Having already completed two studios which were very practical and hands on, where I was able to direct a comedy news show and a live comedy sketch show, I was looking for another studio wherein I would be given the opportunity to work collaboratively and create some sort of final product. The “this is serial” pitch indicated exactly this, which we would not only be working collaboratively with other media students, but with the creative writing students to create a web series. This is an experience I had not yet had so I was eager to join this studio. Despite the initial change of teaching hands, and subsequent re structure of the studio, I got the exact production experience that I wanted when I first signed up at the start of this semester. Admittedly it was a slow start, however this gave us an opportunity to get to know the other members of our media class we would be collaborating with later on in the semester. Work really kicked off as soon as we heard the title “Ghastly Solutions”. Listening to the writers many interpretations of the same core ideas was a very interesting part of the process, as media students we were able to draw out overlapping themes and ideas from the 10 or so scripts and develop our own rounded understanding of the concept that we would be creating. From there the media group I was apart of adopted four writers and they went off and began developing scripts.

The first real insight into how we all worked together as a cohort was during test shooting. For this, we didn’t allocate specific crew roles, and I personally found myself being a cameraman and playing Arabella simultaneously. This was a very messy hierarchy and we certainly learned from our disorganized mistake. This however was a very important mistake to make, as we learned quickly that we had to do a lot more pre production work, outsource talent and choose location a lot more carefully if we wanted our final web series to be something that we could be proud of. With all our mistakes made at once, we moved on to beginning pre production work for our next episode shoots.

I was heavily involved the casting process that then began shortly after, while the rest of my media crew worked on scheduling, equipment hire prospects and location. Casting was an invaluable experience and something I had never done before. The process ran over two days and Gaby and Heidi accompanied me. It was fascinating to watch people’s interpretations of the characters that I had unknowingly already formed in my mind. After each audition, the three of us sat and discusses our notes and shortlisted applicants who took our fancy. I think this process was also invaluable in the fact that I have never worked with out-sourced talent, and with this comes a new level of professionalism that you need to maintain in order to get tasks done and prove to potential talent that you are serious and passionate about what you are making.

After these two days of auditions, Gaby, Heidi and I quite easily decided on a final cast list and presented this to the rest of the media crew. This process ran smoothly, with the exception of the actor we hard initially penned to play Duncan. His schedule simply didn’t allow us enough time to film all of his scenes comfortably, so we let him go and turned to our understudy, Monty, who had played Duncan in our test shoot.

The first day of filming was absolutely terrifying for me. Though I was prepared with my storyboard and everything seemed to be running smoothly, I was very intimidated at the prospect of working with real actors, feeling afraid at appearing unprofessional and incompetent. However once we hit the second shoot day, I was a lot more comfortable in bossing people around and getting things done. Again, I have never worked on this type of set where I was solely calling the shots and I think once I learned the dynamic and rhythm of the production I was really able to get my head together and take the role of director with both hands. I worked closely with Heidi to work with the cast in rehearsals, and get line delivery, tone and character dynamics just right. On set I worked closely with the first AD Josie, to keep the day running and ensure we were working in the most efficient way for both cast and crew. For example, to give the actors context for the scenes we were to shoot, we would run a full rehearsal a few times, before then setting up cameras to capture the shots we needed (often out of order).

In retrospect of course there are things I am critical of. If we continued the show, I would elect to remove the use of tripods for the cameras, I feel it makes the show feel too formal, whilst a shaky camera tends to feel more natural for a ‘mockumentary’ and gives us a lot more autonomy in camera movements, as the tripods we used were quite rigid and really once they were set, any movement was jarring. Further to this the zooms used early in the firs episode look very odd with a stagnant camera shot and would be softened by the use of a hand held camera. The occasional glimpses at the camera would also benefit from a more natural shot. That’s probably the biggest critique I have of myself in my position for not making that decision. We also had some troubles with reflections, as the two doors in our location had glass, as so there was a lot of awkward maneuvering to avoid having the camera in the reflection. That’s something I simply didn’t think of, until we began shooting and it became apparent that different production aspects were going to be visible

The shoot days were so fun, despite them being hectic and confusing at times, I’m so glad I elected to direct and really push myself out of my comfort zone and gain the experiences that I did. I really believe in this show, it’s fun, quirky and creepy all at once. There have been discussions about continuing the show even after this studio is completed. We have three more scripts ready, a crew that’s eager to continue and a great cast who all voiced their interest in continuing after these first two episodes were completed and submitted.

Personally I would love to continue this project outside of university obligations, without the pressure of a deadline and the overlap of other assignments. I really want to finish what we started here, because I think it could continue to be something great.