Finally, it was my turn. After several years in the society, and working on fourteen other films, I finally found the confidence to submit a script for consideration in a our termly production. It won.
You can see the original script I submitted HERE. As you can see from the final product, it didn’t quite stay true to the original script; but I think it is improved, and allowing the actors to ad-lib. and improvise dialogue, especially during the genre homage scenes, only worked to make the film more enjoyable to work on and watch.
Here I served not only as the writer, but during production I fulfilled the role of producer. This entailed working with my director and director of photography to source locations, communicating with the actors during the casting process, writing up call sheets for each day of production, and working with the rest of the crew on-set. It was at times a challenging role, but one I enjoyed immensely; it remains today my favourite role I’ve served on a production.
During post-production, I worked as a co-editor, taking over from the rough cut and finalising some of the creative edit choices. I also sourced musical composition for the film, and settled on my brother. I gave feedback at different stages to ensure it worked tonally across the various segments, and was very happy with the results.
The production was very enjoyable, but not without its issues. Sadly, some of our footage was lost. Our initial exterior scene, and the pirate homage, were both lost or wiped accidently.
Myself, the director and the DP worked hard to cover it as best as we could. Unfortunately, our lead actor had travelled to China for a different role, so we were not able to simply reshoot the scenes. We ultimately decided that this could play into the fim’s self-aware narrative, and offer a glitchy void with disassociated voices instead. I think it works well as a solution, even if I think it takes up slightly too much of the runtime to be properly effective.
Sadly, the pirate homage scenes were simply unrecoverable in any sense, so they were cut from the film, and all that remains of it are the production stills below.
Ultimately though, this was a terrfic opportunity and made all the better by a simply fantastic cast and crew. Our lead performers (above) were incredibly joyful, very easy and pleasant to work with, responded to direction well, but equally offered their own input which was always appreciated. The crew likewise were amazing on set, there was always agreat atmosphere when we were filming and easily made this the best crew I’ve worked on a film with. I have to give special thanks to my Director and DoP, who helped me bring my script to life, and to my brother, who composed the original music for the film.
I’m very proud of the final product, of the performances, the editting, the work of the crew, the DP’s cinematography and the musical score too. Seeing my script become a real film is truly a joy beyond that which I can comprehensively convey here and I sincerely appreciate the help everyone gave and hope they enjoy it as much as I do.
Behind the Scenes
Samuel D. Capper 