we were able to choose the best one out of five. Overall, production went very well with us ending up ahead of schedule while still getting everything we needed. Post Production went really smoothly as well. As a director I was confident in Miles' editing skills as well as Joshs' so I didn't have continuley keep checking up with them and helping them. The day before it was do Miles was not at school but that wasn't a problem because him and Josh worked really hard to the point where the film was done, it just needed to text and sound touch ups. We ended up being one of the only groups to have their whole film turned in on time. Overall, this was probably the most stress free, most funny, and the project I am most proud out of all of them this year so far.
Leading the Team to Victory
Being director for this short film allowed me to learn several skills in the professionalism area. One main part of director is being able to communicate with your team and actors schedules, what the scene should like, where the crew needs to be, what the actors needed to do, and just overall being able to communciate your idea to other people in a clear way. I also was able to practice my listening skills when several ideas were being thrown out and I needed to chose the best one; this also forced me to practice how to say no in a respectful manor as well. Project managment also came into play when editing the script by having to decide what was going to be the most efficant story to film and what time line would give us the most amount of editing time to make sure the film was done in time. This skill came in handy due to the short time frame. Collaberation and leadership are interwoven within the skills I was able to practice, adopt, and build on that falled under communication and project management. As well as professional skills I also learned a new skill in Adobe Premiere. During this project I learned how to warp text and customize it to my liking.
On to the Sequal
I'll make this last paragraph really fast. I would not do anything different because we never got behind schedule, the film turned out how I wanted it to look and I had fun doing and was able to express myself and what I wanted to do. That being said I would do everything the same because there is nothing to complain about or change. The experiences that will draw from this is that your films don't always have to be so serious or filmed using every single basic in film. You can still make a good entertaing film without being to serious and just being loose and creative with it.
