Weeks 4 were Production Design in full swing. Our PD Emma was an absolute machine, sorting out costumes, props and furniture. Throughout the weeks the team also painted the studio walls that will form our dressing room set. We also sorted out the final costumes for each of the characters, the props they’d be using, and me and my friend Zach painted the gun prop for the final film. At the same time, Julia and Millie were hard at work sorting out schedules, location bookings, equipment bookings, budgets and more. Their Pre-Production work has been absolutely stellar the entire way through, and it resulted in our team being as prepared as possible for the upcoming shoot. We also had a couple of test shoots where we began establishing the visual language of our film. They came out absolutely brilliant, a testament to Jessica Tooth’s talent behind the lens, and one that paid off immensely as you’ll get to see!
Our editor Danay was also preparing his research and taking Colour-grading workshops with uni lecturer Chris Greybe, which allowed him to nail down the technical specs of what we’d need to shoot.
As for me, I conducted video calls with all of our actors to establish a mutual understanding of the characters and their approach to performances. It was enlightening to explore the characters through their interpretations of the text, especially since each actor took an entirely different approach. Jamie, for example, was a very subtle shift into the character that seemed effortless. However, Jasmin absolutely seemed to switch into Linda in a way that was almost scary. The way her eyes hardened and emptied of all empathy was truly chilling.
The true surprise for me though was Andre as James, who brought an entirely new perspective to the character that I had not anticipated, making it much softer and so much more empathetic. I immediately changed my mind and decided this had to be the way James was portrayed. It added so much more tragedy and pain to the story and I was so very pleased with it.
Likewise, Victor had so many interesting interpretations to the role of Detective Foster, and it really made me wish we had the time and money to expand the role and have more scenes with him, which I felt was the best way to think about the characters: to hope that we could have just a bit more time with them. And then, finally... the shoot began.
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