Cresin Williams-Quinn Grant Story

Cresin Williams-Quinn Grant Story

Filming a Movie: Fatal Illustration

What I believe I did well during my experience as a director and producer of my film was maintaining a high level of professionalism and seriousness throughout the whole process. In shooting my film, the time restraint was a big part of my production and I wasn’t able to be my usual fun and goofy self because I knew that things needed to be done in a timely manner. In working with the museum I had to also be sure to respect the artwork space on an ethical level and always be on the lookout for my cast and crew to also respect the artwork space so that nothing was filmed directly, and various other museum rules that needed to be upheld.

What surprised me the most was the amount of time things actually took. I know that in class we spoke about how setting up shots can take quite a while. On set, I was involved in what seemed like ten things at all times all at once and so helping my team speed things up was left more to my co-producer Trey who really made sure that people were focused. Another thing that surprised me was the number of times I needed to think on my feet and be able to adapt quickly while creating the story. Things like not being able to turn off the lights in certain hallways or remembering certain continuity aspects of the story were things that I had to always adapt to and make quick decisions about.

I learned how important it is for others on set to read the script and be able to see my vision. It can be very hard to express your vision so that others understand it. In the future, I will be sure to have at least two or three others who are with me in creating my story that can see it develop from start to finish. This will help me better in my role as a director to have more creative freedom as others set up the logistics of everything else such as costume design, production design, and moving equipment. This was another point highlighted in class that I think I took for granted.

For my next film, I will need to learn and practice my cinematography knowledge and skills, effective ways to direct actors, and the ability to communicate my vision and be able to develop a clearer understanding of needed coverage in a film. I think from this experience I learned that the director should know more than just directing to be able to execute the film correctly and so with more knowledge in more aspects of filmmaking I think this will better help my vision come to life as well as help others to be able to understand the vision that I am creating.