Director's Reflection:
Boy how I love directing. Russell and Danny were my actors and they were excellent to work with. I had always wanted to cast them together in a scene because I think they look like each other and I thought they would have great chemistry. I wanted to them to get to know each other before we started shooting so they talked with each other while we were setting up. I believe their chemistry was nice. Having your actors be totally memorized is important so that when they show up on set you can discuss the scene, characters, and blocking. Lauren was great to work with again. What I loved is that she started to pre lit the next shot over by the wall when we were still doing our master. That was awesome to have as a director. Steven did well on sound. His experience with sound really helped as we set up the lavs. I learned with this scene how important Script Supervisors are on set. Continuity was hard with this scene, especially because of the basketball. I found myself saying crap because in the master the basketball would be bouncing off and in the close up it would appear somewhere else. Also, even in the actor's motions, continuity was tough. I learned how much fun one can have with your actors if the trust is there. Russell and Danny were having fun and engaging well which helped me engage more.
Working with Cameron was such a wonderful experience, aside from the broken tripod. He has the ability to create such a comfortable and congenial atmosphere for his actors, so they feel comfortable and ready to perform. It was nice to be able to watch. Even though he may have been worried about running out of time (there were lots of eager basketball kids wanting to play on the court), he never lost his cool or even allowed the actors to feel any of the worries or stress. It was a great environment to work in.
ReplyDeleteThe two things I would have changed as a DP would be the broken tripod (it had a totally destroyed tilt function, so it really disrupted the camera moves) and pulling focus on the opening shot. We were a little bit wider open than I would've liked for the master and so I think that the beginning was distracting rather than helpful for the audience to engage with the story.