Directing exercise 2

I have a bad habit of having my story and plot changed on the shooting day.  This may seem risky, but I tend to ride on the emotion of the moment.  For example, on the shooting day for exercise 2, the Friend’s Courtyard had an unusual vibe of life and light.  It may very well be perhaps that I have never been there at eight o’clock in the morning.  I took advantage of this unknown life and light from the Friend’s Courtyard and had half of the shoot focusing on how the actress interact within this environment, hoping to bring out the natural grace of a woman lost in her own world, gliding across the world of verdant carpet and the orange bricks.

I felt more confident with my directing skill in exercise 2, I worked closely with my 1^st AD and DOP to ensure that my vision come to life and that things were rolling on time.  The challenge in this exercise for me was to maintain a creative and instinctual mind while being conscious of practical issues and relaying information to cast and crews.  While shooting this film, the concept of continuity was in my head the whole time, I could see how the frames were rolling out in my mind and I was very conscious of shooting the necessary shots to ensure the actress’s chain of actions would not be broken.  I hope my effort on the shooting day will allow the flow of frames in the editing process.

Directing workshop

We spent roughly two weeks with Tony on a directing workshop.  The workshop required the students to work on skills such as improvised acting and plotting, engaging and connecting with the character’s emotion, directing actors and casting.

I have not had much acting experience and was quite weary of the challenge due to my quiet personality, someone who always prefers to be the creator rather than being part of the creation.  Through the workshop with Tony, I’ve now enjoyed acting a little more, understanding the process of engaging with the character’s emotion and somehow make it my own.  Furthermore, I really enjoyed the directing part of the workshop and the process of layering the emotions and creating the emotional dynamic for the characters.  The given material, in my opinion, did not allow much room for interpretation, one can perhaps place the scenario in a different situation, but the interpretation and the character’s transition was quite concretely laid down in the script.  The challenge for the directors in these cases was to bring out the performances from the actors rather than having to engage in profound communication in order to give birth to an entire new child.  I also really enjoyed the casting experience, the key to this process is to understand whether or not the actor is able to be shaped by the director, whether the actor has the emotional range required for the role.  Completing this workshop has made me more confident as a director when working with actors.  This was one of the skills that have lured me into the arts of filmmaking.