RYAN is a AI Human-Hybrid submitted to the shackles of his AI Overlords, he is a used at their disposal and tossed away when it is over.

AIMEE wants to be free & leave the burden of the city behind her. She lost her mother, she is still grieving, however, she hold onto numerous amounts of rage.

The interaction, relationship & this looming upcoming threat, makes us go from zero tension to peak tension within moments.

(It is listed as a Trailer, however it draws more parallels to a Filmed Scene.)

RYAN's outfit was inspired by Ryan Gosling's Character, Officer K.

This is a scene which would have been a great 'Filmed Scene' to produce & direct. It isn't one note, with good actors, there is a real sense of tension & sadness.

'Like A Dragon' as a series has a slow paced story and the same goes for its promotional material, it is not afraid to set the tone and introduce the whole story to us. Does it work? From a fans perspective, Yes, but if it was someone new to the series it might not have the same reception.

The writing process was simple due to most of the storyline is given to you and it was up to me on what I chose to use, cut out and what to change to suite the ideas I had for what I wanted for the final product.

Overall I was pleased with the script I had adapted, it had tension, calmness, suspense & mystery.

"The director needs greater understanding of actors, acting, dramatic structure, and the psychological processes of human perception that underlie film language." (Rabiger. M & Hurbis-Cherrier. M, 2013.)

Would I write differently in the future? After this experience, 100% YES! I would had changed my writing to be less focused on exposition and have it centred around the relationship between RYAN & AIMEE.

This experience has definitely inspired me to write more and has shown me what works and does not work.

The Cafe should have a warm inviting feeling, puts you at ease and you could not imagine anything bad to occur.

The backroom is where the behind the scenes stuff happens and this mysterious operation is revealed to us and we sense something more sinister.

The bedroom is our place of mourning, AIMEE finds herself lighting a candle everyday next to picture of her mother as a tribute. The tone needs to feel scattered, lost & sad.

"In the absence of the money, the stars and the industry machine, a filmmaker must get lean, smart, resourceful, innovative, and creative— and that’s when things get really interesting." (Rabiger. M & Hurbis-Cherrier. M, 2013.)

Getting resourceful, with the wide range of resources at my disposal helps to shape the film. Money shouldn't be a factor which holds me back.

However, a noticeable element in my trailer is the setting. It is closed off, heavily utilizing the black curtain backdrop. If I had put extra thought into my shooting location I could create a more cinematically impactful setting. In the future, my focus needs to be on what is also going on in the background rather than blurring it out completely.

"Although the director must lead the way, they are also best served by creating a spirit of collaboration, inquiry, and openness to all ideas." (Cohn. M, 2013)

Directing in The TV Workshop showed me how to approach actors and how to direct actors, I came in with ideas distinct ways to play a scene for each character and I wanted to carry over those aspects into the shooting of my trailer, give the cast options on how to perform the scene. I also wanted to allow collaboration, having my actors take control can help deliver a comfortable & effective performance.

I went in with a positive mindset & focused solely on the shots in the order I designed them. This was based on the cast schedules & content within shots based on length. I completed every shot & scene within my shooting days and overall it was a fun experience and I learnt an incredible amount about directing.

Next time I am acquiring a crew! I switched out actors to record with the sound equipment (thank you, cast.) while I handled the camera/lighting. However, I would of greatly preferred to be solely dedicated to directing and allowing others to focus on those other roles. Potentially this would not fully distract me from directing as I could focus more on the actors, the set and shots.

Admittedly my interests are more on action style films, approaching drama is difficult from my perspective however it is about the escalation of tension and I tried to convey that through progression of the scenes I shot. I would love to continue, exploring different genres, test the waters on what works and does not.

Irving. D, Rea. P (2013) Producing and Directing the Short Film and Video (4^th) Taylor & Francis Group.

Cohn. L, (2021) Directing Actors : A Practical Aesthetics Approach (1^st) Taylor & Francis Group.

This is what I was most looking forward to and what I would dedicate most of my time towards. Editing is the final stage, creating the final product and bringing your vision fully to life to display it on the big screen.

I used Adobe Premiere Pro, Originally i organised my clips, shots and scenes from beginning to the end. However, I noticed how this was not the entirely the way to create a trailer. A trailer needs to allude to story details, mixed with cinematics, character details, etc. But it needs to be mixed up, scenes need to introduce themselves and come to an end within seconds. A trailer should help set up the story so it was crucial I kept throwing in story details but not spoil the entire story, just tease the things that will occur.

"The importance of sound and music to a picture should not be ignored. Having been brought up in a predominantly visual environment, novice filmmakers can distinguish a wonderful camera move or visual effect more readily than they can identify an effective sound or piece of music." (Irving, D. & Rea, P. 2013)

A problem arises when trying to find the perfect balance between Dialogue & Music. You want both to be distinct but impactful. When splicing the music, I had to pick moments which suited what was occurring on scene while raising the atmosphere. Dialogue needed to be a step above the music, but still sound immersed into the scene it originally came from. Slight reverb would be the route & mixed with vocal presence.

While entirely experimental, I thought it would be unique idea and wanted to see how it would work.

I am placing RYAN in the audiences shoes as he goes through this moment of realisation, that he has been deceived.

Everything I learnt will pave the way for future project where I must grow from this experience holding myself to higher standards with each new project I complete.

I am extremely happy with the trailer I have created, SCI-FI is a genre I am a huge fan of and while I should have used more SCI-FI elements, it is possible in potential future works as I would like the opportunity to expand on from this. I want to continue to challenge myself, assisting other directors in their projects has helped shaped the ideals I want to live by when in the role of a director.

Be more cinematic, confident & experimental. I want to find my own style to directing, something that stands out and sets me a part from other directors. I will continue to explore this going forward from this module.

Typically these are collaborated pieces of work however taking control of these documents allowed me to have full creative control. Initially, it was quite frightening looking at the abundance of work that must be completed and while it is a long process it is entirely useful and effects shoots, making them easier when filled out.

"The final arbiter of good direction begins with a simple question that must be constantly, relentlessly reiterated: is this actable? For the less experienced director, it’s sometimes hard to draw that distinction; one’s brilliant literary and psychological insights into a story and the characters who populate it do not necessarily help the actor when it comes down to the nuts and bolts of actually playing a scene, and sometimes those well-intended ideas actually prevent actors from doing their best work." (Cohn. L, 2021)

This the area where I noticeably tripped up, with the structure of the trailer's script plenty of dialogue and interactions were not in the performance. Scenes began in the middle of their conversation so it was left up to the actors to determine what happened previously, I should have provided more context to the actors, let them play out these extended parts of the scenes to become comfortable with the character.

BlackMagic 6K Camera 

BlackMagic Batteries 

BlackMagic Charger 

BlackMagic Plug 

CANON EF Lens - 

• 14MM 

• 35MM 

• 50MM 

Video Tripod

Sound: 

Rode NTG-2 Shotgun MIC 

Shotgun Pistol Grip 

Boom Pole 

XLR Cable 

ZOOM H6  

Clapperboard 

Lighting: 

5 in 1 Reflector Kit 

Aputure MC Compact Lights 

LEDGO LG-600CSC LED Light Kit (x2) 

LEDGO Batteries 

Portable Telescopic Stand (x2)

I am aware that these are fortunate circumstances and in any other location I would need to film out location release forms and go into further discussion on what I intend to film.

However, this was a nice simple insight into the types of ways to communicate with people about location filming and something to remember if I plan to film in different locations.