DIRECTIONS UNIT: Directing Task

So, today was our first day back to university (studios) after the christmas holidays, and so instead of sitting down and listening to a lecture, Simon put us in groups of three to direct an idea from three that he gave us. The list of ideas are below:

(1) ...

(2) someone sitting down into a chair & looking at watch, to tell time.

(3) …

I chose the second, as I thought I had more ideas for it than for the other two. When I read it, I immediately started jotting down bullet-points for a scenario. Below are the things I wrote on my note-pad:

• person sitting in examination room, daydreaming
• trying to write essay 
• realises that he hasn't done anything yet, so checks his watch
• says "shit"
• rushes to finish
• phone buzzes indicating time is over

In my group I had Charlie and Sei- Kai, which I personally think we worked very well and organised together. We each shared our ideas within our group and gave feedback to one-another, which was indeed very helpful as we each had some difficulties here and there with our ideas. Being in a group of three was also a great idea as we all got a chance to direct, act and control a camera, making us realise that this was like a mock-situation of our final project. 

So, for my idea I had Charlie as my actor and Sei- Kai as my camera operator. Through this mini-project, I was impressed by Charlie's great acting skills and how he took everything I told him (directed him) to do, very fast and made my filming quick and efficient, as I had never worked with him. With Sei-Kai, I liked how she listened carefully to my ideas and the angles I wanted my camera to capture & how she also efficiently did her 'job' quickly with great detail by carefully listening to my directions.

Editing this project was quite a challenge, as we had forgotten to record the sound and had to record it separately from my video, which made it difficult for me to synchronise my images/video with the sound. 

Below is my video, hope you like it:

In the end, I received great feedback from Simon, which I appreciated as I spent quite some time to perfect everything. Although there are some minor flaws, I think that overall my project was a good start to understand the meaning of directing and how coordinating a whole team (although small) is essential when creating a great outcome.
Yours,
I.