When I was first faced with this project my first thoughts was, How am I going to think of an idea? I began to brainstorm, and my first idea involved two characters on a date, one had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Whilst developing the idea I began to dislike it as i feel comedy only works if the script is written well, and my script writing isn't the best. So i decided to come up with another idea. That is where Fallen came about. The initial idea was to have a homeless guy talking about his typical day to camera, but i felt it needed a bit more depth to the story, so thats where the Red Car came into it. I purposely put the car in there to make the story go in a different direction, and thats where the story about how Dom(my Character) used to have everything but now has nothing.
As I said before my script writing is not the best. So I wanted to begin to develop this early to leave me plenty of time to get opinions and to change anything I did not like. My first draft was very basic and have some horrible dialogue in it, But over time after talking to fellow peers I managed to make the script a lot stronger, which I was very surprised about. During rehearsals my actor came up with a good idea about changing the Pound coin and Car scene around to make the story flow better and the transition into the next section work. This was brilliant feedback from my actor as I believe it make the story more believable.
I was worrying about Sourcing my actor as it can be very difficult to find someone who is willing to work for free. I was also worried that my actor may drop out at the last minute, so to try and solve these problems I began to look for actor early so I had time to find another one if everything was to go wrong. The website I used was StarNow, as I fount this easy to use, and it gave me good results fast. I only had two people apply for the film, which did mean my choice was very minimal, but both actors were brilliant and fit the part, Velton who was my first reply looked rough with his unshaven beard and messy hair but my only problem with Velton is if he was going to be reliable, Whenever I asked Velton for a Skype call or to come down for rehearsals he was too busy, so I felt that I couldn't risk hiring him. Scott was my second choice. At first I was worried as he didn't have much of a beard or stubble but his face had wrinkles which I thought was a nice touch to show how living outside can change you. Scott was also very willing to help with anything, I did several Skype calls and got Scott to come down for a rehearsal, which allowed me to run through what will happen on the day. It also allowed me to change thins that I though didn't work. An example being is the car and pound coin scene. These were changed around as whilst rehearsing we all felt it worked better when they were both swapped around. It also gave me and Scott a chance to get to know each other, and to see if we could work together. I think that this was important as it made the day go smoother and it was more enjoyable.
I now had my actor and the majority of my pre production finished. My location was and ally way behind my house as this was the one with the most space, a corner for my actor to turn around, and enough room for pedestrians to get round withough disturbing any of the set design. The other allys that I looked at were to small and thin, so it would have been hard to get the camera in positions to the side, it would have also looked stupid when the trolley was turned to the side, again because it wouldn't fit and would looked too crammed.
The shoot day! Its finally here and I was scared to death. Although I had everything planned I was worried about all kinds of things. Will it rain? will something break, Will my actor make it etc. I began my shoot early in the morning to take advantage of the daylight. My shoot went rather smooth, I never really had many problems, I would say y biggest disappointment was the wind, but it didn't effect the shoot too much. On the day the wind was awful, which meant the steady cam that I had invested in wobbled and there was not really anything I could do about it as the wind continued all day. I was also worried that the sound would have too much wind in the background, although using a dougle it still have rather a lot of noise in the background. Other than the wind my shoot went smooth and fast, my crew were happy as they had been fed and given lots of donoughts to make they hyper. My Actor enjoyed the whole experience and said he was made feel welcome.
After my shoot I didn't not look at much of the footage for several days, this being I wanted a break and also because I was on several other shoots. Once in the post production stage I assembled a rough edit and I was not happy with it at all, I hated it. The colour changed through ought the shots, The sound had that much wind you could barley hear the dialogue, when showing it to people they said that the sounds really needs re-doing or trying to reduce the wind in the background. So my main priority was to try and fix the audio, to do this I put my audio through Adobe Audition and used the noise reduction process. This process did work but the more wind you want to take out the more the Dialogue becomes distorted and echo’s. You could now hear the dialogue as the process cleaned the wind and made the dialogue more dominant, i’m still not happy with the sound and if I was to film outside again I would also use tie clip mic’s. This is so I have a direct mic towards the the actors mouth, but also because you can hide it behind clothes to shield it from the wind. With the constant light change I had to find shots that did not have the sunlight in the background, this is because I knew I would be able to grade the shots so they are the same, this is because if there was sun in the background it would of been obvious when the shot changed and would be off putting for the audience. Other that these two problems everything else went fairly smooth.
My films sound design was going to be very minimal. I only ever wanted to have atmos, and surrounding sounds, such as traffic, trains, people, birds etc. But after watching my film with all the sound in I needed some kind of music. I had no idea what would fit or what I wanted as I had not thought about music as I didn't want it. So the best thing to do was go into the sound booth with a guitar and try as much out as possible. I recorded several different pitches, cords, and tunes while watching the film to get a feel to how it would sound. My idea was to then go back to the edit and see what fits best. The final music I chose to go for was single cords, these wold be played repeatedly at the start and end. I also chose a soft low key tune for the credits.
The overall film has been successful but there is many things I have learned and would change if I was to do this again. The first thing is my sound, Always use tie clip mic’s outside. I have also learned that test shoots are brilliant, I had never done one before this shoot and It helped me iron a lot of stuff out for the actual shoot. Something that I am very disappointed about is the movement of the character. If I was to re-shoot this film I would have Dom(my character) interact with the set design more. I would have him rummaging through the bin bags while talking, pulling out food, or a item of clothing instead of walking and picking up the odd bit of rubbish. I have also learned that shooting outside anything could happen, so always be prepared to change the schedule on the day. For example halfway through the shoot a house in the distance was burning stuff in the back of the garden, this meant that continuity was effected. To deal with this problem I chose to shoot all my close up’s and cutaway while we wait to see if the smoke stops.
Overall I have really enjoyed Writing, Producing and Directing my own film. I have so many things that I will take forward to the next film to help improve and somethings that I will change or keep an eye on in the future.
