I was given the opportunity to be the director of Episode 2 and to act as the director in Episode 1. I was pretty excited to direct as it was my first choice, but I think when the hype wore off all I really felt was anxiety that got heightened by my peers wishing me luck. 

During Monday’s class, I helped some of the writers map out the Skull or Spill segment so we could better understand how to end episode 2. On Thursday, we were able to practise transitioning to and from Studio A and C, and also using the EVS. I got the opportunity to work with both DA’s and Vision Switchers. I used this time to see how it felt to work with each team and to see their work styles. 

Thursday’s class definitely gave me the confidence and reassurance that in a worst-case scenario (doing episode 1 on short notice), I would have a good team supporting me.

Filming the EVS for episode 1’s ending was also really fun, I enjoyed the “office esque” style of my scene. It also gave me the opportunity to further plan out potential shots for episode 1, when Connor and I decided that filming the shot of me walking out of the control room would be too dark for the camera and would probably be better conveyed through the CCTV style shot that PTZ 2 would capture live on the day itself.

When I found out I would actually be directing episode 1 instead, I was grateful for how supportive episode 1’s team was, catching me up on what I might have missed. I was especially grateful for Liv for having her notes and for supporting me with opinions on how the episode could flow and with the shots, I had in mind/ were torn between.

I was honestly really nervous going into and coming out of Monday about Thursday’s shoot, mostly about my lack of preparation. But our class is pretty supportive and I felt well supported, especially having worked alongside Liv for the short practice sessions we had the week before. Ruth also left me with advice about not overthinking and planning shots and the direction I wanted to take beforehand.

This just drove me to prepare well for Thursday’s shoot.