I've written, directed, and starred in three shorts. I'll quickly tell you the experiences.
1: First short. It was a stop motion short. My roommate at the time who had done stop motion shorts helped me out on this as the art director. Stop motion is painstaking process. But we worked well together. Composer was fine. My editor was a friend/roommate who basically has left the production in post hell. I've moved on to other shorts though.
2: Second short. This was my first live action short. There were only three real actors on set (myself an old roommate who is a theater major, and a supporting actress). The lead "actress proved to be distant, I got flaked on by an actress the night before, a location kept rushing me, people kept on being late. It wasn't the worst. But it wasn't the best.
3: Third short. This was the hardest production thus far. From an actress having a drug problem and fucking everything up, to one getting slipped roofies at a party the night before, to the DP and crew annoying me as hell. What really bothered me that the replacement lead actress brought up the "sex scene". I explained to her that it was more making out then cut to the next morning. She was cool with it. Then we meet a day before the last shoot and she says the same thing and I say the same thing. Things are fine. Then the next day the DP (who is the one that got her because he knew her) called me saying that she spoke him saying that she didn't want to do all that. I had to roll with the punches as I needed a short made. But that was very disappointing. I wouldn't have even hired her by choice. I think this is my best short yet. But even then I didn't get to do what I want and while you kinda just get over it, it does kinda piss you off in the back of the head.
Plus I have been having other issues. The editor won't create a trailer and teaser (he took four extra days to edit due to to a family emergency and I said nothing. But he can't do this for me). And I have dealt with dick composers. I am scared that this new one is going to flake on me. At this point I am almost like "fuck it".
When I am just acting on set it's cool. You hang around the actors that you want to hang around, talk to the director, talk to the crew every now and then. That's it.
As a director, you have to manage everyone. And that has made me like people less and less.
Funny, I love directing more and more. I love seeing how I am improving each time I direct a film. I can't wait to get my feature film going. I am going to be more careful of making sure I have a cast and crew that I really get along with. I honestly only like one person from my short (a supporting actress).
But does anyone else have this issue?
1: First short. It was a stop motion short. My roommate at the time who had done stop motion shorts helped me out on this as the art director. Stop motion is painstaking process. But we worked well together. Composer was fine. My editor was a friend/roommate who basically has left the production in post hell. I've moved on to other shorts though.
2: Second short. This was my first live action short. There were only three real actors on set (myself an old roommate who is a theater major, and a supporting actress). The lead "actress proved to be distant, I got flaked on by an actress the night before, a location kept rushing me, people kept on being late. It wasn't the worst. But it wasn't the best.
3: Third short. This was the hardest production thus far. From an actress having a drug problem and fucking everything up, to one getting slipped roofies at a party the night before, to the DP and crew annoying me as hell. What really bothered me that the replacement lead actress brought up the "sex scene". I explained to her that it was more making out then cut to the next morning. She was cool with it. Then we meet a day before the last shoot and she says the same thing and I say the same thing. Things are fine. Then the next day the DP (who is the one that got her because he knew her) called me saying that she spoke him saying that she didn't want to do all that. I had to roll with the punches as I needed a short made. But that was very disappointing. I wouldn't have even hired her by choice. I think this is my best short yet. But even then I didn't get to do what I want and while you kinda just get over it, it does kinda piss you off in the back of the head.
Plus I have been having other issues. The editor won't create a trailer and teaser (he took four extra days to edit due to to a family emergency and I said nothing. But he can't do this for me). And I have dealt with dick composers. I am scared that this new one is going to flake on me. At this point I am almost like "fuck it".
When I am just acting on set it's cool. You hang around the actors that you want to hang around, talk to the director, talk to the crew every now and then. That's it.
As a director, you have to manage everyone. And that has made me like people less and less.
Funny, I love directing more and more. I love seeing how I am improving each time I direct a film. I can't wait to get my feature film going. I am going to be more careful of making sure I have a cast and crew that I really get along with. I honestly only like one person from my short (a supporting actress).
But does anyone else have this issue?
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