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Next steps...

As the film is now complete and most of my work as a director is done, myself and Saskia are beginning to develop a plan for the future of Wuthered.

Our first priority is getting the film festival ready, meaning creating an electronic press kit, and ensuring we have copies of the film with relevant subtitling and such. We have worked towards compiling a lists of festivals that we aim to submit the film to, trying to prioritise ones with similar themes and values to Wuthered and our intentions as a crew.

Women X Film festival is one that is particularly of interest, as not only does it specialise in women made films but also has a category specific to the sci-fi/horror genre. As far as other festival picks, we have prioritised ones that are local such as Edinburgh and Glasgow. As a majority of our cast is Scottish, as well as being shot in Scotland, we thought this would also be a good option for us.

Outside of festivals, we are also hoping to hold some ticketed screenings of the film for friends, family, and cast. We hope to gain some exposure from this, as well as show the final product to our wide crew and crowdfunder contributers.

Post-Production Summary + Reflection

Going into post-production, I was extremely excited to see Wuthered come together. What we managed to shoot on set was amazing and I really wanted to continue the tone and style of the film so far and further enhance this with the sound design and edit. In this post, I will summarise the lengthy process of post production and what we encountered and learned along the way.

The Edit:

The edit was both an exciting and complicated process. As we had shot so much coverage on set, it left myself and Leo with a lot of options regarding what we wanted to include in the final cut. This meant sacrificing moments for the sake of narrative sense and pacing, (which was of course painful to do!) which helped us refine our vision in the long run.

A more enjoyable part of the edit was collaborating with Leo to create a distinct style for the edit of Wuthered. There was specific moments of the film, such as the surgery scene and the final scene in Mr Mann's office, that we both knew we wanted to be slightly experimental. This was something myself and Leo had been discussing since pre-production, and it was fun to play around with this in the final edit. For the surgery scene, we landed on a glitchy, subliminal style of editing which we wanted to introduce again near the end of the film to create a sense of unease. For Mr Mann, we used shots of the panel and Mr Mann staring directly into camera to emphasise this feeling of being watched, putting the audience in Alison's shoes.

The main feedback we received on drafts of the edit were that we were not focusing on Alison enough. This is something we have gradually worked toward throughout our drafts of the edit, and I think we have successfully redirected this in the final cut.

Sound Design:

The process of sound designing Wuthered was also a very exciting journey. I think sound really pulls the film together, and reinforces the creative risks we have taken throughout the shoot and the edit. As we had previously sourced an original score, we had this as a base layer for the tone we wanted to create and a vague idea of where we wanted to include this in the film. The general vision we had was to create a different atmosphere for each location we visit during the film. This is something we built upon during our creative process, and I think comes across in the final film.

The only issue we came across in this period was the on set sound for the opening scene, as due to unavoidable sound on location there was a bit of inconsistency in the atmos. We managed to solve as much of this problem as we could thanks to Gaby's great work de-noising and layering sound to make it as normal sounding as possible. I think this issue was pretty much unrecognisable when watching the final film, but is something to keep in mind with locations in the future to avoid this issue.

Overall, I think the sound design really was the cherry on top of the film as a whole. It really affirmed the creative risks we took in other aspects of the film, and mainly helped us in creating moments of tension throughout.

The Grade:

As we had very limited time for our colour grader to work on the film, this proved to be a tricky process. While the majority of the grade was completed, the time limit we had meant that there was loose ends left for us to tie up without him. A few issues with masking remained, as well as having to swap out a shot that was unsuitable to use in the final film.

The main issue we encountered during the grade was meeting the expectations we had colour wise. As you can see in my previous post with my own colour graded images, I really wanted to push the colours in each scene. This worked for some, such as the audition scene and Alison's bathroom, but proved to be more of a challenge for Mr Mann's office. This was because of the way this scene was lit on set, the warm colour making it difficult to bring out the blues. Ultimately, this boiled down to a miscommunication between myself and camera, which I can learn from for future projects

Overall, I am pretty happy with the grade. I think it's all looking good, despite being slightly different from my original vision and I have learned a lot from the process.

Colour Grade Reference Stills

Prior to Euan starting work on the colour grade I began to develop a basic impression of the colour changes I want as a point of reference. These are rough but generally show what we are aspiring to achieve with the colour grade overall.

Audition Hall/Hallway:

My intention with these spaces is to create a sense of unease. I want to introduce more green/yellow into the frame to create a sickly colour palette. Some inspirations for this are 'Audition' by Takashi Miike, and 'The Matrix' by Lana and Lilly Wachowski.

Mr Mann's Office:

For Mr Mann's office I really want to pull out the cool tones in the room. As Mr Mann's colour is blue, I really wanted to push this colour as much as possible, as the blue we placed in the set design got a bit lost in the footage we shot in his office.

Alison's Apartment/Bathroom:

For Alison's apartment I want to build upon the pink in her surroundings, specifically in the bathroom scene. I want the space to feel very surreal, almost feel like a dollhouse. My intention being to create a contrast with the more gritty and raw emotion that Alison is conveying in the scene.

Shoot Summary + Reflection

In this post I will talk about how the shoot went, and reflect upon both the successes and the improvements we could have made along the way. As it ran over six days, I decided it would be easier if I just summarise it all in one post!

As a whole, myself and the crew were all satisfied with how the shoot ran and the results we managed to achieve. Tackling such an ambitious, and unique project over the past few months has been very challenging for us all, but seeing what we have taken so much time planning come to life was very rewarding. It was also great to receive such kind messages from cast members in particular expressing how positive the environment was on set and that they had an enjoyable experience over the shoot.

I would say the main success of the shoot from a directing perspective was how well the script came to life. It was fun to navigate how a scene was to play out with the actors. As the story itself is very wacky and unconventional we were able to navigate situations and emotions that weren't necessarily naturalistic, making the process very creative for both myself and the performers. It was also very exciting to be in the locations from the script, as we had managed to find spaces that were pretty spot on for what we were all imagining.

I would say the main point of improvement on the shoot would have been time management and general preparation. While we didn't suffer majorly across the shoot as a whole, there were some moments where myself and the rest of the crew struggled as a result of this. The most significant effect that this had was increasing time for setting up/blocking scenes, as not all members of the crew were able to access locations and sets prior to the shoot day. While this did eat into our shoot time, we managed to work our way through it as we progressed and managed to claw back some time by prioritising our most important shots.

As a whole, there were very few problems throughout the shoot and any we did encounter were handled very efficiently. We managed to shoot more than enough coverage for the edit, giving myself and Leo options for each scene. My only major regret was not having more time to prepare as a crew with the locations and some of the cast (mainly the two male panel members) as this could have improved both our on set practice and the final film itself.

With that being said, I still think what we managed to achieve was pretty great and that everyone involved has something to be proud of off the back of the shoot. I think we managed to stay true to the vision we presented in our pitch and proposal, and I am excited to see where the post-production process takes us.

Rehearsals Summarised

Prior to the shoot I organised several rehearsal slots for myself and the cast to go through the script. These were very useful in establishing a relationship between myself and the actors, as well as allowing them to become more comfortable with each other. This also gave me the opportunity to work on performance, and really get into the script and how I wanted it to be played. In this post I will recap these rehearsals and summarise my notes off the back of them.

Rehearsal 1: Erin and Olivia

This rehearsal was a good chemistry test between the two lead actors of our film. We did a couple of read throughs but the main point of this session was to develop a good relationship between the two actors. As a lot of the scenes and subject matters of the film are quite hard hitting, especially for Olivia as Alison, I also wanted to discuss boundaries with the actors and establish a workflow that works for all three of us.

Rehearsal 2: Olivia and Joe

This rehearsal was the most useful out of them all, as the scenes with Alison and Mr Mann are the most complex. Myself, Olivia, and Joe, spent a good amount of time discussing the relationship between the two characters and their motivations within the scenes they are in together. Blocking is also something we managed to cover in this rehearsal by organising the room in a similar layout to the plane we had for our location. I managed to record this for camera department to reference regarding lighting and camera position. Overall, this rehearsal was very beneficial for myself, the actors, and the crew in general.

Rehearsal 3: Aiden and Stephen

As this was my first time meeting Aiden and Stephen, as well as it getting very close to the shoot at this stage, we had a lot to cover in this rehearsal. That being said, we all managed to work together to the point where they both felt confident in their characters and the story. As Panel Members 1 and 2 have very little lines, we didn't manage to run the script full out but I was still able to walk them through the beats of each scene, and clearly outline the performance I wanted them to give in each moment. While we still had a bit of work to go, I was confident we could iron out any issues on set without much of a fuss.

Rehearsal 4: Erin and Olivia (final)

The final rehearsal with Erin and Olivia was to finalise any queries or issues they may have running into the shoot. I wanted to ensure that they were confident and comfortable with what I was asking of them, as well as make any changed necessary to cater to their needs. Both of them felt very confident and eager to get working on the film, which helped with my confidence as we got into our week of shooting.

Makeup Test

Prior to the shoot we organised a makeup test with our SFX artist Paige. As the face removal/sewing scene is important we wanted to give it a trial run to ensure it will go smoothly and look correct for the final shoot. Most importantly, we wanted to ensure our actresses were comfortable with the makeup, and had no reaction to what we were applying to their faces.

The two main effects that we practiced in this meeting where the face removal and the flesh underneath. Overall, I am happy with the look of the SFX. On the day they will look more refined and finished but this meeting was very useful for establishing a working relationship with Paige, and figuring out what would look best for the shot.

Costumes + Casting Update

Off the back of our casting day we have cast Alison, Bonnie, Mr Mann, and Panel Member 1! Myself and the crew are very content with our picks and are excited to progress into the rehearsal process. Panel Members 2 and 3 are still pending, but as they are more minor roles, I will be conducted a separate casting process online.

As we now have our actors secured, myself and the art department have begun to make arrangements regarding costume. In this post I will break down our creative process for costuming so far and how we intend to translate this to screen.

Bonnie:

For Bonnie's look, we want her primary colour to be red. We also wanted her look to be timeless, with subtle reference to 50/60s fashion. When finding pieces for her costume, we focused on tight fitting clothing paired with short skirts to create a flirty silhouette to match Bonnie's personality. A big part of this stylistic choice was to show the influence that the male gaze has on Bonnie's look, her clothing fitting well but not very functional.

Alison:

Alison's look has pink as a base colour, this being a toned-down version of Bonnie's bright red. She has quite a plain, corporate look, the idea behind this being that she keeps herself marketable to casting directors at all times. Unlike Bonnie, her silhouette is made up of loose fitting shirts and trousers, this reflecting how Alison does not take much notice of her appearance.

Mr Mann:

For Mr Mann his look is more basic, consisting of a blue suite and tie. Not much of his personality is reflected through his appearance apart from his tie. We wanted his tie to change from scene to scene to reflect his mood or alignment with Alison. While subtle, our desired effect with this is to add to the uncanny, bizarre world of the film and Mr Mann himself.

Costume Test:

Here are some photos from the costume test with our actresses! I think what we ended up with matches our intentions pretty well, an conveys the effect that we wanted.

Crowd Funding

As our project is quite ambitious, a good budget is essential to achieving our vision. As a result, we set up a crowd funder page to promote and raise money for out film. In this post I will outline the main strategies we used to raise money and how we managed to reach our target amount of £3,500.

Social Media:

Our approach to gauging interest for the crowd funder was mainly by reaching into our own network. Our Instagram page was useful for this, as we were able to share content and promote the cause. We had already established an online presence prior to the launch of the crowd funder, which was very useful for building up a network of people who were interested in what we are doing. We then continued to post both before and during the crowd funder to maintain momentum and interest for the film.

Create an account or log in to Instagram - Share what you're into with the people who get you.

Promotional Video:

We shot a short video with our crew to promote our crowd funder campaign. Our intention with this was to put faces to the names behind the project, and hopefully form a connection with our potential audience. Within the video each key crew member discussed their connection to the project, accompanied by supporting sound and visuals. Overall, we wanted to give the viewer a sense of what the finished product was going to be like and I think we managed to achieve that. The video is now visible to view on our crowd funder page.

Actress Alison Wuther gets her dream role, but only if she gets her face swapped with Bonnie, who the audition panel deem more attractive.

Reward System:

To go hand in hand with our crowd funder campaign, we decided to introduce a reward system to encourage people to donate. Some of these rewards include personalised videos from cast and crew, original prints designed by us, and a virtual production dossier with exclusive behind the scenes material.

Update: We managed to exceed our target for the crowd funder, our final amount raised being £3,615!

Location Recce Summary + Final Decisions

The first priority approaching our shoot was to find locations that suit the look we are going for. As we mentioned in our pitch and proposal, colour and aesthetics are a significant part of the film and the tone we want to achieve. Additionally, based off the feedback for the test shoot we wanted to prioritise taking time to asses locations and how we can adapt them to our needs.

In this post I will summarise the locations we settled on for the film and how we plan to adapt them to screen.

Alison's Apartment:

Alison's apartment is an AirBnb local to Edinburgh. We settled on this location due to the spacious nature of the place, but mainly because of the pink colour palette and the furniture that came with it. As a result, myself and India agreed to use this space due to the convenience and colour palette.

The main alterations that we will have to make are making the space look less put-together. We plan to strip back some of the decor to make it look slightly more disheveled, almost as if Alison cannot afford to furnish the space. Specifically in the living room, we wanted to add pillows, blankets, and discarded clothing to insinuate that she is sleeping on the sofa.

The Audition Room:

When looking for audition rooms, we mainly looked at dance studios in the Edinburgh area. The one that best fit our needs was DanceBase in Grassmarket, specifically studio 4. We landed on this space as it is very central and accessible to cast and crew, as well as having plenty of space to create a sense of isolation and weirdness in the scene.

The Warehouse:

Our criteria for finding a warehouse location was a very large space that gives a sense of emptiness. We settled on an abandoned paper factory under the ownership of the company 'Hidden Door', who were willing to let us film in the location. Minimal set dressing would be needed for the shoot, as the space has a very creepy, abandoned, look already. Points of consideration included the comfort and well-being of our actress, as she would need to lie on the floor. Myself and India have come up with solutions to this, eliminating the issue for the final shoot.

Mr Mann's Office:

Mr Mann's office was the more challenging location to find as we had a very specific look that we wanted to achieve. We wanted a space that looked very corporate but also grungy and a bit run down with a generally blue theme. Initially, we looked into using rooms on campus, however, after conducting a recce in the abandoned paper factory we stumbled across some office spaces that were a perfect fit. We settled on a small office space just off the main building that already contained relevant props and objects that we could utilise for the set.

[ Another more secondary location that we require for the shoot is a hallway, which we intend to use the photography hallway on the Merchiston campus for ]

Floor/Blocking Plans

Creating floor plans for each scene, even despite not locking in locations yet, was a good way to convey my intentions and vision for each scene to other departments. Specifically for camera and production design, this made it easier to be on the same page and generally aware of what is required for each setup we have for the shoot.

My approach to the floor plans was to colour code characters, set, and movement, which is visible on the index at the side. At this stage, camera placement for each setup is still being negotiated, but I tried to at least map out the master shot of each scene. I included instructions outlining the movement of each character in the scene to help inform this process.

'Wuthered' Summative Pitch

Following on from the test shoot, we put together a pitch to present our concept for the full short film. Within this pitch, each department presented their ideas for thew creative direction of the film, linking this to the work we did in the test shoot.

My approach to the pitch was to highlight my passion for the project, and how my directing style will enhance the story within the script. The films I have made previously have a very cohesive and choreographed style, which I intend to replicate for 'Wuthered'. This style can be linked to the use of colour in my films, which is the most significant similarity, alongside performance. I like to work closely with actors to achieve performances that match the aesthetic of my films, these being routed in realism but also appealing to the more surrealist and wacky aspects. Overall, by applying my directorial style to 'Wuthered', I intend to enhance the bizarre nature of the world within the film, using Alison as a vessel to expose the audience to the strange people around her.

Anther point that I wanted to get across in the pitch is the opportunity to tell a story resonant with the experience of being a woman. It's rare that women get to direct films about the female experience, specifically in the mainstream film industry. As a result, I wanted to emphasise this and how my opportunity to tell this story, while incorporating surreal elements, is informed by real life issues that deserve a platform.

Test Shoot Reflection

After receiving feedback from the test shoot I have managed to reflect on my own work, as well as how we worked as a team throughout out the production process. I am pleased that a majority of the feedback was very positive, which gives me confidence when proceeding into the final film.

Feedback Reflection:

The main criticism we received was to tighten up the narrative and strengthen the link to the themes we presented in the initial proposal. I agree that this is an area we can improve on, as running up to the test shoot we were still ironing out some aspects of the story, as well as the main alteration of adding Bonnie to the narrative. As we continue to develop the script we will take this feedback into consideration and make alterations in preparation for the final shoot.

Self Reflection:

Reflecting upon my own work on the shoot, on set I am happy with the performance and look of the test shoot in general. That being said, one aspect that I hope to build upon in the final shoot is the colours and set design. As we were restricted for time running up to the shoot, we were limited on our choice of location. As a result, the look of the film is less 'surreal' and colourful than we pitched. As we have more time and funds, we will work toward achieving a look more resonant of the proposal.

#Youtube

The Test Shoot

The test shoot was generally a great success! I am extremely pleased with the footage we got, and apart from some issues with time we achieved what we set out to do.

Performance:

I am very pleased with the performance that myself and the actresses managed to achieve. Grace as Alison really brought out the emotion of the scene, while Abigail as Bonnie acted as the perfect contrast. I believe that I channeled my influences regarding performance well, and provided a good briefing of the character's emotional state to the actresses before hand. If I were to improve upon something, it would be the preparation before hand. I would have liked more time to work with the actresses, but having the little time to work together as they did, they did an amazing job.

SFX:

I think more time and preparation should have been put into sourcing a SFX artist. Our original one dropped out last minute, therefore, we decided that instead of rushing to find another, we would come up with a solution. This ended up being putting Alison is bandages, with an almost post-op plastic surgery-style look. I personally think this idea is more effective genre-wise, as the look of a bandaged person is quiet scary (as we found out on set!). It also links back to advice given to us of 'less is more', as seeing less of what is supposed to be scary is in fact more terrifying. That being said, I think the slight reveal of Alison's skin at the end is slightly hindered by the lack of SFX. This is something we plan to improve on for our real shoot.

Visuals:

I am a fan of how our test shoot looked speaking more generally, but for the actual shoot I want to go far more stylised. While it looked good, I think this location was too 'realistic' looking, and due to time and scheduling myself and production design had very little time to work on the space and costume. In the future, I want the set and costume to be way more colour specific, having a more distinct colour palette for each character and their environments.

As far as camera goes, I am very happy with how it turned out. I would like to experiment with more unusual movements and effects in the future. One I have in mind specifically is using a fisheye lens for the extreme close ups.

Overall:

As I said before, I think what we achieved was great. The only thing that hindered us was a lack of time, if this wasn't a problem then I think we would have had a perfect test shoot!

Glass Facial Leaflet Design!

Test Shoot Prep

In preparation for the test shoot, we reccied the space that we intend to film in. The locations in our script consist of a living room and a bathroom, both of which are going to be filmed in our reccie location.

During the reccie, I managed to block out our scenes with our DoP, as well as figuring out how we would want to dress and shoot in this space. Lighting was difficult to scope as by the time we saw the space we had lost daylight, but we managed to create a vague plan of our set up. An essential for what we wanted to achieve visually was a shaving mirror, which luckily was built into the bathroom in the flat!

RECCIE PHOTOS:

I also met with both of our actresses prior to our test shoot to give notes on performance. Due to scheduling complications I could not meet with them both at the same time, this is something I intend to account for on set. Below I will include the notes I gave the actresses during our read-through.

Director's Inspo

Throughout the development of the project I have discovered various inspirations across various types of media to facilitate my vision. In this post I will be documenting these influences! This will change and be updated throughout my production process.

Film:

'The Substance' by Coralie Fargeat - When I saw this film in the cinema I knew I wanted to channel its influence in 'Wuthered'. I think performance is something I want to borrow from, specifically the anger and self-hatred portrayed by Demi Moore's character Elizabeth Sparkle. I want achieve a similar performance with Alison.

Visual:

Miles Aldridge - The photography of Miles Aldridge is something that has informed my inspiration for visuals. His use of colour and costuming in his work is something I want to borrow from. Overall, his suburban interior settings along with surreal and unsettling aesthetics and posing of his models is very captivating and really inspired my creative process.

The link to my Pinterest board is below:

Nov 1, 2024 - Explore Sophie's board "Skin Deep (Director)" on Pinterest. See more ideas about photography inspo, miles aldridge, film still

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