Broadway film: Post-production

After finishing filming, I had to edit the footage together, add transition effects and some colour grading. Compared to the other MA film, the amount of post-production work of this film was not very heavy because there was no CGI, 3D composition or special effects. The only scene that required some editing is the scene where the main character jumps off the roof.

Colour grading before/after

For colour grading, I tried using both Resolve and After Effects to see if which one is better. Unfortunately, my computer had issues rendering Resolve footage so it caused error in the image during preview, so I had to go with After Effects.

Fade to white edit

There is one scene where the main character jumps off the roof. For safety reasons, the actor never actually jumped off the roof, but in order to make it seem like he did, the scene faded to white just as he lifts his foot up, then it cut to the next scene where he lies on the ground.

For the music, I composed music using Ableton Live with the cinematic sound library, and just merge them together to fit them with the scenes. Sound tracks and effects, such as whispering and TV sounds, are downloaded from free-sound.org.

Broadway film: Production

This is the first time that I was given the opportunity to work with real actors who had professional experience. The actor, Ryan Chadwick, is a young actor who recently finished his acting course at university, and Gail Kemp is an actress with many years of experience acting on television. This was very important as these actors who differ in experience can learn from one another which improves the quality of acting. It also helps them to have discussions during short breaks of film, such as during lunch and setting up for the next scene.

Being the director, I am able to learn from them as I give them my vision and idea of what I want to achieve in a scene, so they would be able to know how to express their emotions or deliver their lines, or react to the other character’s lines and emotions. Being able to work with Roger Knott-Fayle also helped improved my own abilities as a director, as he has had years of experience in working in filmmaking. The actors, having read the script prior to coming to the set, will have their own personal interpretation of what the film is about and what their character should be like, so it is my job as the director to tell them if that’s really what I want, or I can also listen to their interpretation and adapt and make changes to the script as I see fit.

“Doctor’s office” set

Our crew only had two people, so all the roles such as directing, camera, lighting and sound have to be divided between two people; I took charge of directing and sound, and some lighting, while Roger handled the camera. I had many ideas during the shoot and with Roger’s expertise, he gave many suggestions to do the film in the most efficient way.

The filming only took place within 6 hours, with 10 short scenes to shoot. It was a big challenge because we needed to shoot at 3 different locations. 2 months ago, one of the location I wanted to film at was in Derby, so I had to find another way to make it work with the limited time that I have. The other location that we had to change at the last minute is at Broadway cinema. After discussions with Roger, we decided to film all of the scenes mainly at his house and nearby his house, so essentially it was a case of making the best situation out of what we have. It worked out very well as it also saved a lot of time. One of the actors had a car, so travelling was much easier. The whole managing of locations and time is the producer’s job, so I also learned a lot about handling a situation when problems arise, and it is very likely to happen with a low budget film.

The film had three characters, John and his mother, who are played by professional actors, and the doctor, played by Roger Knott-Fayle. In this film, I wanted focus mainly on John to help the audience understand what he is going through. The film begins with John as this trouble teenager who struggles with what appears to be a mental disease as he hears voices in his head. As the story goes on, the audience begins to understand more and finally at the end, the audience gets into John’s head. The biggest struggle was to make sure Ryan, the actor, understand the character so that he can portray the right way. It was difficult because Ryan only knew that he was going to be in the film only two days before shooting. I only have one day with him, so it was impossible to have discussions about the characters before shooting, but everything worked out in the end.

Broadway film: Pre-production

At the end of the MA year, each of the Film Practice students have to make a short film with the help of Broadway cinema. This was part of the course’s professional practice with filmmaking; I have to direct, contact the actors, arrange the dates, do location scouting, risk assessment, write the script, and find a crew.

In June, Broadway helps us find actors which fits the description that we wanted and arranged for everyone to meet. The actors had a look at our script, asked questions about their characters and had a go at acting for me to have a look if they fit the script.

The script is a 5-minute short film about a teenager who hears voices in his head. The film uses a non-linear storyline that focuses on how the teenager goes from being afraid of the voices to embracing it as a gift. He eventually believes that he is the main character in a movie and the voices belong to people who are watching him through the screen. Because he knows that he is a movie character, he believes that extraordinary things can happen to him.

This is a script that I started writing since my Celtx introduction sessions with Jools back in February. The original idea was about a teenager who ‘breaks the fourth wall’ by acknowledging the existence of the audience, responding to their reactions to what happens on the screen. Before completing the script, I watched the film Stranger Than Fiction (2006), which is about a man who is aware that his actions are being narrated by a woman. In the aspect of breaking the fourth wall, Stranger Than Fiction and my script are quite similar; both of our main characters know that there is some supernatural entity watching their lives.

After the meeting with the actors about 2 months before shooting the script, I was happy with the actors that Broadway had managed to choose.

Script, originally titled “John” 

Shot list

After finishing the script, I began working on the shot list in order to clarify the minimal number of shots for the film to make sense.

Location scouting

For the locations, I had to seek advise from Roger Knott-Fayle because of his experience in filming in Nottingham, as well as being a Nottingham resident for a long time. The first scene required a park, which we chose Vernon Park because it is near Roger’s house. Because the park is a public place that belongs to the Nottingham city council, I have to get permission (with help from Roger) to be allowed to film in the park.

There was also a scene where the main character stands on top of a roof to make it seems like he is about to jump off of it. The scene required a risk assessment as the actor has a risk of injuring himself if there was something possibly wrong with the roof (slippery, accident, etc.) First of all, the roof that I wanted was in Derby and I had to contact the person who owns the house, but in the end because of limited time I had to change the location to the roof of Roger’s house.