The Positives of Being Rushed: My New Short

Now, in a perfect world, you have time for everything. In a world where you have a budget, where you have a film crew-you have a schedule. But, being the college aged kid that I am, you often have to wing it.

My most recent project was for my Directing class. I was hoping to have a crew of, at the least, an additional person from the class to help me out. A three person crew would have been beautiful. But, connections were not established in time.

The project's guidelines were as follows: One monologue, three varied performances of the monologue by the same actor. Each variation must be one shot.

Immediately I had an idea to write. I knew who I wanted to work with (a wonderful woman who I knew personally and also saw perform in a rendition of the Vagina Monologues). I knew that I'd need extras for some scenes.

Well, when filming eventually happened, the extras were out of town. We basically have to do all that we can in one day (the first two scenes). In the end, not having extras worked. Planning a scene by the river, I wanted to pan from two joggers running to our main character, alone by the river. I thought it would show how alone she was. But, what I discovered, was having no one there best showed what I thought having extras would.

Another instance of issue was scene 3. I wanted to do a retrozoom on a couple doing something (Okay, not that planned out...), but...logistically, it just wasn't working. In other words, My movement would be in a chair, and the person helping me (my girlfriend) couldn't move my fat ass. Understandable!

In the end, a slowed down zoom actually works really well. I knew when writing it, however it would turn out, that I needed Merzbow music over it. It's beautiful.

I had many apprehensions about my performance. The actor, Maggie, was phenomenal and a treat to work with, but I just felt that I personally had let the film down. Then comes the day of presenting the final product to my class.

Professor loved it. Just goes to show you that sometimes preparation is for the birds. Or...whomever has to work on the fly. Oh, pun town!