As per usual here is my very honest (and probably too lengthy) evaluation of this particular production! Over the past few weeks I've learnt so much about working in the film industry and how the roles of everyone in the cast and crew tie in with each other to produce a film. It's been so interesting seeing how the group have worked together and created a more professional working experience, from the beginning of the idea to the finalisation of the shoot. However I have made several notes throughout about my own experience of being a first assistant director, and how I can improve myself for future work. 

Choosing My Role

It took us a little while to decide on everyone's role, due to people not being present and focussing on  making sure the idea was finalised first. I was kind of confused about which role I wanted, initially thinking maybe producer as an editor (which at the moment I feel most confident with) wasn't required until next semester. However as Julia has good experience of producing from past work, she was the obvious choice for the role and I felt she would make a very good producer for the shoot. I feel like in future I should put myself out a bit more, and not be as worried about asking to do a specific role that I am curious about or want to do. 

My Role Experience

I've mentioned before in a previous post that I think I may have not fully understood the role of 1st AD before the shoot as I didn't realise just how bossy and loud the position required me to be, even though I had a rough idea of the jobs that had to be done by the role. I am generally a very shy, quiet person, and I found this exceedingly difficult to become confident enough to be loud on set. I had to push myself a lot to try and break out of this as I know it's something that I need to and am gradually overcoming, however this is something I couldn't just change overnight (or dramatically in time for the shoot) and needs a lot more time and work. A lot of the time people don't really understand this and it's not an excuse, but it is very hard to get out of, I swear! As a result I was very anxious and nervous a lot of the time, and I think I worried about not being good enough for the role too much and should have focussed on just getting on with the job instead, as worrying never helps! I found that the experience of being 1st AD could be frustrating for me, as by the time it came to actually working on the set I knew exactly what I had to do and understood how to communicate with actors etc, however my general un-confidence held me back a bit from carrying through with this and I was slightly disheartened. At times I found myself getting lost in amongst louder voices on set, which shouldn't happen as 1st AD and I think at certain points I could have had more control. However I found that I was a very good listener, and if any cast or crew had problems I was very good at picking these up and helping or reporting it back to the director when I could not assist. This then allowed the director to focus on other things instead. I also think I was good at advising the director and generally communicating with him when he needed a second opinion. I enjoyed being able to watch the actor's live performance as due to my previous acting experience as I felt I could relate and easily spot things I liked and disliked to feed back to Thomas (director). I also made an extra effort for people who weren't helping out as much to try and get them to come in as I thought that if it was emphasised how much they were needed on set, this would motivate and inspire them to assist with everything to the best of their abilities. Anything asked of me from the director, I would carry through with as best as I could. In my opinion Thomas is amazing at directing people and knows exactly what he wants from the shoot, but I think he is used to working more by himself at doing this (or with Rob) so it was harder for him to share responsibilities with me. However I feel this was my fault for not stepping up to him enough and allowing him to let me take more charge on set. Apart from this I feel we communicated well, and shared opinions both on and off set. I really enjoyed being able to have an input with him into important decisions. I feel like it would have been helpful to have more of a second AD though to help me with many of the tasks, however Shahid who was originally 2nd AD had been changed to camera operator as the rest of the crew felt there was no need for one. While speaking with Anne on the day of the shoot, she also suggested that there should have been a 2nd AD to help out, as there was a lot on my shoulders to look after. Maybe if this had have been the case I would have been less stressed about the whole situation. It was a lot of fun being able to contribute more whenever I could, such as helping with building the set - something I've never done before. I think the entire experience was good, despite not being 100% comfortable, as I was able to learn so much about my role, as well as everyone else's, and I think it has helped my confidence a little with speaking out a bit more and being in charge. It's taught me a lot about myself as well, such as the fact I need to be more authoritative and push myself more. 

General experience

I was so inspired seeing everyone working together, and seeing people's strengths come out in new areas. It was such a good atmosphere throughout the entire production process, especially at times when we completed a big task, such as the flooring after having so much trouble with it! I think we all bonded with each other as well, and quite a few of us have been speaking more with people who aren't in our immediate friendship group. It was different to get a feel of a professional working environment, as before we've only been in smaller teams of about four, and I now have more of an idea what it's actually like to be on a set. I overall really enjoyed the entire production, despite my critical response to how I performed, and had so much fun seeing it all come together.

Main Points I've Learnt

We began with doing a few full test runs with the actor, Aaron. While Thomas viewed the performance from the samurai blade, I watched in real life to look for flaws, positives and for anything that could be changed to improve the scene. At the beginning of each take, I would make sure everyone was ready and quiet, and then checked that sound was good and that the camera was rolling, before allowing Thomas to yell action. 

When shooting the first scene, the actor questioned whether to have his phone out or in his pocket and Thomas initially suggested in his pocket. However after a take, I advised Tom that maybe it would be better to leave the phone out or in the actor's hands to put an emphasis on the character's needs to always have the phone close and visible, therefore inferring his addiction to the technology. I felt that if it was hidden in the pocket, that it seemed as if for a moment the character wasn't interested and that the concept of consumerism was easily forgotten for few seconds on screen. Thomas liked this idea of emphasising the technology more and decided to go for it in the final shoot. 

Each time we had to sort anything such as rearranging the set for the scene, the actor was allowed to wait in the green screen and relax until required. When we were ready for the actor back on set, I would go and greet him and let him know we were ready for him. 

Snacks and water were left by Julia on a table behind the set for everyone to eat or drink on breaks and at lunch and I informed the actor of this. 

Whenever the frontal lobe of the brain is touched, appropriate colours will appear representing mood and tone of the final piece. When everything is pressed and it forms together, these colours will be overlaid on top of the visual section that involves activities and movement, the frontal and occipital lobes. Therefore I have done some research into what colours represent and the mood that each colour reflects/ communicates to the audience. This is due to western culture as we have assigned the colours to have emotions and feelings, rather than the colours actually having that tone themselves.  

General colour meanings

Black

This is reflective of depression, power, morbidity, illegality, death and night. However it can be associated with elegance and formality as well.

White

Innocence, cleanliness, purity, peace, newness and simplicity are shown by using white. It can also represent physicalities such as ice and snow and give off a cold feeling. 

Red

Red is associated with warmth, love, desire, passion, excitement, speed, strength, energy, determination, boldness and courage. Likewise it can also be associated with danger and anger depending on circumstances.

Orange

Cheerfulness, enthusiasm, creativity and aggression.

Yellow

Yellow is good at grabbing attentions and represents optimism, comfort,  cheerfulness, liveliness, intellect, energy and happiness. It also reflects Summer and the sun/ good weather. Negatively it can be viewed as cowardice, hunger and an overwhelming feeling. 

Pink 

This is associated with love, romance, being caring and femininity.

Green

Nature is a big representative of the colour green. It shows reliability, well-being, freshness, harmony, safety, durability and honesty. 

Blue

Blue is associated with the season of Winter and shows professionalism, peace, loyalty, trust, conservatism, boredom, sadness and coldness.

Purple

Royalty, nobility, elegance, sophistication, mystery, luxury and magic. 

Grey

This is usually represented as dull and uninteresting but can also represent traditionalism, seriousness and conservatism. 

Brown

Brown is associated with the season Autumn and can represent nature, earth, endurance, casual, and being reassuring and genuine. 

Here is a guide to change in tone in colour, ranging from neutral to bright colours and how these represent certain emotions as well. 

Along with Thomas (Director), Dowan (Screenwriter) and I (1st AD) decided we would help with casting for the shoot.  Thomas had previously posted an ad on 'StarNow' and had received 9 applications (however 4 of these did not match the criteria described). 

Messages were sent to the five that seemed fit for the role to audition on Monday 17th November. Only three of these replied, one saying he could only audition from a Skype call. While Julia and I were planing the shooting schedule, Thomas to save time went and secured G03 for us to use on the monday and messaged the actors the details for the audition. 

 To prepare for the casting, I looked back on Nigel Bristow's "Casting Dos and Don'ts."

I also looked back at what we had done in the Directing Actors workshop with Nigel, such as how to be clear and articulate exactly what you want, while giving the actors enough freedom and trust to be able to bring their own thing to the project. Having studied speech and drama previously for numerous years and after Nigel saying in the workshop that it would be beneficial for us to have a little bit of experience in acting to have a better understanding of how actors work, I had a rough idea from an actor's point of view the easiest way to communicate. I also thought this might help me spot strong and weak points in their acting to make notes on through the auditions.

On the day, Dowan took the role of greeting the actors and bringing them to the room. Once the actor reached the room, Thomas and I would greet them, shake their hands and break the ice a little bit more with them to make them feel as comfortable as possible.  We had given each actor about 20 - 30 minutes as suggested by Nigel, and then gave ourselves time to discuss the performance between ourselves afterwards.  Water was also provided for the actors to drink when needed. 

The First Actor

Notes I made during audition

Throughout the audition, Tom would direct them at the beginning as to what to do and then as they were performing gave them a cue as to when a particular thing changed in the performance, such as putting the phone down. We also made sure to ask before filming the actor for an audition tape like Nigel had mentioned in the 'Casting Dos and Don'ts' mentioned earlier, to be "polite" and make sure he was comfortable with this. 

Afterwards,  Tom, Dowan and I discussed our opinions and the general conclusion was that he was ok, but needed a lot of direction to get a good performance. We preferred if the performance wasn't so stiff, and that more obvious facial expressions were used to get across the mood of the film due to it having no dialogue. However we felt that he was a very reliable option, due to the fact he made it for the audition. During the audition just after his 2nd test the actor did ask for the character background, and even though Thomas had sent him this beforehand, I advised that in future he briefly go over it again at the beginning of the audition before the actor performs anything, just to refresh them on the brief. 

Second Actor

At this point Dowan had to go to work, so me and Tom continued on with the casting. After waiting 40 minutes for the next actor to show up, we decided that he wasn't coming and packed up. This taught us that reliability is very important and we don't want an actor that we can't depend on to show up for the final shoot, as this would ruin everything we've all worked for so far. Both Tom and I were very disappointed to say the least, as we thought the actor had seemed enthusiastic after agreeing to come audition. 

Third Actor 

While Dowan and I weren't present for this, due to it being over Skype on Wednesday, here are the notes Tom made and sent to us:

"Very enthusiastic about the project, understands it completely and seems very social. Had suggestions for the character's interpretations and seemed eager to try out alternative versions. Lives nearby (woking) and is available on the shoot day."

We also watched his audition that Tom had recorded to get an understanding of his performance.

Notes (based off recorded footage)

• I liked the movement and felt it fitted with the character well.
• Seemed to understand how the character should act and the background. 
• Tom said he seemed enthusiastic and I also felt this from watching the performance.
• Seems more open and less reliant on a lot of strong direction. 

Decision

During working on the set build, Tom was speaking with Julia (producer) and I about which actor to chose. He seemed like he was very strongly leaning towards the third actor, however wanted everyone else's opinions before finally messaging one of them to confirm the role. I advised him to go with his instinct with the third actor, as I agreed that there seemed to be the stronger out of the two auditioned and thought that he and Tom (as well as the rest of the crew) could work well together, as he seemed a lot more fun and chatty, willing to express his own ideas and creativity into the project. 

After showing Rosie our test version of what the visual section might be like for the final piece she advised that we choose maybe a more simple, general environment to film in as the house chose to practise was too cluttered and 'student-like.' This could distract the viewer from focussing on the simple tasks on screen and also might not be relatable enough as a general location for a wide age range of audience. We discussed the actions of the person, saying that maybe they could be doing something as simple as going shopping, however while this provides a great basis for sounds, this holds many flaws due to the fact we would need to get permission from a local supermarket - something we have tried a few times before and always failed at. It would be good if we could find somewhere that will be happy for us to film with short notice. 

I was thinking about maybe having slightly more general activities done throughout, but less time focussed on each one. For example I found the part where tea is being made in the test to be very long and therefore this could be edited down a bit more. The lost time would then be filled with other actions. 

My Objectives for this week