Making a Short Film: Lessons Learned

Running head: NARRATIVE ESSAY
Narrative Essay
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1NARRATIVE ESSAY
Making films was one of the most ambitious wishes that I had since a very young age.
It takes considerable skills and understanding of various concepts related to films in order to
make a film on own. The moment I turned 19, I wanted to make a film on my own with my
friends acting in it. I had a group of friends who were into the idea of being casted in a film
so that they could showcase their talent. I came up with the idea of making a short film with
my group of friends. I took up the hat of director and started scripting for the short film. It
never is an easy job to direct a film and it requires considerable amount of knowledge to
make a film on own (Irving & Rea, 2013). I believed that I learnt a lot by watching films
from all parts of the world, I being a film buff believed that watching films would endow me
with enough knowledge to start making films. The short film making process started from the
scratch and it considerable effort to make sure that everyone on the team was on the same
page. The script was finalized by me and conceptualized with a friend of mine who I took in
as Assistant Screenplay Writer. The concept of the film was based on certain practices of
inequality in the society and as I was a student of English literature, the script looked great on
paper. The team was wowed with the script when it was read out to them for the first time.
The concept was well presented on paper by me and John, the assistant screenplay writer.
The language perfectly reflected the emotions that were present in the real concept and it
made sure that the plot was hitting the audience at the right points. We took the script and
went to few people who had considerable knowledge about story and plot. The feedback that
we received from them was very motivating and it lead us to believe that a good short film
was about to be shot and presented to the world.
After the script was set, the actors in the team were taken up for rehearsals. The actors
would come at my place regularly to jam up and perform the scenes together. All those who
were in the team were new and didn’t have any experience regarding acting. They were doing
well in the rehearsals and it further made sure that the best was expected from them on the

2NARRATIVE ESSAY
day of shooting. The actors were guided by me and Kevin who was assigned as the Assistant
Director of the project. Kevin mainly focused on the acting performances and fine tuned the
actors. Kevin wished to be an actor, and though he was not professionally trained in acting he
had watched plenty of acting tutorials and learnt from them. After rigorous rehearsals for 15
days, the team was ready for the shoot and the actors were confident enough to pull out their
best performance. The technical team was ready as they were professional with the camera
they did not need much of an explanation or direction on how the shoot was to be conducted.
The Director of Photography was a friend of mine named Charles. Charles graduated last
year in photography and videography and he had considerable idea about how the shoot was
to be executed.
It was the day of the shoot and everyone seemed to be nervous as they were all first
timers including me in the director’s seat. The shoot began in time and then the main issues
started to take place. The actors who were outright confident in the rehearsals on the day
before were stuttering to perform on camera and multiple retakes took place which
lengthened the shoot enormously. The direction from my end was in tatters as I had no idea
on how to effectively gain control of the film set and make sure that the actors and
technicians were on the same page. The shoot was supposed to be of one day but it was
extended to a 3 day schedule. The reshoot and retakes made the process longer and delayed
the progress. The lack of professional experience made it difficult for the team to withstand
the pressure that is prevalent at a film set. The shoot was wrapped and the clips were then
sent to the edit team. The edit team comprised of a friend of mine who was pursuing film
studies and wanted to be a professional film editor. The editing of the 15 minute short film
took about 10 days and then the product was ready to be released in out on YouTube. It was
decided from the initial days that the film would be given out on YouTube. YouTube is a