This was an incredibly ambitious project, so I suppose it was never all going to go smoothly. Some of it did go right, but I think most of the process had issues along the way. However, where I could, I used the problems and learnt from them for the next time wherever I could, such as filming. Here are the main things I think went wrong and could be improved on if I had the chance to make it again.
The film was too long.
If I were to do the process again, I would swap the audio and the film recording. That way, instead of guessing when the actor needed to change expression, or move on, he would be able to react accordingly to his own voice. Instead, I ended up recording FAR too much footage, and with the film needing to be one continuous piece of footage, I wasn’t able to cut any out. This left huge chucks of film where there was no audio, as I had to fit the dialogue to what was happening on screen.
Dodgy audio
Additionally, a lot of the dialogue I recorded was unusable, as it had been recorded with a different microphone to the main lot of audio. It sounded odd and out of place when put with the other audio, so I had to leave it out.
Video editing software
I had never used any video editing software before, so was very new to it. After the filming was delayed, and had to be re-shot, there wasn’t much time for the editing afterwards. This time was further cut into as I taught myself how to use iMovie (not particularly difficult, but I was still very slow, and it took a long time) after realising it would take far too long to learn how to use Premiere Pro.
Began earlier
The project meant a lot to me personally, which I think is one of the reasons I was so set on my original idea for so long, even though I encountered problems with it. If I had begun writing the script and filming earlier, then I would have been able to experiment a bit more, and would have discovered problems sooner.
The anxiety section
I had recorded an extra section following the character experiencing anxiety, but forgot to include it within the script which is why it was left out of the main filming footage. However, I was really pleased with it, so I included it within the piece, even though it did not fit well. The is the longest gap of silence in the piece, as I didn’t want to waste time putting sound to that when I considered it to be not part of the film anyway.
And the things that went right:
The film
Despite it being too long, I am pleased with how the film turned out after editing. I like the cut out sections where you see his ‘inner self’, and I think they work well in the film.
The script
Even though it is not anything like a professional script, I feel I worked the research into the script quite well. Even if not directly in there, it was certainly heavily influenced by the personal stories I read while researching.