Hello Everyone!
As you could probably tell by the title, after long days of working on the film, I have finally finished! The overall experience of planning, shooting, and editing of the film was great, and today I will be reflecting on some of the challenges I faced.
The Planning
The planning of the film is almost the most difficult part of making a short film. I had to find friends that were not only able to act and learn lines quickly, but be sure that they were available for all the shoot days. This was an interesting process.
Together my parents and I were able to plan out all the shoot days from day 1 to day 7, and send each possible actor in the film the date and times of the shoot days they needed to be at. This saved us a lot of stress later on.
There was also the process of making and finding the sets, making shooting equipment, preparing food for hungry actors, sending emails, etc. All these steps lead up to shoot days.
The Filming
When the actors start to get to the set, they’re giddy, excited, and ready to start the shoot. Usually we have shoot days from 12:00 to 7:00, but every so often we’ll start the day earlier at 9:00. This is when there’s more shooting needed to be done.
As soon as we start shooting, I always have to remember “these are your friends, but you have to get the shot done”. I remind myself this because when shoot days happen, most of the time we’re on a tight schedule, and can’t afford constant dilly dallying. So when times come that actors get distracted or start fooling around a little too much, I always tell myself “I know they’re your friends, but you have to get this shot done”. This is hard to battle sometimes, but I even have actors admit it.
“It’s hard because you KNOW that your friendship is on the line, and so is the shot”. I will always remember my good friend Naya saying that. (who also plays Colette in “Mirror”)
However, shooting isn’t all that bad. Sometimes those goofy moments make for great behind the scenes and bloopers footage! And everyone does have a very fun time shooting and acting out scenes.
The Editing
This part of the process is fun, but can be very stressful and annoying. Now if you know me well enough, you would know that I absolutely LOVE editing. But along every lovely road, comes a large bump.
During the editing process I have faced problem, after problem, after problem. It’s usually anything from having footage accidentally being deleted or ruined, to not having enough footage to work with. However the main problem I usually face most often is just having it not flow. Now you may be thinking, “Not flow? What?” This can mean any of the following things:
- Watching it makes you feel uncomfortable
- You feel bored
- You feel like something’s missing
- It makes you go, “Wait what?”
You get the point.
I went through this a lot. I’ve had scenes that I entirely took out because they didn’t flow, and shrunk down character’s parts because it didn’t flow. You will almost always run into it. I know I have.
But to help me out, I have my wonderful parents that take the time to watch over my films, and give me feedback. This for sure has saved me a lot of problems.
And editing is the same with planning and shooting: IT ISN’T ALL BAD. I enjoy it a lot, and I always love to see the final product.
Anyways, those were some of the challenges I faced during the making of “Mirror”. Although they were hard and annoying to face at the time, it makes for really good memories now.
Just a quick note: If you still want to see “Mirror”, please contact me before January 13th. We are having a private Friends and Family screening that day in a theatre, and you are welcome to attend.
I can’t put the film up on the website until we are finished entering it into festivals throughout 2013. So if you do want to see it, contact me or you’ll be waiting a while!
Thanks!
Morgana McKenzie