First-Year Projects

My first year of university was, even for a filmmaking course, remarkably terrible. It happened during COVID-19 and I’m not sure if any of you have ever had your entire course taught online, including the basics to learning how to use equipment and edit, but it was terrible. Learning these things on your own time, especially when you’re already vaguely used to them is one thing, but being taught almost from scratch when you’re paying to use equipment you have never even touched is another. And that’s ignoring the tense worry of the virus!

We ended up being able to make two projects in this year, and working on them cemented my vision of my future.

I edited The Package-Free Larder after having no input allowed by the director and DoP for the filming itself, had to leave the edit suite after finishing the project but before it was uploaded one day, and saw the final result as very different to what I had worked on. In the time I was gone, the director switched some cuts around, chose some different clips, and in my opinion she took away the narrative from the project. I love editing and will do it any chance I get but having something altered like that was a shock to my system and made me realise, if what I want to do is direct the creative vision of a prokect, I’m going to have to direct.

This idea was solidified with the trailer I needed to work on this year. It was a fun, unserious project that was meant to be an instruction guide to the equipment to begin. I helped write the script, made a plan, and made a schedule for the day of filming. Unfortunately, one of my close friends had to go to hospital the night before filming and I spent the night making sure he was safe. I pulled out of filming, trusting the others to enact the plan.

When I walked into the editing suite the next day, my editor was horrified. They were also the DoP for the shoot and, as it turns out, had turned into Sound, Lighting, DoP, and Director. Two of our group members had gone for lunch and never turned back up. Thoroughly stressed, my colleague had messed up the camera settings (this was one of the first times we had been able to use the equipment remember!) and the footage was orange. Unfixable, outrageous, (Donald Trump fake tan), orange.

From this, I learnt more valuable lessons.

1 - Work with people you trust. One of the girls I had worked with was the same director who had altered the edit without mention beforehand. I want to work with people that I know will do the best they can in any situation.

2 - Stay focused. I do not regret making sure my friend was alright, and I was in no state to turn up to set. I hold my friendships to the highest degree and will never regret ensuring that a close friend has someone by their side, and no one else was able to be there. However, the circumstance there was that we could have rearranged the shoot. In any case, if I am not able to turn up to set I need to find a suitable replacement. I need to stay focussed on my project and make sure that it will be looked after no matter what.

3 - Innovation. Very swiftly, it was evident that the project was doomed to the point I had no faith we would even receive a passing grade, and I knew we needed to make something else. So, I did. I messaged our group and the two that had left refused, whilst the editor and person on set agreed. So, we came up with a concept that could be shot the next day and swiftly edited. We found an actor who suited the part. And we did our best to film something that would, even if not make us proud, would be something we were happy to stand in front of.

It is a hard road into filmmaking and I count myself lucky that the mistakes I made and the worst lessons were taught early on.