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This week was mainly spent data wrangling and organising the rest of the video and audio files from the previous week. I was then able to oversee the beginning of the editing process, commenting along the way and even doing some editing myself, using keyframes to help the editors smooth out a transition. We also had an ADR session booked on Wednesday morning for our actors playing The Stranger and Laura, dubbing over screams for Scene 17 that we couldn't film on location. I worked with the actors through the session to get lots of ADR options, getting lots of different takes with different inflections and emotions for the editors to work with. I especially worked with Tia, as she was struggling to find the right kind of scream to do for Laura, so I helped her rehearse until she felt prepared and confident to record.

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My main concern after this weeks filming was about the location for Laura's house. After seeing that the location we originally had planned for it definitely wasn't suitable, I was stressed because we only had a limited amount of time to find another suitable location. Therefore, I went location scouting over the weekend, and managed to find a suitable student house where we would be allowed to film for two days.

Additionally, I arranged a meeting with the Assistant Director to discuss and map out an advanced schedule for the following week, as well as approving the call sheet for Monday, which included starting to add both a call time and a time when filming should begin, in an attempt to motivate our cast and crew to speed up the setting up process.

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During filming I also helped to do some touch-ups of the SFX makeup, to make sure it stayed consistent, as it would sometimes rub off on clothes or accessories during the action.

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Today was the first day of Pre-Production for our Video Project film 'A Love's Bite'. As the Director I led the session, starting by explaining to the group my goals and directorial vision for this film. I then got them to split off into their separate departments, and moving between groups to hear their initial ideas for the project, and making sure they aligned with my own. I wanted to give my crew creative freedom, to try bold ideas and experiment, but I also needed to make sure those ideas were still grounded in my vision for the film. During this time I also looked over and confirmed all the equipment we would need so the crew could begin emailing and arranging bookings.

We then did a script read-through, which was a little challenging as some key cast members weren't able to attend, but it still allowed everyone to get initial impression of the script. We finished the day by discussing the script, and I answered any questions people had about it, as well as brainstorming how to achieve more complicated shots and concepts, such as The Stranger's death scene.

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I spent Wednesday morning working with Rob on the choreography and blocking for the two different fight scenes, one in the park where Veronica gets attacked and bitten by The Stranger, and another in Laura's dining room where Veronica confronts and defeats The Stranger. Rob and I both have experience and training in screen combat, so we worked together well and choreographed the two scenes swiftly and effectively. We prioritised movements that would pose the least risk and would be easy for our actors with no combat experience to pick up.

The rest of the day was spent rehearsing and discussing blocking with the camera crew. We ran through the scenes with the camera crew, who worked on things like their shot lists and camera positions while we walked through the scenes.

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Today was just a short catch-up session to gather everyone together and see how the different departments were getting on. It was also to make sure that everybody was ready for when we begin production on Monday, when we will be filming the café scenes. Set-dec showed me all the decorations they sourced for the cafe, and we discussed which ones would be best. This was also the day that all our equipment was collected, so the crew had some time to get the equipment out and re-familiarise themselves with it.

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Friday was mainly focused on rehearsals for the café scene, making sure that all the actors were prepared for Monday. This day was also a make-up trial day, where we gathered all the actors so make-up could experiment and practice before they had to do it on production days. It was also an opportunity to work on the SFX make-up that was needed. I have experience in SFX make-up, so I taught make-up how to make the scratches, cuts and bites that would be required. I applied it to myself and make-up followed along and recreated it.

Over the weekend I also did some additional rehearsals and character work with Tia, who's playing Laura as well as being my Assistant Director, to help her feel more comfortable and confident for filming on Monday. I also discussed and organised the call sheet with her, making sure that she let me look over and approve it before sent it sent it off the the cast and crew.

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Today marked the first day of production, and it certainly taught me a lot about filmmaking and how I should improve as a Director as production develops. It was a very slow start, as I feel like everyone was still finding their feet as it was our first day of production. One of our actors had to leave early, so we prioritised getting all of his scenes filmed first. We managed to get all of his shots done by 1 o'clock, but we didn't managed to get everything filmed that I had planned for the day, because we lost too much daylight just after three, so had to wrap for the day for the sake of continuity.

For next time I know we all need to spend a lot less time setting everything up, every department spent too long to get ready for filming, again it was our first day so there was still a lot of apprehension from everyone, so next time I know to put stricter timings on when filming needs to begin and when everything needs to be set up by. I am also aware that a lot of time was lost due to conflicts of opinions. I wanted to make a couple of minor changes to the costumes and accessories, but every time I made these decisions it turned into a big discussion with a member of the costume department that disagreed with me. I'm aware that these discussions took up a lot of time where we could have been filming instead, unnecessary time too as by the end of these discussions my opinion still remained unchanged. I know now for the future that sometimes I just need to put my foot down and conclude the conversation swiftly, because filming needed to be prioritised, and then have time after filming to take on any discussions people would want with me. Today was slightly disappointing to me, as I did not manage to achieve all of my filming goals, but I know what I need to do to make filming run smoother.

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Teaching our actors the fight scene choreography was the main mission of today. Rob and I got in early to practice the choreography again to make sure we felt confident with the scenes before we taught them. Rob led them in a warm up and some initial trust exercises, then I taught them the basic screen combat moves they would be executing, and how to perform them safely. We firstly ran through Scene 6, where Veronica gets bitten, first with me and Rob performing it to show them, then taking them through it step by step, then having them run through it while mirroring us, then letting them run through it on their own. We then did the same with Scene 17, the fight scene. Our two actors had zero combat experience prior to this, so we made sure to go slow and accommodate any questions or queries they had. Simultaneously, we were working with our camera crew, who were observing our choreography so they could have a clearer idea of how to film it.

The day was going successfully, but there was some conflict in the afternoon. A member of the costume department came in having bought some costume for the film without checking with me or letting me know before they bought it. So when I told them it wasn't needed and that they needed to communicate with me and check with me before they bought things they got quite heated. Rob and I worked together to discuss with them and diffuse the situation, but it put me on edge for the rest of the day, which made it more difficult for me to focus and perform my directorial abilities as well as I was before.

Later in the afternoon, once we'd finished with the combat, I met with the Producer and Assistant Director, and we discussed and organised the schedule for the rest of the week so we could keep the cast and crew updated. I then discussed the call sheet with the AD and got it ready for her to send off tonight.

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Today was our second day of production, and our first day of shooting outside. The temperature was cold, and this did effect morale. I had encouraged crew to wrap up as much as possible, and encouraged cast to wear any thermals or additional layers under their costumes that was possible. It was, again, slow getting going, mainly with the crew waiting outside for the actors to come down.

I was hoping to get the build-up to the bite and the beginning of the fighting filmed, but we only managed to get some of the build-up filmed before we had to call it a day due to it being too cold. This was disappointing but obviously understandable, so we ended the day and I sorted the call sheet out with the AD ready to hopefully film the rest of it tomorrow.

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This was our second day outside attempting to finish Scene 6. This time I tried to be a bit stricter with the actors and told them that they needed to be down in the park by 16:30, and we even got a room booked out a lot closer to location to help them get down quicker. Unfortunately, the actors still didn't get down to set until a while after 17:00, which worried me because we were losing precious filming time. We got a little bit further along with the scene, but again had to cut the shoot short because of weather, this time because it began to rain and snow very heavily. Although I left today feeling disappointed and frustrated, I already know what to put in place to make the next time we film outside hopefully go more successfully. I'll need to speak with the AD regarding the call sheets to make the actors' call time even earlier so they have more time to get ready, and therefore should be down in time for filming. I am also going to limit the equipment we bring down by a lot, so we only have the bare essentials, as staying light and mobile should speed up the process.

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Today was our first day filming in the house location, and it brought up a lot of worries and problems, mainly to do with the scenes that were meant to take place in Laura's house. The pictures I'd seen that the LM had taken had missed out certain aspects of the room, so when I saw the space in person I realised it would not be a suitable for filming those scenes. This panicked me but I needed to focus on what we were filming today first and worry about that later. We filmed the scenes in the living room first, and then moved up into the bedroom. As with the rest of the shooting days, we didn't quite manage to get everything filmed, but we were going to have another day of filming there, so I wasn't extremely worried about it. Today I did find myself taking on a bit more of an authoritative directorial persona, which did definitely help to speed things up, so if I take that build upon it for the next week of shooting then filming should get a bit more efficient.

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We were back in the café today, filming the rest of the opening scenes. Everyone did manage to get set up really quickly today, I had planned to begin filming by 9:30, but everyone was ready to go by 9:00. The only problem was that one of the crew had still not arrived, and they had essential items needed for filming. We decided to just get on with filming everything we could that didn't involve those items. Once the crew member arrived we were able to begin filming all the other scenes. We worked through all the scenes with great efficiency, starting with the scenes outside, then moving into the interior of the café. I found myself being more confident and authoritative, and I feel like today was the day where I really found my feet with being in this role of director. We filmed scenes 2, 3, 4 before lunch, then filmed the rest of scene 5 after, even managing to wrap a lot earlier than we had anticipated. I went home today feeling confident and excited to film tomorrow.

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Today we were filming in the second house location, Scenes 9, 12B, 13, 14, 15, and 16. I organised it this way because I wanted the entire second day of filming at this location to be dedicated to Scene 17, because I knew how demanding it would be and how long it would take.

We filmed Scene 9 first, as that was set in the day. Then, we covered the window with blankets and bin bags to block out the daylight when we filmed the other scenes that were set in the evening. Then we moved outside to film all the shots that took place outside of Laura's house. We moved through the scenes a little slower than I had hoped, but we did manage to get almost everything done; we just needed one shot of Scene 13 focused on Pat for his dialogue. We'd had a lot we needed to get done today, so I was really pleased that we'd managed to get all but one shot filmed. To achieve this we did have to either cut or combine a lot of the planned shots to optimise our time and make sure all of the essential shots were filmed.

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Our second day in the Laura's house filming location, and I knew that we needed to be extremely effective and efficient if we were going to get everything we needed to filmed. It took us longer to get started than I had wanted, but we got into a flow once we started filming. Because it was a demanding and action-packed scene, there were a lot of shots that we had to think of alternative solutions to because there were issues with the space, like, for example, being able to see the vampires' reflections in the TV on the wall. I helped to offer alternative shots that would stop these issues. I did also ask them to alter certain things like angles and positioning, just so what we were filming was more accurate to my personal vision of the scene. It was a long and exhausting day for everyone, but we were successful in getting Scenes 17 and 19 filmed within the time frame, so the day ended in success.

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We were back in the first house location today, Veronica's house, filming the rest of Scene 12A, and Scenes 18, 20 and 21. I spoke to the camera crew and set dec and we changed the scenes around so all of them would be set in Veronica's living room, rather than some in the living room and some in the bedroom. This was to save us time setting up two different rooms and moving equipment between them, since we only have one location to set up we'll have more time to film.

We started with Scene 12A, then moved on to scenes 18, 20, and 21. I had a bit of an issue with actors not really taking on direction, for example not quite giving me the emotions or reactions I wanted. I think the issue was that they were tired and fed up because we had been filming all week; therefore I knew that if I pushed them and did more takes, I still wouldn't fully get what I wanted, so I decided to just move on from those shots. Similar to Monday, we managed to wrap a lot earlier than anticipated, and we were happy with the shots we managed to get today. I'm really glad that we changed all the scenes to be in the same location; as well as saving us a lot of time, I think it actually looked better than if we'd split them in the way we had originally planned.

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We were back in the park today, in a different area, filming the very short Scene 11. To try and solve the some of the problems that arose in the previous outdoor shoots, I spoke to the crew about bringing the bare minimum equipment, and made the call time earlier for actors and later for the crew. I did this because the crew were usually left outside for a while waiting for the actors to come down, and since they had less equipment they didn't need as much time to set up. Even though I'd made the call time earlier for the actors, they were still down at location later than I had planned, but while we were waiting I discussed the shot list with our camera operator, planning the order in which to film it, and adding an extra shot that I had an idea for. Once the actors arrived, we got to work quickly. It was a short and simple scene, and we only needed five shots, so it was simple and quick to shoot, only taking us just over an hour.

Once we finished Scene 11, I took a very small crew of four plus a cast member, and we moved back to the Laura's house location to film the last shot of Pat we needed to complete Scene 13. As it was one shot it was very quick to get sorted, and we were done in half an hour. We only have the rest of Scene 6 to film, and we will officially be wrapped, and the production stage will be finished! I'm feeling confident and proud of all I have achieved.

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Apart from a second ADR Session on Tuesday, this week had been fully editing. I've gotten more involved in the editing process this week; Joe would finish a rough cut of a section of scenes, then I would work on it, trimming shots down, making the edit tighter, and adding or changing a couple shots to match my directorial vision more. Once I had finished going through the section, I would then pass it to Alex, who would work on the sound and colour-grading for those scenes. It was a system that was very effective, as it saved the editors a lot of time, and it was a lot easier to just make the changes I wanted myself, rather than trying to explain my exact vision to the editors and expecting them to recreate it exactly as I envisioned it. We worked very effectively as a team and worked fast. I would also be routinely watching over what the other editors were working on and giving them my thoughts and feelings on it. For example, Joe worked really hard and made a really cool effect of the stranger disintegrating into ashes, and I had the idea to overlay the effect of some fire or ashes on top of that to add to the effect, and once that had been added it looked even more effective. I also did a lot of work with cropping and key frames to try to effectively create the effect of her not having a reflection in the mirror. I even did a bit of music editing, mixing our opening song The Passenger by Siouxsie and The Banshees. There were certain points and beats of the song I wanted in the opening scene, so I edited the music to get those points and combine the different segments of music in a smooth and cohesive way.

It's been wonderful to both watch the film come together and be a part of that process, I'm really proud of everything we've achieved and I'm happy that the editors have been able to bring it all together so well.

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That's a wrap!

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We had originally planned to film this scene on Friday, but one of our actors wasn't available on that day, so we had to move it to Wednesday. It began to rain slightly when we filmed, so we had several umbrellas over the actors and the equipment. We were managing to move through the shots quite quickly, which was good. After an hour of filming and everyone being outside, we asked the cast and crew if they wanted to go inside and take a break or continue filming, mainly focusing on the answer from the cast, as they were in costumes rather than warm coats and clothing like the crew. The cast all wanted to just carry on and get it done, and the crew agreed with that too, so we continued to film.

There was a shot that required the actor playing Veronica to be lying on the floor, but they expressed concerns about lying on the floor. This was understandable as it had been raining, making the floor wet, so myself and my camera operator Alex took our coats off and laid them on the ground for her to lie on, as it created a barrier between the actor and the floor. We filmed another shot, but then the actor got upset about being on the floor, so we couldn't continue to film, and had to move everyone inside.

Once inside, I had to think of a solution to this quickly, as we had only had about three shots left and we needed to get the rest of this filmed today. I made the decision to just send Veronica's actor home. This meant sacrificing an important shot that was a really big part of my vision, but I'd rather cut a shot than continue to film with an upset actor. I discussed with Alex how we could film the rest of the scene without Veronica, and we came up with some ideas to work around it. Just as we were getting ready to head back out and film, the actor playing The Stranger came up to me and said the he didn't want to film anymore. This slightly frustrated me because I knew how close we were to finishing this, but I understood so I asked him what day he would be next available to film to see if I could find a solution to this. He then told me that he wasn't available at all after today; he had not made myself or the Producer aware of this so this came as quite a shock to me. I knew we wouldn't be able to end the scene in a way that made cohesive sense without him, and I knew there was only one more shot that required his character, so I explained this to him and asked if he would be willing to go out and film on more shot. He asked me what the shot entailed and once I told him he quickly agreed to go out again to film the last shot. So, the crew and our two remaining actors heading out to the park again to get these last shots filmed. The atmosphere and feeling from the cast and crew was a lot more positive compared to earlier in the evening; we got The Stranger's shot done first so he could go back inside, and then we filmed the last two shots of Pat. I feel sad that this project ended on a negative note for some people, but I'm glad that it ended on a high note for most the cast and crew.

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This day was predominantly spent by working on the script and rehearsing with the cast. The hardest part of this was trying to figure out the blocking of the locations in the rehearsal room. My actors were finding it difficult to see a café when all that was there were two tables representing a counter, but we had to work with what we had available. I ran through several scenes but I wanted to focus on the café scenes as those would be the ones that we were filming first. Some time was also spent looking at outfit options that the costume department had brought in for initial ideas.

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Going into this project, I knew I would have to put a lot of work in to be a good director.

"To direct intelligently , you'll need:

A knowledge and love of film language and film history.

A strong grasp of what drama is and how to use it.

A drive to tell stories that comes from passionately held ideas about the human condition."

(Rabiger & Hubris-Cherrier, 2013, p.20)

I have always loved film and storytelling, I've been inspired in my filming by Directors like John Hughes, who has heavily influenced my directorial style. I also have a great passion for telling stories and spreading messages. This script was so important to me because of the story it told: a story of queer love and an embrace of change, things that resonate deeply with me. I wanted to tell an uplifting story about love overcoming difficult challenges, something with a happy ending, something that I myself would like to see as a viewer. (Rabiger, M. & Hubris-Cherrier, M. 2013, p.20)

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One of my main goals with this film is to really bring the characters to life through the world they live in, and to challenge myself as a director in aspects I haven’t before. For the visual aesthetic of the film, I really want to put a lot of focus on worldbuilding and mise-en-scéne.

I want the world and the characters to feel alive and expressive, to feel lived in, I want a story to be told visually as well as audibly, not to a point where it is overwhelming or distracts from the action and characters, but I want to put more thought and meaning into costume and set-dec, to breathe more of a life into the characters and their world.

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Rabiger, M. & Hubris-Cherrier, M. (2013). Directing: Film Techniques and Aesthetics. Taylor and Francis Group.