This e-Comm year started off in a bit of a weird spot, as in an entirely different classroom. I started the year as an animation student but realized a couple weeks in that it isn't what I wanted to do. I transferred into entertainment late but excited. I missed a couple of projects and came in in time to start the short film. Everyone had to write a treatment and turn it into a script. From those treatments, we chose one to make into our hour's feature film. But, that's a different blog post. I wrote my treatment about a man who has to deal with and overcome the personification of all of his anxieties and worries. When we split up into groups, I worked with Abby, Tayah, and Sarah. We chose my script and I directed.
Pre-production was a little rough as we had very limited time to film and plan everything out. We were lucky enough to find enough actors that we didn't have to be in it, but filming time was very limited. I made the mistake of writing a very location heavy script so we had to have a lot of filming days to get everything done and still have time to do our homework. Ilming had to be done quickly and efficiently. One of my cast members and I had agreed to act in another group's short film, so we were both working on two film schedules. I was out of town for a lot of the editing process, so I didn't have a lot of say until right at the end, but I trusted the girl editing to make it good.
This wasn't my first time directing a project, but it was one of the more stressful projects. I learned a lot about time management and how to keep everyone on track and efficient on set so everything could get done on time. I hadn't really worked with entertainment's cameras before this project, so I did a lot of learning on the spot. Communication was really important during production and post, making sure all of the actors knew what they needed and what they were doing, and making sure the editors and I were on the same page about the final product. To me, leadership and collaboration go hand in hand, and I think those both worked together for the best on this project. I've worked on a lot of projects where no one could agree on anything and the final product was slapped together last minute because no one could agree on anything. This project wasn't like that at all. While Abby and I worked on it the most, everyone stepped up into their roles brilliantly and had a say on the final project. We both understood, though, because our two other group members worked a lot of the filming nights and couldn't edit at home. we scraped a pass in project management. While it wasn't done by the deadline, we wanted to make it the best it could be. We did finish filming in the time limit, though. It was just very hard to complete to the best of our ability with the very short timeline.
There were a lot of things I did enjoy about our project. I really enjoyed the group I got to work with and would love to work with any of them again in the future. Our actors were also really good and easy to work with. I was really happy with the jobs they did and their cooperation. If I could do this project over, I would like to have had a longer timeline to get it done. For the next project, I will try to free up as much time as possible, getting homework done during school and trying to get time off work if necessary. Having free time after school is essential to getting projects like this done on time, even without the close deadlines.
For my first project back in entertainment, I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. There are, of course, some things I would go back and change if I had the chance, but I am still proud of it. Sadly, we don't have any more short-term projects this school year. But, that means we are jumping into our feature film after this which I am very excited for. It's gonna be a good one.
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