Production Portfolio: Bridge

A. Rationale
My group members and I set out to make a dramatic film entitled "Bridge". I wanted to create a film that pushed my own abilities as a filmmaker, which included using more majestic locations, different methods of cinematography, the use of an original soundtrack, and to tell a story using images more than dialogue. The intended audience was for anyone who had to deal struggle and determination. I believed this film would be successful because we intended to incorporate a more complex story and add more production value in the form of locations and camera work.

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B. Commentary

I was the writer-director of this film. I also was in charge of sound design during post-production.

Some problems arose while I was developing the concept and drafting the screenplay for the film. I wanted to make a film that played around with non-linear storytelling. However, from the feedback we got during our pitch, we needed to develop more of a main character and to get rid of the death at the end. This ended up changing the script entirely. There was no way to retain the same concept from the original idea in order to conform to these parameters. The revised treatment followed a ten scene arc. Once I had the treatment done I wrote a rough draft of the script. It consisted mainly of voice overs. It took me an entire week to arrive at the final script. I received feedback from some industry professionals that I met while on set of an independent film. They told me that the use of voice-over is a lazy way to tell the story. Instead, they told me to show rather than tell. I ended up taking out all of the voice over except for two small snippets at the beginning and the end. I feel like this made for a much better story because all of the information isn't fed to the audience, but instead requires and element of interpretation.

We made sure that production would be smooth by scouting locations ahead of time to check for the conditions at the bridge and the Golden Gate Park. We figured out that there is much less people on the bridge during the early morning, which would make shooting much easier. There were parts of the bridge that worked better for scenes then others. We also looked at parts of the Golden Gate Park that would work well for our montage.

Pre-production brought forth a lot of frustrations for me as the director. I needed to make sure the conditions for shooting were optimal, and this included casting actors. Because we were rushed during our 3 day pre-production period, the casting call I wanted to hold did not go as planned. Initially we wanted to cast professional actors outside of our own high school. Unfortunately, working with professionals involved extensive planning and discussion with the actors using time that we didn't have. As a result none of the actors showed up to the casting call, and we needed to screen actresses from our own high school. This was an improvement from our last film because we had the opportunity to see the performances of the actresses before they went to act for us. As for the male lead, we needed to use our editor in order to avoid any scheduling conflicts.

I needed to completely block out our first day of shooting because we needed to shoot all of our scenes that take place on the bridge. This included filming scenes out of sequence. We made sure we filmed the shots that would require more moving space on the bridge so we could get shots require the steadi-cam. One particular shot that attracted a lot of attention on the bridge was the shot where Sasha passes out. Because I had to literally tip over and fall to the ground to get the shot, many people was staring and wondering what we were doing. I didn't notice them. I had no time to worry about how ridiculous I looked because I was determined to complete the shots that we needed. We ran into a little set back when the bridge ranger came by to ask us what we were doing, but he didn't kick us off the bridge which was very good for our production. The first day of shooting was successful, but due to time constraints, I was forced to shoot all of the bridge scenes in one day which limited what we could do because we couldn't go back to re-shoot. It was difficult to have our actors act exactly the way I want especially for the running sequences.

Filming Scene 3 posed some problems. We needed this location to include a view of the Golden Gate Bridge as well as a fence of sorts for Julian to take his frustration out on. Therefore we ended up finding the location during the day of the shoot. We also overcame this problem by blocking the shot so that we were able to frame both the bridge and Julian looking up at it.

One huge problem that we encountered was finding a location to shoot our "hospital" scene. We tried going to several different hospitals to no avail. Therefore we resorted to using our "Plan Z", shooting in what was to be Sasha's room. Although the impact of the location is not as powerful as a hospital, the room served the same purpose by creating an atmosphere that Sasha would be comfortable in. As a group we solved this problem by contacting out various friends in order to find a location that was ideal for shooting.

Shooting the long-anticipated Scene 2 was very challenging. Because we shot during the night time inside of a house for a shot that needed to simulate daytime, we needed to use lighting equipment in order to compensate. In terms of production design, we also needed to convey a lot of information in just one shot. We constructed a collection of medals, pictures, and get-well cards in order to convey how Julian used to be a great runner, but his injury has rendered him unenthusiastic towards running. The shot also involved a continuous take that required a lot of blocking and planning. We needed to move around the set in order to properly capture the shot. We made this process more streamline by having friends aid us in moving around and setting around the set.

From the feedback we received, our cinematography was a success in this film. I felt that the quality of our cinematography was a result of our attention to detail and amount of preparation and conceptualizing when designing the shots. We made sure we were meticulous with the focus, as well as the variety in shots because we knew the film would be redundant due to the constant running in the script. I thought we did a good job of keeping the shot selection new and exciting. However, I think in order to improve our cinematography and not have the shots be so redundant, we could have incorporated shots that implied that Julian was running instead of directly showing the audience shots of him running.

In terms of directing and acting, I felt this film improved greatly from our last film in terms of the quality of the acting. Although the bedroom scene was too dramatic, the acting throughout the film conveyed the kind of emotions that I wanted to a greater extent. Although not perfect, I felt that we put out a great effort. We could improve this area by having more communication between the actors and myself so that the actors knew the character they were playing internalized. This could be an effective method because the acting will be more natural as opposed to being forced. I felt this was the case between John and I because I made sure I discussed the character of Julian extensively and encouraged John to practice the role outside of shooting. Practicing before the day of the shoot definitely helps for better acting.

Our editing was effective in telling the story. We displayed many classical techniques in editing. We didn't use lengthy shots, but we did use wide-shots to help tell the story. As a director, I also had details within the image be emphasized to give the audience a more personal connection since tighter shots gives off a more intimate sense. Using flashbacks also was a technique that worked well in the edit and reflects more classical styles. However, given more time, it would have been nice to incorporate more abstract and impressionistic editing that transcends mere assembling clips together. This could be done by placing more emphasis even in the script itself so that the ideas in development and pre-production can carry over into post-production.

Our soundtrack was also a success. Because we used original music, I felt that I had more control of the types of emotions the music was going to bring to the film. This is effective because we ended up with a product that was free of copyrighted music that also sounded great. I spent time with the composer in order to tailor a soundtrack that would complement the film well. However, we relied on music too much and didn't apply enough ambiance and sound effects that would help create the environment of the film more organic. This is an issue we hope to address in our next film.

We believe that our film was a success due to the well thought-out cinematography, improvement with acting, and use of original music. However we do want to include more production design and sound design in our next film.