Working on DEBT as Director
I selected to work on Debt as I felt it resonated with my kind of storytelling and the mere fact that the lead actor in the story is a struggling director. I have gone through a similar experience of trying to have a breakthrough as a theatre director.
I aim to examine and analyse the production challenges associated with working on the short film, Debt, and how I managed to find solutions as well as gain a deeper understanding of what it means to work with a crew that is challenging in a collaborative environment. In the end, I will lay out the lessons learned and how I can proceed in the future. Directing covers the methods, technologies, thought processes, and judgments that a director must use throughout the fascinating filmmaking process. Directing provides an unusually clear view of the artistic process, particularly in working with actors and principal crew to achieve personally expressive storytelling and professionalism on any budget. (Rabiger)
The first handle to tackle was working with the writer to reduce the script from 24 pages to 10 pages. The writer was so attached to his story that he resisted for some days until he saw the validity of the film crew’s concern. This attachment by the writer to the script kept on propping during pre-production, production, and post-production, and it caused a lot of tension throughout the whole production cycle. Even though the script was reduced to 13 pages, it remained long for the maximum of 10 minutes that was required for the assessment. This resulted in me lacking creativity as I was racing against time shooting 13 pages in 2 days.
In the life cycle of every project, pre-production in cinema is a crucial turning point. “Pre-production is when a project first transforms from a concept that only exists on paper to an experience that only exists on screen.” I started working on the director’s bible. First, I created a visual look of what I wanted the film to look like.
Visual look link
https://testlivesalfordac-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/s_mudzvova_edu_salford_ac_uk/ESXCEPInAmVHih4eE1gF4m0BVl3ldLG3CrD4BNa0xo6_qw?e=e0oc2n
This was followed by a script breakdown sheet. “Creating a script breakdown is about identifying various elements in a scene to better understand its shooting requirements” – Studio Binder (2016). I spent a lot of time preparing a breakdown sheet, and I also prepared a shot list, rule of 8th, marked script, and stripboard. However, this is an incomplete list of directors’ bibles. All of these documents have been uploaded under the directors’ bibles.
Our D.O.P asked if he could do a storyboard utilizing the story shortlist I had prepared. A storyboard is the basis of any good production. It helps string the scenes and the story together. It is a visualization on paper (Simon 2006). I agreed to him preparing a storyboard because my art is not good at all. However, the storyboard wasn’t done until the time of submission of my reflective analysis.
It should be noted that despite preparing all these documents (directors' bible), they were never utilized or considered important by the crew. There was no discussion or closer examination of them as they seemed to be of less value towards the production of Debt. However, this backfired during the shoot and post-production as explained later during this presentation.
1: Rule of 8th
https://testlivesalfordac-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/s_mudzvova_edu_salford_ac_uk/EbE5xLmFYqNGhovimmhUsv4ByKMRnQoHO1MZv9Q0w8moug?e=MFAfWq
2: ShortList
https://testlivesalfordac-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/s_mudzvova_edu_salford_ac_uk/EUYOq_35G9dDo2hKN53rrhUBbbBhQY516zZ0AHng66HAaQ?e=fWHxKg
3. Strip Board
https://testlivesalfordac-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/s_mudzvova_edu_salford_ac_uk/Ebnlteh5MStEp4Jncf_oWYsBEZ6qX6PK4TFz1a6qkYAtnA?e=IoxGAd
4. Breakdown sheet
https://testlivesalfordac-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/s_mudzvova_edu_salford_ac_uk/Ec_uPrIqPd1KjOyBGjiONucBb6fh2--dpTPXdLnwblmOew?e=mPyJIb
One of the core elements of the director is to have a decision on casting and location because they play a significant part in the production process. However, in the case of Debt, there was no consultation or agreement with the director. The location also needs to be appropriate for the story (McDowell interview with Cea, 2022). The film ended up being shoot at a shopping centre, not a theatre car park. The car was supposed to be isolated, but it ended up losing relevance due to the wrong location. So, the car park we ended up using was not in line with the directors’ vision for the film. However, this is very common in zero-budget films, and as such, we ended up improvising.
As lead creative, when I arrived on set meeting actors for the first time, I realized some of the talents (actors) were not fit for the roles. There’s an adage out there, something like "80% of the director’s job gets done in casting”.
Theories Applied
Auteur Theory
“Auteur Theory is the idea that the director is the author and primary creative force behind a movie” — Studio binder (2019). Everyone counts on a good script, but the execution is what gives a movie its final product. The director is responsible for the execution, and the director will assist every department to come up with a quality product. However, this was not the case with Debt. It was more of a collective decision, so it ended up losing pace, quality, and feel. I could have achieved something extraordinary with Debt if the writer and crew allowed me to follow what Aldredge said about the auteur describing Wes Anderson, “From the script to the cinematography to the production design and all of the other nuanced elements of Anderson’s personal films, you really notice the director’s personality influencing every part of the project from start to finish.”
Realism Theory
Debt focused on the real-life stories and struggles of a theatre director as seen in cinemas and mostly produced by independent filmmakers. Realistic films are shot on location without the use of special effects. Additionally, it might not contain any music and use basic editing methods, which is what happened with Debt. That's because the plot takes precedence over the technical elements when using this style of filmmaking. As the director for Debt, I concluded that realism theory suited this short film before accepting to direct; however, the script was not well polished or tight. I used the second version of the script, so the dialogue was not so rich. This theory has been used effectively in Fish Tank (2009), Loach–Kes (1969), and The Florida Project (2017). As Hitchcock says, “To make a great film you need three things – the script, the script, and the script” Spoto (1991).
90% of my cast were students or recently graduated actors. Rehearsal on set made me realize that there was a lot of overacting and exaggeration. Using my experience of being a theatre practitioner before, I quickly introduced the Stanislavsky acting method. Stanislavsky’s acting method is a series of training techniques designed to help actors create believable characters and develop natural performances mostly for theatre, but this works very well for cinema as well. Stanislavsky’s most common criticism of actors was “I don’t believe you.” However, time has evolved, and in the modern day, you can’t use such language toward talent, especially talent you’re not paying. On set, I would take my actors aside from the crew and explain what was lacking and what could be improved using as few words as possible. Actors liked this aside and it helped and improved performances. I also utilized Stanislavsky’s emotional memory technics of using day-to-day life experiences to enhance the actor’s performance. I also provoked actors to find and use subtext and imagine what is not in the script but could have influenced them to say those lines. An example is in these 2 shots.
CREW AND CHALLENGES
As an independent filmmaker, I will work with a small crew and use minimum equipment. Working on Debt with a small team is exactly what I wanted. On set, I was supported by a sound recordist doubling as boom swinger, DOP, as well as an editor who doubled as production designer. “Independent films don't have budgets, thus multi-tasking and round table discussions solve any problems arising.” This saves a lot of production time and makes things easy to move and set up. However, the biggest challenge I faced was in decision-making. As students, everyone wanted to have a say in actors and DOP and everyone wanted his own shoots that were not part and parcel of the shoot list. The writer was insisting on his version of his writing, which didn’t tally with the director’s interpretation of the script. This resulted in the breaking of fundamentals like 180-degree rules being broken. Below is one of the many examples of when this happened.
LESSONS LEARNED AND WAY FORWARD
I considered myself someone who could only work on visual storytelling scripts but working on heavy dialogue scripts like Debt taught me that performance (body language and words) should always tally and that you’re not just rushing for actors to deliver lines but to play with emotions. I know there is a lot of criticism about getting emotions from talent by making them relive emotional moments of their life and surroundings. However, the best performance comes from such moments.
I also learned that I should never start working on the director’s bible before having the final script as am a director who believes in setting a vision of the story using paperwork. The writer should have come up with 2 or more copies of the script before the shooting commenced.
I should also allow challenges to help me grow as a director. Instead of focusing on the negativity that happens on set, I should concentrate more on finding creative solutions.
I also learned that enough coverage is needed for every shoot. For example, when the lead actor was attacked by a drug dealer, I compromised with the crew when they all agreed that one shot was enough, and it was an action scene that involved a fist being thrown toward the play director. It proved to be a disaster, and the editor later demanded a reshoot, but it was already too late because we couldn’t get cast back. (find quote)
Way forward
Reflecting on this film, Debt, I learned that balancing the creative elements and the technical elements, like properly recording how each light was set up, is important to remember.
The process started with the module leader giving us thought-provoking ideas on how to come up with a short film. I selected “There is no mother. Behind the Closed Door” as a topic, I wanted to use. The story was based on a mother who is near mental breakdown due to the current social, economic, and political challenges she is facing ranging from War in Ukraine to the energy crisis and political circus in 10 Downing Street. To make matters worse people are being discouraged from going outside their homes for the next seven days due to severe weather. “To keep your story compelling and believable, make sure the stakes in the character’s life are high, urgent, and believable” Olchawska 2019
After posting this idea on the Padlet module leader sent me the following questions “Why does this film have a good potential for viewer engagement and unique expressiveness? What makes this a suitable project for production, and why? Are there any challenges to making this film in the short timeframe, and how to overcome them? The questions forced me to critically think about how to proceed with this idea. As such I started with character development using instructor Jack Smith’s theory which notes that “Character development is the process of creating fictional characters with the same depth and complexity as real-life human beings.” Glatch et al 2022. I started by looking at characters as character engines that drive ideas into a story. Each of the major character types plays a specific role in story development.
WRITTING THEORY
I started by identifying which theory/theories could apply to my chosen script. I lined up three theories and started testing Christopher Volger’s “The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers” (1993) I looked through the 12 stages of a hero, focusing on the resurrection stage. Although my story does not fit into all 12 stages of Vogler’s it still has elements of the hero’s ordinary world, the call to adventure, approach which is one of the resolving steps. I realized it will be wrong for me to adopt this theory for this screenplay as I couldn’t fulfill the whole 12 steps but at least a quarter. If I have managed to reach three-quarters of the 12 steps, I will have tested this theory. Although my main actress is traveling through a journey wanting to prove that she can’t be made to stay indoors it won’t properly fit. as such I dropped Vogler’s theory completely
The next process was when the character meets conflict asking myself the following questions what’s the big story? Where is the conflict? My main character conflict was with external forces unseen by human beings as well as interpersonal conflict. The character is motivated by the desire to defy being told to stay indoors. At this point, I wanted to introduce Covid-19 into the story but realized no audience is interested in such stories audiences will be more interested in “what is another lockdown due to weather? This will raise interest and debate.
I have studied internal conflict in theatre scripts, especially Shakespeare's Hamlet, a classic example of a character battling their inner demons, a well-known example of internal conflict in literature. In the play, Hamlet's father's ghost informs him that he was murdered and that Hamlet must exact revenge. Hamlet wrestles with whether his father really was murdered throughout the entire play, as well as how to exact noble retribution. In the well-known "to be or not to be" soliloquy from the play, Hamlet expresses his internal conflict and self-doubt. I used my theatre experiences to lay out the internal conflict of my main character.
I also watched and read the script for Pi (2008) The hero has a mathematical obsession. He is infected with this festering paranoia that permeates every aspect of his daily life. This fits very well in my story Mother No Mother as the inter-conflict becomes broad after watching this film. “When done correctly, a writer can develop a complex character who is coping with internal conflict into a perspective of the world that is all their own.” Mackee 2010. In the case of Pi, you are moved by the hero's unusual perspective on math and saddened by his paranoia.
Pi Trailer link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo18VIoR2xU
I did a deep analysis to see if my character and conflict were working together. This is a very important process in screenwriting “The character must act, and the level of conflict can be subtle or strong if it’s apparent. If film stories do not have a basis in these two fundamental rules, they will not work.’ (Cowgil, 2010 p16). After being satisfied with this I started the process of visualization of my storyline. “Vision is the art of seeing things invisible” Swift 2010. I used Swift’s theory of writing novels as I find it useful when writing the politically related script. Swift managed to use visualization to avoid censorship and his satirical poetry, novels, papers, and books dealing with internal conflicts. This took my writing to another level in terms of script development and going forward I will continue using this visualization theory as it helps to shape and create visuals whilst still in the writing phase
WRITING DILEMMA
I finished the first draft and they was reading and selecting scripts to shoot during week 4. This worked against my scriptwriting methods as I felt it was too early even to read it in front of everyone. My story was still in the development phase, and I was not even confident about it. This process taught me one thing when dealing with group or deadline scripts solution to start early as I use a specific unique writing sequence of which I can’t skip any section. I was not disheartened by not being selected but was motivated to further develop my script.
SECOND AND THIRD DRAFTS
In writing the second and third drafts I concentrated on John York’s story 10-point theory. Illustrated in the picture below. I combined it with Alessandra’s 2010 model of what is the hook? And what ifs? My major focus was on is my story answered the 10 questions, if yes how? And has this idea been explored before and what were the results? If am answering all these 10 points what is the hook of this story and what is the other way, I can change this “if”. This changed the complexity of my third version script to the extent I started feeling confident about finding other script readers.
I wanted specifically to look for female writers as the story is dealing with a sensitive issue affecting women. Over the years I have realized how sensitive it is to write about women from a male point of view. I shared the third version with the writers. dot and requested female reviewers only. I got about 13 reviews, but I have decided to share one that was very critical of the script and one that made me start thinking outside the box. The reviewer highlighted the issue of rape and upon looking at her comments I find it distressing to most women especially if it was just thrown into the script without proper handling.
To solve the issues raised I went back to The Said, the Unsaid and the Unsayable, Robert McKee, Dialogue: The Art of Verbal Action for the Page, Stage, and Screen, p. 46–49. The book helped me to unpack what should be in the story. This led me to remove the rape scene from the script and change some of the scenes. Going forward I will always apply Mckee’s theory to test my scripts before sharing. This theory shaped my fourth version of the script and I got so motivated by “As you compose dialogue, I think it’s useful to imagine character design as three concentric spheres, one inside the other — a self within a self within a self. This three-tiered complex fills dialogue with content of thought and feeling while shaping expression in gesture and word. The innermost sphere churns with the unsayable; the middle sphere restrains the said; the outer sphere releases the unsaid” Mckee 2016
Writing and Feedback
The Mckee theory changed the way my script looked, and I booked a meeting with Beth to discuss to script and get her thoughts. It was a thought proving meeting as Beth uses a technique that made me introspect. Beth asked question after question and as a writer, you’re provoked to look at the bigger picture and be able to identify what’s missing from the story. I wish I could get more opportunities to meet her as the course progresses.
To get a proper understanding or if the script is making sense, I sent my 5th edition for script coverage. I was looking for script scoring remember the 3rd version was given 1/5 so I expected a great improvement on this 5th edition. I received seven coverage results however some of them were too general but the two I have attached dealt with script analysis, scoring, logline, and synopsis. I decided to share these are they are critical for me to develop as a writer, and they give the proper way forward. Script coverage is one of the most fundamental that writers use to measure if their scripts are ready for production. “Scripts are what matter. If you get the foundations right and then you get the right ingredients on top, you stand a shot… but if you get those foundations wrong, then you absolutely don’t stand a shot. It’s very rare–almost never–that a good film gets made from a bad screenplay.” – Tim Bevan
WAY FORWARD
One of the first things I discovered was that people can interpret the same screenplay in quite different ways. It's likely that when individuals read through your script in their heads, their interpretations of the lines will be considerably different from your own. I use the concept of sharing scripts with other writers and getting script coverage however it’s always good for me to see which advice to take and which one to leave going forward.
As I analyzed my way forward “There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly; sometimes it’s like drilling rock and then blasting it out with charges.” Hemmingway. It proved a drilling rock coming up with these 5 editions of the script and it was my first time of being given a topic to work on. I will continue refining the story until it’s ready for shooting. The current score rating of the script is 6/10 a great improvement from 1/5 on the third version.
On the innovation project, I embarked on a sole project from planning, shooting, and editing. The aim of the project was to shoot the effect of rain in Manchester. The city has been dubbed Ranchester for the consistency of rain. It doesn’t stop raining in Manchester, but business doesn’t stop, construction doesn’t stop, and kids keep on going to school. The whole purpose of the experiment was to highlight the resilience of the citizens of Manchester.
I managed to shoot footage for the first day for only 2 hours the rain funny enough stopped on this day. The following few days it rained but I was not in the position of the 360 cameras as such I couldn’t have all the footage I wanted.
The Pavel module taught me three important processes of film making collaboration, repeated screenwriting, and lone working as a filmmaker. I think these three processes will be of great value as I continue my filmmaking journey.
Working at the top of production is a big responsibility, and it often means one has to be able to handle the ongoing stress factors of several conflicting needs. Both my practical skill development and wider reading contributed to my personal development as a film auter. I was not entirely successful in all of my tasks however I did reflect on these mistakes to not make them again in the future. There is a great deal of personal, creative, technical, and theoretical knowledge that needs to be combined to be successful in screenwriting and production and I will continue to develop these skills in my future projects by concentrating more on finding creative solutions.
Stanislavskij, Konstantin S. Building a Character. Read & Co. Books, 2015.
Rabiger, Michael. Directing: Film techniques and aesthetics. Routledge, 2013.
Mark A Simon Storyboards: Motion In Art, 3rd Edition, Paper Back 2016
Spoto, Donald. The Art of Alfred Hitchcock: Fifty Years of His Motion Pictures. Anchor Books, 1991.
Christopher Vogler. The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, 25th Anniversary Edition [Book] Michael Wiese Productions 2020
Robert Mckee Story: Substance Structure Style and the Principles.Methuen Publishing LTD. 1999
L Cowgill Writing Short Films: Structure and Content for Screenwriters Paperback – Lone Eagle Publishing Co 2005
Robert McKee: Dialogue
The Art of Verbal Action for Page, Stage, and Screen:Grand Central Publishing 2016
Constantin Stanislavski, An Actor's Handbook: An Alphabetical Arrangement of Concise Statements on Aspects of Acting. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC 1990
https://magdaolchawska.com/scriptwriting-in-a-nutshell-characters-goals-and-stakes/ 2019
Producers' guide to Pre-production https://www.wrapbook.com/blog/pre-production 2022
Aldredge, Jourdan. “What Does Auteur Theory Mean for Modern Filmmakers?” Royalty-Free Music, 24 Feb. 2022, https://www.soundstripe.com/blogs/what-does-auteur-theory-mean-for-modern-filmmakers.
Mcdowell interview with Mark Cea on How the director used single location
https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/how-charlie-mcdowell-mastered-the-single-location-movie 2022
“The Ultimate Guide to the Best Auteur Directors.” StudioBinder, 1 Mar. 2021, https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/auteur-theory/.