Production diary content
I was on the writing team and directing, and my main roles involved the development of the film concept to a final script, and working with the actors to develop dialogue and characterisation. I felt relatively prepared as I had had some directorial experience before, and I had gone through and heavily annotated my script so I felt I knew the story and what my role specifically entailed fairly well.
On the first day, we spent the majority of the day working on the party scene, which I directed, and then the dream scene, which I also had a hand in directing. On the second day we shot both flat scenes, the other dream scene, and then at the end of the day we shot the advert, and for the whole of the second day I was either on the directing team as a co director or 1st AD. Each scene involved setting up the lighting and sorting out final blocking, and then working through each shot which we had previously planned, and adjusting accordingly if we felt it didn’t work in reality. I worked closely with Charlotte on the first day, as she was the camera operator, and we had worked together in pre-production to plan the scene, as well as Louis, the DP.
I also obviously worked closely with all of the actors, ensuring they were able to give their best performances, the producer to ensure we working to schedule, and the script supervisor in order to record any changes made and my thoughts on each take. I think professionalism was maintained fairly well on set, however, I think it was hard for everyone to maintain focus at times – the actors in the party scene sometimes struggled to maintain calm whilst set ups were taking place, and I really found it hard to maintain focus on the second day as I was so exhausted. I learnt much more about how many people are involved within a crew, and how each role is so vital to the production process, and I think overall our crew worked well together, as there appeared to be no clashes with any crew members and communication seemed to be effective for most of the time.
I found the biggest pressures to be the tight timings and the complex lighting and camera set ups, as I had never worked on a film where setting up took so long and involved so many jobs and intricacies. As mentioned in other sections, the blocking and angles of the party scene shots was quite a big issue, but I worked with the camera department to rearrange the set appropriately.
I would like to think I worked well with the crew, and most of the feedback I received was very positive, with my co-director complimenting my skills in communicating with the actors and keeping production running on time and focused, the only comment being my personal need to retain focus when I was tired. I improved my own knowledge of working on a slightly bigger scale set, with a higher budget, and I think my communication skills and understanding of all the different roles within production improved. Overall, I think the shoot went really well, and having seen a rough cut, I think we did a good job shooting, our strengths being in the cinematography – due to our DP Louis – and acting, as I felt the chemistry between the two protagonists was really strong. In terms of improvement, I would have liked to have had a clearer division of roles, as sometimes it felt a little hard to tell what exactly was required of everyone, and I think in terms of the actual production, we could have been much more efficient at setting up at times.
Issy you have been an excellent member of the academy crew. Your diary is a good record of your practical learning, gives useful description of how you developed your technical skills and how you worked successfully with the rest of the cast and crew.
You contributed with valuable ideas to the film script development and kept a fantastical idea grounded in a relatable “real” world. Your insight was also invaluable in the casting process and the chosen actors did brilliantly under your direction.
Well done, you have definitely met expectations in terms of the amount of work needed and have achieved the qualification to a good level, some of your work is exemplary. Your portfolio work is complete!
Thank-you so much Bex! I really appreciate the positive feedback and the whole experience of BFI, it has been such an interesting learning experience and I have definitely gained so much from it.