'Hounded' - Thoughts and reflection

"Cut! Good job guys." Alice croaked.

And then it hit me. Hey, the day's finally over.

When we wrapped up shooting of 'Hounded' at RMIT Kaleide Theatre at 6.30pm on Saturday, it was a culmination of a month of planning, travelling to location, pre-shoot planning, lots of drawing, production and sourcing for the appropriate actors.

Arriving on location in Brighton at 9.15am, our roles were well defined and all of us knew what to do. Truth is, by the end of the day, all of us ended up doing a little bit of everything. When time is pressing, the actors are annoyed, some ideas are needed, everyone chipped in and somehow everything worked out fine. Starting out, we were:

Alice - Director
Sam - Camera
Charlotte - First AD
Lily - Sound
John - Camera Assistant

This was a first for me, being on set on any location. It felt really professional, with all the wires and expensive equipment at hand. The team was really raw, but I could feel everyone was up for it and trying their best.

Apart from a tape debacle that threatened to ruin our schedule, the shooting was smooth and pleasant. We were extremely tired by the end of the day, but no one was complaining.

Alice
Our director had bent over backwards ensuring everything was done and in sequence. She had planned all the shots, the storyboarding and was always available at our beck and call. Our emails were spammed by her incessant barrage of updates and emails. Ultimately, it was worth it as her hard work ensured shooting on Saturday was smooth.

Alice was patient and was never once bossy with the actors. It was hard to get a couple of 15 year olds to cooperate, let alone listen to them. There were a couple of times when 'Greg' wasn't too pleased with what he had to do, and I thought Alice was trying too hard to get the shots done. I understood the schedule we were on, and although Alice could have been more patient, we got our shots and everyone was happy.

Sam
Big Sam was custom made for the role of camera man. He's easily half a head taller than I am - I'm 179cm - and has big strapping shoulders that accomodates the massive camera. Sam was also charged with driving us around as he was the only one with a car. Thank goodness he had one of those 6-seater SUVs; we might have to rethink our mode of transportation had he a smaller car.

Sam was patient and cool as a cat. Commenting on the extra trip he had to make to RMIT from Brighton AFTER just arriving from RMIT, he sounded amused at the number of trips he had to make to the city and Brighton and back. Between shuttling the crew, the actors home and making the extra trip to RMIT to sort out the tape debacle, Sam must have drove up and down six times.

The team also appreciated Sam's sense of humour. By late arvo we were clearly hungry, tired and needed more than a Red Bull or two. Sam somehow kept everyone going with some appropriate humour at inappropriate times.

Charlotte
Our First AD's hasn't been around much lately. Between a trip to Thailand and an illness that necassitates prolonged-rest, she somehow turned up. Though she was still sick, Charlotte was clearly up for it and tried not to let her illness affect the team. In fact, when I commented that she looked 'sick', she wasn't too pleased and put me back in my place. Yikes!

Charlotte had many ideas as to how a certain shot could be done. Although Alice was calling the shots, Charlotte ran her ideas aloud to all of us, suggesting if things could be improved. I liked her candidness and ideas; not all of them were used but surely we could have done with some input.

Charlotte and Lily took turns holding the boom pole; I thought it was quite funny. Both girls are rather slight, and the boom pole was easily twice their height.

Charlotte also had to keep the 15-year-old actors company and happy. Throw me a straightjacket and let me eat my way through; I'd rather do that than entertain some juvenile delinquents :O

Lily
Lily was really enthusiastic and was constantly communicating with Alice. She, like Charlotte, had lots of ideas. Lily's voice was also an ever-present facet during the shoot; she's either commenting, suggesting or laughing. Believe this, but when you have Alice thinking and deciding, Sam's humour, Charlotte and Lily both talking at the same time, it's clearly a positive environment to shoot our short film.

John
I started the day really enthused, keen and pumped up. Somewhere between holding the slate in for the 200th time and going hungry for seven hours, I kinda lost it and became more reclusive. Charlotte picked up on it, and said she's never seen me more quiet. Well something had to give isn't it? I get moody when I'm tired.

However, I definitely did not slack off and felt I contributed more than my fair share. My role wasn't too important in the shoot, but I worked closely with Alice as she planned her next shot. While reading the roles of any position is one thing, seeing it blossoming in front of your eyes as everyone of us performed our roles was another. I learnt so much just observing what each member of the crew is doing, and felt everyone had a part to play. Nobody was unimportant and everyone worked together to their best potential.

I do feel that there's so much more I could learn and do. I would like to get my hands dirty next semester and try the director role. I've mentioned many times that I do not like following people and every project I've been involved in I was the leader. With only two subjects to clear next semester, I'd definitely have more time on my hands to try storyboarding, casting and planning.