Looking back at the initial goals our group set for this project, I think we achieved our goal in making the film we wanted to make, and just actually making a film is something of a success. We also followed the prompt: Within a flower lies both poison and medicine. Lovers are alike in so many ways. Even though I see our project as an overall success, I still think we faced problems that in the future I think I can learn from.

Pre-production

I think if as a group we got to know each other a bit more, the initial stages of this project would have gone much more smoothly, especially with communication. We were ultimately strangers to each other, supposed to come up with ideas to make a film, but because we didn’t really know each other, or know each other’s film style, it was quite difficult to talk through ideas.

One of the major problems faced in pre production from my experience was casting. It would have been preferable to have longer to cast to ensure the best possible outcome. Because of the short time frame that is the semester, I had to organize casting through email and over the phone, and because we didn’t have time to audition people in person, we had to ask them to send in auditions online. This turned away some people because it wasn’t what they wanted to do, but it also helped determine who was really interested in the roles we called out for.

When we actually casted the two main roles though we organized a meeting and a run through in one of the rooms in building 9, and it was really great to meet them before the shoot and see if the dynamics and chemistry was there between them and us. It was also about a week before our shoot, so it gave the actors time to go over the notes we gave them before the shoot actually took place. This was something I am definitely going to do again in the future, because it wasn’t just good to meet them, it also helped determine whether or not they were really serious about the project, and good to get a read of them.

Production

Something we knew was going to be an issue before we even began production was the time frame. We had two days to film, and we knew this was going to be pretty full on. A problem we faced on the first day of shooting was that we were two crew members down, which meant we had no one running the schedule, and no one for continuity. Although continuity wasn’t much of an issue on the day, I knew it would drive us crazy in post. Also because of the lack of some crew members, we ran a bit behind schedule because we didn’t have enough hands to set up, but we caught up to schedule by the end of the day and actually finished earlier than planned.

Because of the rush we were in, especially during the set up, and filming of the dining room scene, there were things that all of our crew seemed to miss. Particularly in this shot of Kevin, you can see the foil on the windows, which was used to block out light from the outside, but was not meant to be seen in shot. I suppose if we had have taken more time with production design, we could have avoided this.

Another major issue that almost caused a dozen breakdowns was that I was using a faulty microphone. Even though I did have a broken microphone, I think I was able to handle the situation well by keeping the buzzing sound it made under control. What I had to do for many takes was actually hold the cord plugged into the microphone on a certain angle and not move. This however, significantly restricted the movement of the boom, which made it difficult during scenes with blocking and action. If I moved the boom during a scene the cord would adjust and start to create a buzz sound. This was only a big issue during the 360 shot, because I had to stay behind the camera and follow the action. The buzzing did occur, but because the dialogue I was recording was out of shot, it didn’t matter so much for editing.

Post-production

Because we had no one doing continuity on the first day of shooting, this caused a lot of expected issues in editing. Especially in the dining room scene, which was the first film we shot. Although I’m sure it wouldn’t be incredibly noticeable to the audience, it was just incredibly annoying for us because we did notice it.

There was no way around this continuity issue in terms of editing, so it was just something you had to forget, and aim to achieve better in future productions.

One of the most infuriating moments for Lucas and I, was noticing in our one take 360 shot, there was a reflector in one of the corners of a shot. This was obviously an issue from on the day and production design, but it was something that we had to try to cover up.

Lucas spent quite a lot of time obsessing over this shot, so he went frame by frame and covered it up using a black fog sort of effect which worked really well. Even though I know it’s there, it is still hardly noticeable, it just looks like a shadow.

Another issue we had in editing was sound. Even though the sound was great on the computers and speakers down in the editing suites, when we would try it out on TVs, the sound was very soft. We increased the gain of all the sound, but when we viewed it at our screening last week, this caused the music to be distorted which was really disappointing, but I am in the process of fixing it.

Screenshots