We've now wrapped on the principal photography of our 'Time' advert for the Kodak awards and client Paperchase. Reflecting upon the past month or so since we began scouting locations and soon after having our first shoot, I think it's been a massive success. Obviously we'll find out if I'm right when we get the footage back from being processed over Christmas. I'm very excited to get back in January and begin editing it together.
Shooting on 16mm for the first time has been a very steep learning curve. It's a totally different type of filmmaking to digital. I've began to see it as more of a precise craft. Shooting on digital there is a tendency to overshoot, or to get the same shot from many an angle or with a different F stop. With film you simply can't do this, every shot is time and money. I very much appreciate this as it really pushes you as a director to think about what you really need to tell the story, the most crucial aspect of any film. Despite this module being a production for a 30 second advert it made no difference to me. From the get go my perspective has been to see it as a short film and to shoot everything to piece together a cohesive narrative that makes sense to the audience.
Going through the directing process again has been fantastic for me. Every time I direct something I learn so much about what it means to direct and why I strive to be a director. It's so rewarding to see things come together physically when they were once just a thought and a chronological drawings on a piece of paper. I felt like I very accurately stuck to my guns on this production in terms of what was my initial vision and what wasn't. Going back to my previous point about digital, in May upon the completion of my digital short film 'Nemesis' I noticed many flaws. The main one being that the film I'd just made wasn't entirely what I'd wanted it to be. This was primarily because of the 'shoot what you want' attitude you can so easily have when it comes to digital. Working on film there was no room for compromise in my mind. I needed what I'd storyboarded and shot listed for this to make sense and for it to be what I want it to be.
As for pretty much every production I've been involved in at CCAD, only half of the crew pulled their weight. It becomes increasingly frustrating when sound operators and camera operators don't turn up to the shoot. The crew becomes stretched when people are doing each others jobs as we experienced a couple of times. It's also frustrating because everyone should be relishing in the opportunities we are being given with the likes of this module. It is a perfect time to gain experience in something as valuable as 16mm film production. Not everyone sees it like this however which is a shame.
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