Filming, Directing and Everything in Between!

Well, I did it! I filmed my short film! And what an experience it has been! On the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th of September, I filmed my end of year short film. I had an amazing time and enjoyed every moment of it - good and bad.

I spent the two weeks before my shoot preparing everything for the film. Neville Hayes from E. Hayes & Sons loaned me his Chev Camaro SS for my film. He had his van driver pick the car up and drop it off to my location. He left it there (with the keys in it) and just told me to text when I wanted it picked up! I was totally amazed by this as it is an expensive car and someone had spent a lot of time and money on it to restore it to the condition it is in. So, for the owner to leave it with virtual strangers was amazing and I am really thankful for their help!

I also went to the Pawn Shop to ask if I would be able to use their jewellery department to film in and the manager Keith Kennedy said I could use their jewellery department but also recommemded I go and ask his friend Ashley Skelt who owned Skelts Jewellers. I called in to Skelts Jewellers and spoke with Ashley (who knew I was coming because Keith had called him to let him know) and he was more than happy for me to use his shop to film my scene in. He even offered to give me a ring to use but unfortunately because I had another scene that had the ring shown in it at another location, I was unable to use one of Skelts rings. I did, however, get a shot of the outside of the shop (with the shop name and signage on it) to use as an establishing shot and also to provide a little advertising for Skelts by using this shot in my film.

So..... the things that didn't go to plan........The first thing that happened was that the owner of the house I was using (including the garage) had left his keys for the garage in his mate's car and the night before (at like 11.30pm) we were due to start shooting, he texted his mate to ask for his keys and his mate replied with, "sorry I am in Te Anau". This meant no access to the garage and so half of the shots we intended on doing on the first shooting day were meant to be done in the garage. I spoke to my 1st AD and we rescheduled in the hope we could get the keys for the garage the next day. Unfortunately, rescheduling meant that instead of only filming for three days, we had to film for four days!

Neville Hayes also forgot what time and day he was meant to loan me his car. This held my shoot up a little but he was very apologetic and explained it had been a really busy time for him so it had slipped his mind. That was all the main issues we had on my shoot!

I spent the first day standing back a little and watching Dan direct the actors. Dan gave me heaps of opportunities, guidance and advice on how being a Director works. By the end of my shoot, I was in the swing of things and was confident with the role of the Director. I am glad I made the decision to co-direct because I really had no idea what I was doing and this gave me the chance to learn and build some confidence in the role.

All in all my shoot went well and I am happy with what I have done so far! I am glad I chose the crew I had because they had my back the whole way and they were very strong in their areas. I am now getting into editing as well as catering and producing my other class mates film projects. I am only producing a couple but I am catering nearly everyone elses films from here on in which I don't mind because it is not a hugely stressful or a time consuming job plus I have my partner to help me with it too.

This past weekend I have completed some internship hours with SIT Productions. It has been a fun experience and interesting so far and I have been helping with the art department. I have only got another five hours left to complete for my internship paper! Well, everything is full on and busy but I am loving it all the same and onwards and upwards we go!!!!!