"Rising Son" - Film 1

NAME: Tanner Liddiard

FILM # & TITLE: 1B Rising Son (Evoking Childhood)

DP: Clara Tsao

DATE SCREENED: 9/25/19

DATE DUE: Sep 30th 2019

TMA 319 DIRECTOR’S REFLECTION

Give your overall response (2-3 paragraphs):

Write about your overall response to your film in 2-3 paragraphs: Were you successful at achieving what you set out to do? What are you proud of? What did not work as you expected? Why? What did you learn? 

Overall, I would consider this film a success. The biggest reason for this is the fact that I made it. Despite many hiccups, I felt that I was able to convey the feelings I was hoping to convey.

What am I proud of? I’m proud of the...wow this is hard. I’m proud of the hard work I put in to the film, and proud of the people who were involved in making it.

What didn’t work as expected? What did? Honestly, the biggest thing was the schedule. And by that I mean we were wildly ahead of schedule. Which I suppose is the best problem to have. Another issue was I shot the most emotionally taxing scene last. I did this for two reasons: First of all, it took place at night, so it made sense to shoot it after the sun went down. In addition, I felt that by at that point in the shoot we would have bonded and the kids would have loosened up sufficiently for us to get a good performance out of them. However, while that may have been true, they were also tired and their resolve was waning.

Overall, I learned how to better work with my DP and respect their vision, while making sure I got my vision across as well.

Briefly discuss the following:

What, specifically, did you want to communicate? Were you successful? Why? Why not?

I wanted to communicate the difficulty a child has dealing with tragedy. I wanted the end to feel like we didn't know if the mom was to live or die, but it didn't matter because they were enjoying their time together.

How, specifically, did you try to communicate this?

I used the images of childhood innocence to set the stage, then created the harsh sting of the news of the mom’s cancer to help the audience hopefully feel something like I did.

What did you learn about storytelling:

I learned that it’s more than the relaying information, but conveying an emotion. And theres a lot of way to do that.

What did you learn about working with actors and getting performance:

You have to engage the child actors. They have to be thinking about something in order to get a natural feel.

What did you learn about blocking the camera and actors?

180 rule is still hard. Need to work on understanding that more deeply.

What did you learn about visual elements such as lighting, composition, framing, etc.?

I love shooting from the fill when it’s bright outside. Also, spraying hairspray on a UV filter makes a great BPM filter.

What did you learn about design and art direction?

Look at what's in frame! But if not, fix it in post!

What did you learn about the Production Process such as pre-production, collaborating with crew, securing equipment, etc.?

It’s not that hard for a film like this. You can do a lot with a small crew.

What was it like to watch your film with an audience? Did they understand it? Miss the point? Why did they respond the way they did?

They understood it! Yay! Even if they got caught up on that dang curtain.

If you could remake this piece knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

Maybe I’d work a bit more on the reveal and adjusting the narrative structure.