Aurelija's TV production blog

Honestly, the thing that affected my approach to directing this sequence was the TV show itself. Although we were told not to just copy what the original show had, we all had an image of what it should look like in our heads, we all unconsciously tried to copy the original. But due to some circumstances we were forced to change one thing or the other. In my case I couldn't get the actors to play the Bellman and the Suit so I changed them to female characters because they are important to the scene and I saw no other way so I had to improvise. Thankfully, Lauren's sister was up for helping me out as a Suit, but because I still needed the bellman I decided to act in my own film, which wasn't ideal, especially while editing - it's just too weird to look at myself. The other thing I was forced to decide on were extras, it would have been great if I could get them, but unfortunately I couldn't manage to do so and ended up cutting them out of the sequence, pretend that th...

This unit really showed me that I could never be a director, it's way too stressful and I'm really not the most organised person out there and I think when it came to filming in our previous unit - while directing I wasn't really thinking about the fact that I'm directing and that made me feel under less presure than in this unit. Also I found it hard not to do the camera work myself, eventhough I trusted Lauren who was my DP and I knew that she'll do her best, but for some reason I just feel way better handeling the camera myself (which I had to fight myself not to do at times). I could say that partially I enjoyed this project, it's just that I enjoyed it way more when I was someones DP or a sound person (eventhough i couldn't lift my arms for a week afterwards). If I could change something about my project, I probably would have started looking for actors a bit sooner, even if I didn't have scheduled everything, it just would have helped if I had som...

Scene 1 Following shot of Mike getting out of the lift; Following shot of Mike approching the undercover police; Mastershot; Midshot on Mike; Midshot on the 'Suit'; Midshot on the 'Bellman'; CU on Mike; CU on 'Suits' gun; CU on 'Bellman' fiddeling with the lock; Following shot of Mike walking away; Few shots of Mike running; Wide shot of Mike running donwn the stairs; CU on his feet; CU on the briefcase hiting the rail; Wide shot of Mike running through the doors; CU on the doorhandle; Wide shot on the 'Bellman' chasing Mike; Midshot on Mike running into the waiting room; Midshot of Donna; Midshot of the 'Bellman'; CU on Donna winking to Harvey; Midshot on Harvey; Scene 2  Wide shot; Midshot on Mike Midshot on Haevey; CU on the briefcase with the weed; Mastershot of Mike and Harvey conversation; Midshot on Mike; CU on Mike; Midshot on Harvey; CU on Harvey; CU of Harvey looking through the door;

Probably everyones sore subject due to people droping out of the shoot last minute and my shoot wasn't exception. I put out a listing on Starnow  and ended up with 6 applicants (only 1 that really matched the criteria) who wanted to play Mike's role and none that wanted to play Harvey. In the end I chose a guy whose name is Zak Watson-Smith to play Mike and other guy Scott Breach to play Harvey, Scott droped out because he couldn't make it on the chosen dates because he could only do weekends and I was scheduling to film Thursday-Friday, so I posted in one performing arts group on Facebook and got an actor that could be there at least on Friday. I asked Zak to send me a video of him reading the lines which I never got (even though I reminded him about it) so now I needed another actor. To my luck a guy who played in Jess's film (Andrew Thompson) was happy to help me out with mine as well. I decided to film the part up untill the meeting on Thursday and the rest on F...

When I first had the idea to redirect this scene I thought about filming it in the Studios and try my best to make it look like a modern, minimalistic hotel (which I ended up doing).  Especially the staircase scene, watching it I could definitely see it filmed there, of course it wasn't as high as they used in the show but I thought it could be fitting. I was really confident with this idea up until I noticed how dark it is there and tried to film a person running down it.  Thank God and Jo for getting the other staircase that had natural light in it and not just pretty bad lamps. But the thing I struggled the most with was finding a place to film the meeting as I was advised to find a place with a more grand decor. In a way it really scared me because if I could get the room to film in how was I supposed to get all the kit/cast and crew to the place if I don't drive and have nobody to get all of it there. Not really sure if it's lucky but part of me was glad I was...

 In the end I ended up changing from Harvard university to Oxford university because when I thought about it it didn't make sense that a law firm in London (which is where I decided to base it instead of NYC) hired only Harvard graduates. The biggest script change was for the two undercover policemen, they were supposed to be men, but due to not being able to find people who would be up to playing a secondary role for free, I ended up improvising and decided to take a page from Taika Waititi book and act in a film/sequence that I was directing (which was tough, especially while editing). I also changed it to computer instead of a laptop because there already was a computer in the room I was filming and I thought that it was more fitting.

This time to further research the art of directing i decided to look up for information and tips on my generations holy bible on how to do things right - youtube. I know it's not the best source but I was able to find helpful information from people who recently were beginers themselves and who worked/works on low budget films. Be opened to your crew/cast ideas on how to improve/perform the scene.  Find the right people to collaborate with and who you enjoy working with. Know what you want. Try to communicate with people as clearly as you can, that's the only way they'll deliver what you need. While preparing to film answer the questions - What the audience need to see? (that way you'll know where to place the camera, how the characters need to move and which moments you decide to show) -How do you want the audience to feel? (that affects the acting, what you want to do with cinematography, sound, lighting) Set a good tone on the set, show that you value the cas...

SUITS Obviously I chose this show because I'm rederecting one of the episodes for this project. The show is about a guy named Mike Ross who has a photographic memory and remembers every bit of information he has ever read. Mike's parents have died in a car accident when he was little and since then he was brought up by his grandma. When Mike is in need of money, his best friend Trevor suggests that he should memorise and sell some tests, which he does and gets in trouble for and no matter how much he wanted to become a lawer the doors that led to that path were shut. Afterwards when he was, once again, in need of money, Trevor talked him into doing a drug deal for him which was a set up. Mike being as smart as he is he figured it out and managed to run away from the police and that's how he met Harvey Specter who was impressed by Mike and decided to hire him despite the fact that Mike didn't even had a legal right to practise law. Later in the show we meet Mik...

TAIKA WAITITI Taika Waititi is probably my all time favorite director. I fell inlove with his work after watching his mockumentary about vampires in New Zeland called "What We Do In the Shadows" and I'm very excited about the sequel " We're Wolves" (we're wolves - werewolves - that's genius). He's also well known for mastering happy sad cinema. He believes that when the atmosphere is tense and uncomfortable that is when we feel the need to laugh most, his goal is to find the lighter form of tragic. Great examples of this kind of tragic comedy are his films "Boy" and "Hunt for the Wilderpeople".  Recently he's known for directing Marvel's "Thor: Ragnarok" which was received pretty well by most (some are unsatisfied because it's more of a comedy than an action film, but that's one of the main reasons why I, personally, liked the film so much). His directig style includes, as he himself has said, ...