Double Bluff

Once we got that, we started the brainstorming process. I took a lot of notes trying to keep track of it all, but we eventually narrowed it down to one idea. We all agreed on the theory of a double bluff, where we started with one story, an interrogation, and then reveal that the true story is that of the people filming the interrogation. A small team of people who have entered a film competition, and are running out of time to get it filmed before the contest entrance closed. It was almost a play on the fact we were filming the 48 hour film. 

 

Once we agreed on a plot idea, we brainstormed locations, start times, what we would need and not need, and then once that was all done, we split ways. This is where my job truly began. I had roughly six hours to write the script and send it to everyone else. 

 

A can of V in my hand, and my notes from the brainstorm, I sat down and got it written. I was really happy with how it turned out, especially considering how little time I had. I then sent it through to everyone at about 1am, and I hit the sack. 

 

I had previously agreed with them that I could sleep in the next morning, and join them at the shoot midmorning. Fortunately or not, I ended up waking up early, and decided to just head around. Picking up our Director and male actor on my way - well a slight detour, but we needed those two on set first thing. 

 

I had wanted to sit down as a group and go over the script so that we were all on the same page, but the rush of 48 hour film festival took us away, and we got straight into filming. 

 

Throughout the day more of our actors and actresses showed up, people we thought would not be available who suddenly were. So our cast and therefore our background ‘crew’ got expanded. 

 

Our shooting space was small, and at one point I stepped out to talk to our editor, Simon, and Clarissa in the next room over - we were giving them the scenes as we filmed them, and the editing process was started immediately. Unfortunately, I missed a key scene while doing this - I believe I was updating everyone on a change we were making to the script. This is where I feel like things started to spiral downwards. 

 

I feel like I let the team down, because I wasn’t there to ensure that continuity was adhered to. I missed a lot of the next scenes, and I felt like I wasn’t listened to when I tried to do my assigned role supervising the script and making suggestions. 

 

Several of us asked if we could film the scenes in blocks, rather than in order of the script, but it was the director's decision to follow the scenes as it was written in the script. In the long term, this meant that the lighting was too different and we ended up losing the second half of the script due to lightning changes. 

 

Honestly, this was a hard pill to swallow, and I really don’t like the finished product as a result, to me it feels like a half-finished story. We also lost one of my favourite jokes in the film, as we didn’t realise the second camera was not picking up any audio. The decision was made to keep this scene, and instead have music over the top so we can’t hear what the actors are saying. 

 

I was also asked to make a few changes to the script halfway through the day which I quite happily did - it was a minor re-write, nothing too major, and I had written the script in only a few hours the night before. I slipped out at lunchtime to print off a bunch of new scripts, catching a ride with Clarissa as she went to grab lunch. It’s important to feed your crew people. 

 

When I returned I made sure everyone got a copy of the new updated script, and chatted with everyone - still individually as we didn’t have time for a group meeting. Resulting in me having the same conversation - fun side story,  a few hours later when we’re going through the script and talking about what scenes we still had to film, we discovered that the director was still running off the old script, rather than the one he had asked me to rewrite and get printed. I will admit this made me a little angry. I felt like I had done a bunch of work for no reason - however everyone else did use the new script, so that was nice.

 

We got through the rest of the day, Roedolf, Adele and I hung out, they gave me a comfy cushion so I could lie down, because I was exhaugsted. It’s my opinion that this was a strong bonder for us, and we built a lot on this and from this.

 

Towards the end, I feel like the producer and director lost track of the vision for the project as well as the prompts, but that is just my personal opinion. They seemed to be more interested in getting cool shots, than keeping to the story we agreed to tell. It’s my opinion that this is why we lost the story we had started out to tell, and why the film feels unfinished. I also felt ignored when I tried to point this out, and didn’t really feel like fighting against the producer and director to protect the script - I was of the opinion that they would know best, and that they have the final say on the script and shoot. This was my first ever script and my second ever film set. I made the mistake of trusting people that I saw in a more senior role.

 

Although I also know that if we had longer than 48 hours, we could have organised a reshoot, and we could have recovered the footage that was lost due to lighting changes. We also would have been able to sit down and go over the script, and make sure we were all on the same page. We also would have been able to voice over the recording for where we lost the voices. These are all things we learnt and have taken forward with us. 

 

At the end of the day, I'm not super happy nor proud of this project. But I did learn a lot, and that has been reflected in all our future projects. We did sit down and debrief, talk about what went well, what we liked, and what did not go well, how we would change and improve in the future. 

 

I now have a team of people that I’m happy to work with, I trust them and they trust me. We’ve agreed on what we expect out of people who take each of the key roles, and we ALWAYS have a pre-production meeting. While I don’t really like the final product, I am so glad that I did this, it’s taught me so much, and given me a great team of people. 

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I didn't get many behind the scenes photos here, it didn't occur to me, and I don;t think anyone else thought of it either.