Magpie

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Production
I think my overall performance as a director was average. It’s not a role it take to easily but I’m warming up to it for future projects.
In the end I directed my crew more than the cast. I was lucky that the actors knew their roles very well and hardly had to pry any of the characters out of them. I gave instructions on movement, continuity and other physical aspects of the film but they knew the script so well I just enjoyed sitting back and watching it pan out in front of me. I state this with the realisation that perhaps my ‘style of directing’ is to not be confrontational, which many would agree are not the traits of a top class director.
Having a few rehearsals prior to shooting gave me an idea of what each of the actors was going to provide, by tweaking minor aspects of dialogue to the way I had envisioned the script I had the confidence to go forward with filming. Throughout the production I tried to be as prepared as possible so that if a problem did arise it would be solved quickly, having these rehearsals prior to shooting meant the actors didn’t have the pressure of going in blind and felt more at ease when the camera was rolling. Some of the lines had been cut out in the final export, some lines could have been re-written on the day of shooting but I think for the most part the dialogue is solid and delivered brilliantly.
During the planning stage I broke down each scene into ‘Camera Setups’. This would allow me to set up the camera and shoot every shot from that setup for the whole film. Going into it I thought this would be a great idea to keep things simple, however on set it was difficult to remember all my directorial duties when skipping from scene to scene and promptly opted to just shoot one scene at a time. It would have helped massively to share the load with a script supervisor.
In terms of technical application, it would have been nice to get a hold of a slider to work with. Some shots were adjusted in post to appear as though they had motion which worked out alright but physical movement would have looked better.
My intention with the whole thing was to shoot the two characters individually, never appearing in the frame together. The reasoning behind this decision was: Delilah is a fragment of Peter’s imagination, never having them in the same frame shows a detachment from one another. In the latter half of the film Peter receives the news that he has been imagining Delilah and that is when the camera captures a wider angle, showing Delilah was never in the picture.
I opted to use a smoke machine, I believe it would give a nice atmospheric effect if used right. The scenes when it was used just look like the room was filled with smoke.
Post Production
This is the first time I’ve used Adobe Audition in conjunction with video to master the sound. I enjoyed the interface a lot better than Premiere and the real time updates with the dynamic link were essential to getting the right sound. Similarly, it was the first time I’ve used ADR in a film. I can say that it’s going to be the plan going forward. It’s a little more work but you lose the need for a sound recordist. Obviously if I have access to a sound recordist that would be the choice but in these times when we’re restricted to small crew numbers ADR works perfectly.
In the opening sequence there are distant noises of soldiers fighting, this is due to it being Peter’s dream and Peter was once in the army, the reason him and Delilah were separated at a young age. It wasn’t originally intended to be in the film but I thought it would be some interesting background noise. The theme of regret is carried out with the sound of a clock ticking, this ticking echoes the emptiness of Peter’s bare flat and alludes to the storyline which gives the impression that his time to reconnect has run out.
Over all I think I did a good job of it, there is room for improvement but I had a positive experience and I believe I’ve learnt what to do/ not to do on my next film.

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