In Cellulum- Reflection

In Cellulum

    In Cellulum, written by Drew Conners, is a story of a boy who is struggling with depression and feels "trapped" within his "cell". His anger eventually builds up and he punches a wall, where he finds a key to get out. He returns to normal life but is confused and doesn't understand. He goes back to his room, falls asleep, and wakes up in his cell again.
    For this project, our class got into groups of 5 or 6 and we decided on a script to transform into our short film. The short film had to display Acts I, II, and III and had to be within 5-10 minutes. In terms of Pre-Production, I was in charge of story-boarding most of the shots and I got some props together as well. I provided some insight to how we could successfully execute our script considering that they story was based in an absurd location. In Production, I told the actor where to place himself and I helped the DP and Art Director, which isn't what a Production Manager normally does, but I kind of turned into the director because ours was being uncooperative and left the set for a long period of time. In Post-Production, I worked with the editor to give my opinion on how the edit should look and I helped find music and sound effects. Again, our director wasn't being very helpful and was gone for a couple days.

What Did I Learn?

    Technically, I learned more editing features in Premiere and the importance of story-boarding to get the best idea for what shots the DP needs to get. We also learned our lesson with actor choice and recording shots for longer and getting them more than once. Our actor continually looked at the camera and the DP forgot to record shots more than once, so our editor had to work around that issue. This project taught me a big lesson in collaboration and working professionally with others. Our director was very uncooperative in helping with storyboards, planning, filming, and editing. Although directors are not directly involved, they should still be contributing to the discussion and giving their ideas considering that the project is branded under them. I stepped into his position because work was not getting done and we had to meet deadlines. Another issue that we had to combat was the issue with time, considering that all of the members' schedules were cramped and busy and we had an hour and half to film the scene in the cell, which is the biggest portion of the short film. However, for only getting an hour and a half, the DP and I were focused the entire time and tried our best to get filming done. One other thing I learned is that collaboration is key to a successful project. We made a group chat, but I had to message and talk to people directly in order to get a response. The edit above is the DP's edit, and although it is interesting to have two different edits with different perspectives, the editor should have been the one that was doing the editing because it is their assigned role.

What Would I Change?

    If I could do things differently, I would have chosen a different script to begin with. This one did not have a very defined Act I, II, and III and the setting was extremely hard to work around. It would have been easier to start with a new script and be able to plan around a script that has easy locations and props. I would have also chose some different members in the group so that I would know that I work with those people well and that we would actually be productive. There isn't much I would keep the same because the work was not divided fairly and accordingly and turning a script into a short film was not very achievable. These are things that I can pull and change for my next project so that the process runs smoothly and that the project turns into something that I'm proud of. Overall, the final product didn't turn out terrible, but it is not my favorite work that I've been apart of and the issues behind the scenes are not something that I want to experience again.