Film Workshop – ‘Moving Day’ Filmed Rehearsal
Film WorkshopFor the short film ‘Moving Day’, I am the director and our filmed rehearsal took place on Wednesday 25th of October. I was optimistic for the rehearsal as we had limited opportunities to meet with and work through the script with our actors prior to this. This was our first opportunity to assemble our crew and cast and work through our penultimate draft of the script.
We ran into a few issues with our filmed rehearsal. Similarly to the rehearsal for ‘A Tight Spot’ the day previously, 1/53 had been double-booked and we were unable to go in and set-up because television students were already using the room.
This presented the issue of blocking, which we were able to overcome by making adjustments to the script and adapting to the classroom (1/116) we ended up in. We also had to use our own camera equipment which initially wasn’t ideal as I had wanted our DOP Oliwia to get practice with the Ursa, but nevertheless we made it work.
Shot List
Stills from Filmed Rehearsal
Working with the Actors
I thoroughly enjoyed working with Michael (Alistair) and Abigail (Blair) to begin to craft our vision for the final short film. They were enthusiastic and receptive to feedback, and were able to adapt readily to changes we made to accommodate our new location. I found it incredibly useful to see them act through the script instinctively, as we had no opportunity to meet prior to the rehearsal to do read-throughs. From there we will be able to adjust and tweak aspects of their performance for the final shoot.
I plan to arrange at least two meetings with our actors prior to the final shoot to do script read-throughs, incorporate in character studies in the form of hypothetical questions to get the actors into the mindset of their character, and potentially some simple acting exercises.
It’s been great having a different approach with directing actors this semester. It has felt more structured than previous projects thanks to being assigned actors rather than having to source and audition them ourselves. It feels like we have more of a chance to be collaborative with them throughout the process of the production, as opposed to bringing them on when the script is done and most things are finalised.
