What Was Left Unsaid from Media Factory on Vimeo.
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ASSIGNMENT 4 // REFLECTION
Where do I even start!? What Was Left Unsaid took one hell of a lot of work to make happen, all within a two week period. Surely 1000 words wont be able to capture everything, but I’ll give it my best shot.
We pitched the film in class on a Monday morning. Originally it was meant to tell the story of a mother and daughter, but we soon realised that it could be near impossible to cast the mother role, as we felt that most aspiring/amateur actors who are open to doing unpaid work are likely in their 20s. This led to us re-thinking the script, and creating a story about a broken relationship. Bella took the lead with the script writing, becoming the writer/director, and I took on a producing role.
Pitch slideshow – link
We knew we wanted to make a drama film, and the main elements we took from this genre was the use of monologue, emotive writing, and dramatic performances. Other genres which may be more reliant on cinematography or editing decisions, but for us this connection to genre was mostly achieved in the writing and casting of the film. Getting a good script actors who could nail the role was crucial.
Within 2 days of our pitch, we had a first draft of our script, and I had created a listing for our two roles on StarNow. We continued to revise our script, creating a new draft every day until our shoot, and our call out for actors had received almost 30 responses within the first 24 hours (and there were over 50 by the end date of the listing). We spent every night that week sorting through each candidate’s profiles, discussing if we felt they would be a good fit, and eventually narrowing down our selection to 8 actors we’d like to audition for the role (6 of whom were available).
Audition notes – link
We ran auditions over Zoom on the Friday and Saturday that week, with a shoot scheduled for Tuesday. We were very impressed by most of the talent that came through our auditions, and making a decision was very tough. One thing that helped the process was editing together the recorded auditions to see how two actors would work together on screen. On Sunday we made our final decision, and notified the two actors we chose while letting the others know they were unsuccessful – however, the actor we’d chosen for Ex 1 had to pull out of the role last minute – so we were stuck with 20 hours to find a replacement.
Alex & Kayla’s audition edit – link
Freya was next on our list, and she was more than happy to take the role with less than a day notice. Once the actors were on set, Bella did most of the talking and rehearsals, while I finalized our projection visuals. The shoot took approximately 5 hours, and ran an hour over schedule (we decided to shoot more than we had planned for safety). Everything felt very prepared, we had printed copies of the script and release forms, a loaded crafty table, chargers, WiFi, and heaters for the actors in their downtime. I had done extensive camera tests and projection tests before the day, so we went into it with a pretty clear idea of how the day would go.
Annotated script
After shooting we had a week to edit the film. The first cut was rather straightforward, sticking to the script and selecting the best takes. Over the next few days we made a series of small changes before reaching the final edit we would picture lock. After that point, Bella created a sound effects track, and I did a colour grade for the film. We revised each of these a few times until we reached a point we were happy with, and that was it!
Agnes’ footage used in the film
One of the things that was most challenging was aligning everyone’s schedules for meetings and Zoom calls; especially being in the start of December, we all had very busy schedules and would often have to meet for an hour here or there whenever we could. Another thing that both Bella and I found challenging was figuring out how to include Agnes in the project more – as she was in China and wasn’t able to be involved with shooting. We asked her to record some landscapes around her town, several of which we used for projections – however, the only one which made the final cut was a shot of an ice covered river, which was run through filters to create the final projection of the film. We felt quite bad that we couldn’t find more for her to do, as most of the work was done in person, and her editing software was not compatible with Premiere, so Agnes, if you’re reading this, we’re sorry!
Call sheet – link
Next time I work on a film like this, schedule permitting, I would like to reserve several weeks for the auditioning process, just so we can give people more time to familiarize themselves with the script, and audition a greater number of people in order to do callbacks etc. This project wouldn’t have been a good fit for a larger casting process, but I found that I quite enjoyed the producing work, and it’s something I would like to do more of. Even designing my own call sheet template was a thrill! It was nice doing work that could be ‘completed’, as often with editing work or on-set work, it feels like you are never finished, and there is always more you *could* do to improve your piece. I liked the feeling of going to bed knowing I had completed everything that needed to be done that day, perhaps this is a career path I should learn more about!
I’m extremely happy with the outcome of this film – for something we made in just over 2 weeks, it looks really nice, sounds decent, it has a great script/acting, and I learnt a ton about multiple aspects of filmmaking in the process. Everything came together really well, and I’m looking forward to working on future projects with Bella, as I felt she was a very talented writer/director! Sure, there are many minor details I would go back and change if I had all the time in the world, but they’re so minute that I doubt it would make a noticeable difference. This has definitely been one of the most beneficial projects I’ve done over the course of my degree.
What Was Left Unsaid was made by Bella De Almeida Reis, Ziggy Cross, and Qianyi Wang