Rivalled Love
[Writer/ Director/ Editor]
"Rivalled Love", the film I created for my Directing Actors unit stars Patrick Cooper, Declan Delaney and Olivia Squires. It is about a man and woman who are in a relationship and a mutual friend of theirs who wants to come between them when suspicions of cheating come to light. I took inspiration from the works of Shane Meadows and his realist filming. Due to the dialogue heavy script there are elements of mumble core throughout the piece.
The process of creating this film started with the beginning of our unit back in January. Film Production students who chose 'Directing Actors' as their optional unit were put into a class with many of the Performance students, for us to work together for the next few months in developing our skills in directing, or being directed. It taught us to build actor/ director relationships, a skill that may prove useful in the future. In the first couple of weeks the class went through many exercises that the actors were accustomed to, in order that the filmmakers could understand the film process from an actor's perspective. This included pairing up and mirroring each other's actions, learning breathing techniques that can be utilised to channel certain emotions and in turn can be used to bring a sense of authenticity to a scene.
At the end of the first few sessions we would get into groups and be given either a directing exercise or an acting exercise. One of the exercises included receiving an iconic photo and taking inspiration from it to create a short scene that the actors could play out. This gave us directors a good start in learning how to get the best out of an actor by discussing thoughts and ideas with them and how they are going to convey a certain message or emotion through their performance. One of the other exercises included every member of the class bringing in an object that meant significant value to them, placing it in a box and then groups of both directors and actors trying to convince the rest of the class that they picked their own item out of the box and not someone else’s. From my perspective, this was an important lesson in how to convince an audience of something by putting a sense of truth into what you’re saying, whilst not overplaying it so much that people lose faith in your performance.
We then started to work through lessons that were more director based, which meant that we started looking at film directors such as Wes Anderson and Akira Kurosawa, and from these lessons we went over certain directing styles and director trademarks that allows an audience to recognise a certain filmmakers work just from the way a film is shot. It was then up to us to think about what our personal directing trademarks might be and which directors influenced our filmmaking. For me Martin Scorsese is the biggest influence on my filmmaking through his style of narratives and the camera work instilled in his films such as Goodfellas and Taxi Driver that I have at times tried to mimic in my own work. That being said, I also look to Shane Meadows' work, the director of This is England, when I am creating a film with more realism, or focusing on character driven pieces
The process of creating this film started with the beginning of our unit back in January. Film Production students who chose 'Directing Actors' as their optional unit were put into a class with many of the Performance students, for us to work together for the next few months in developing our skills in directing, or being directed. It taught us to build actor/ director relationships, a skill that may prove useful in the future. In the first couple of weeks the class went through many exercises that the actors were accustomed to, in order that the filmmakers could understand the film process from an actor's perspective. This included pairing up and mirroring each other's actions, learning breathing techniques that can be utilised to channel certain emotions and in turn can be used to bring a sense of authenticity to a scene.
At the end of the first few sessions we would get into groups and be given either a directing exercise or an acting exercise. One of the exercises included receiving an iconic photo and taking inspiration from it to create a short scene that the actors could play out. This gave us directors a good start in learning how to get the best out of an actor by discussing thoughts and ideas with them and how they are going to convey a certain message or emotion through their performance. One of the other exercises included every member of the class bringing in an object that meant significant value to them, placing it in a box and then groups of both directors and actors trying to convince the rest of the class that they picked their own item out of the box and not someone else’s. From my perspective, this was an important lesson in how to convince an audience of something by putting a sense of truth into what you’re saying, whilst not overplaying it so much that people lose faith in your performance.
We then started to work through lessons that were more director based, which meant that we started looking at film directors such as Wes Anderson and Akira Kurosawa, and from these lessons we went over certain directing styles and director trademarks that allows an audience to recognise a certain filmmakers work just from the way a film is shot. It was then up to us to think about what our personal directing trademarks might be and which directors influenced our filmmaking. For me Martin Scorsese is the biggest influence on my filmmaking through his style of narratives and the camera work instilled in his films such as Goodfellas and Taxi Driver that I have at times tried to mimic in my own work. That being said, I also look to Shane Meadows' work, the director of This is England, when I am creating a film with more realism, or focusing on character driven pieces
For me, the transitional point of our unit was when we stopped looking at the exercises and the work of other directors and started to focus on our own film assessment. This process began when the directors had to pair up with each other to audition the actors for their film. I worked with Helena as we both have much passion for filmmaking and had previously collaborated together in an end of lesson exercise, a few weeks before.
During the auditions I took extensive notes on the actors and rated their performances out of 10 so that I had something to base my decision on when choosing which actors I wanted to work with.
The auditions were very useful as it allowed me to see many of the strengths and weaknesses for each actor. Helena and I gave them a scenario (cleaning a chair, receiving a phone call, being either an employer or an employee) and had them play it out three times with different emotions. The actor that impressed me most was Patrick “Paddy” Cooper. The notes I took for his audition, based on his character(s) were:
“Paddy:
Because of his impressive audition I put him down as my first choice for male actor. Another stand out audition we received was from Olivia Squires who took an interesting approach as she “Enters the audition as an upset actress, character back story included. Her character pushes on with the audition despite breaking down crying at points. Olivia’s fourth wall breaks makes for an interesting audition. 8/10”. Because of this style of audition, I remembered Olivia standing out from other actors who waited to be given instructions on their type of character. I had no prior knowledge that she would do this so I was left wondering if Olivia was genuinely upset or whether it was a character she was playing, which really shows how convincing an actor she is.
During the same session the directors were held back a few minutes after the actors left, as our lecturers
Greg and Maggie spoke to us about how we had to come up with an idea for our film. We were told that it should be no longer than 2 minutes, giving both actors that we work with an even amount of time to showcase their acting. We were then each given a phrase or buzzword that we could draw inspiration from for our films story line. Mine was “Seeker of Truth”. Due to it being quite an ambiguous phrase to receive, with lots of potential of how someone is seeking the “Truth” or what the “Truth” could be, it gave me a great deal to work with when coming up with ideas.
A few days later, Greg and Maggie had chosen the actors that the directing groups would be working with. Helena & I got Patrick and Olivia which was great news for us because these were two actors I was excited to work with and had already proved themselves to be good at their craft. I got to work on what the narrative of my two minute film would be, and decided that a good interpretation for “Seeker of Truth” could be a woman trying to find out if her boyfriend is cheating on her. It would create a lot of emotional and dramatic friction between the characters, which I think would be a good way to test the strengths of the actors’ performances.
On the first session back Helena & I, along with our two actors, started to look at each other’s film ideas and began working on the characters biographies with the actors, so that they would have a good understanding of the type of people they would be portraying and the relationships between each other and how that may affect the actions of the characters. When looking at the characters for my film, we did this by writing down some ideas of how the characters met, how their relationship evolved and what each one does for a living.
Patrick decided that his character; Chris, would be a university dropout who works full time at an office.
Olivia decided that her character; Kate, would still be studying a marine based course at university.
At the start of this session Greg and Maggie told Helena and I that due to a lack of directors attending the class that we would be adding Declan Delaney to our group. He also added that this decision was made due to us being two of the most “dedicated and capable” directors in the class and believes we can handle the responsibility of another actor in our group. The addition of a third actor meant that our film would have to be three minutes long to accommodate. Although this meant more work in writing in a new character and his involvement in the narrative, it also gave me more leniency in my time constraints, as I had an extra minute for the story to play out a setup, confrontation and conclusion. Fortunately, Declan had impressed me in the auditions so I was glad to work with him and as with the other actors I took notes on how he performed:
“Declan:
With Declan joining the cast it meant that I would have to make changes to the narrative and find a way for his character to fit into the script. After discussions between myself and my actors, we decided that it would be Declan’s character; Alex, who plants the suspicions in Kate’s mind that Chris is cheating on her.
As the story progresses it becomes clear that Alex’s motivation for coming between the couple is because he had feelings for Kate long before Chris started dating her.
Helena and I then started developing our ideas into scripts for the next session, whilst the actors went away to think more about how they were going to portray their roles. Once the final drafts were finished we started to rehearse the scene over and over again throughout the session to get a more defined performance. We went through this process by blocking the positions and movements of the actors, and when going through lines we talked about delivery, tone and the message the character’s trying to convey through what they’re saying. Greg filmed one of the rehearsals for me to study later on, to find what can be improved. For the most part everything went smoothly in this process however the only obstacle we faced was that the blocking we were doing in rehearsal might have to change once we got on location depending on the space we had available.
During the auditions I took extensive notes on the actors and rated their performances out of 10 so that I had something to base my decision on when choosing which actors I wanted to work with.
The auditions were very useful as it allowed me to see many of the strengths and weaknesses for each actor. Helena and I gave them a scenario (cleaning a chair, receiving a phone call, being either an employer or an employee) and had them play it out three times with different emotions. The actor that impressed me most was Patrick “Paddy” Cooper. The notes I took for his audition, based on his character(s) were:
“Paddy:
- (Desperation) Employee, sense of logic about him, dedicated worker, slight annoyance with boss’s incompetence, shows desperation and sadness. Able to evolve emotion quickly. 10/10
- (Anger) Shows anger well, true annoyance, sarcasm involved, burst of rage feels natural despite the fact he’s such an easy going guy in real life. 10/10.
- (Sadness) Sense of loneliness, hit rock bottom, evoking emotion. 9/10”
Because of his impressive audition I put him down as my first choice for male actor. Another stand out audition we received was from Olivia Squires who took an interesting approach as she “Enters the audition as an upset actress, character back story included. Her character pushes on with the audition despite breaking down crying at points. Olivia’s fourth wall breaks makes for an interesting audition. 8/10”. Because of this style of audition, I remembered Olivia standing out from other actors who waited to be given instructions on their type of character. I had no prior knowledge that she would do this so I was left wondering if Olivia was genuinely upset or whether it was a character she was playing, which really shows how convincing an actor she is.
During the same session the directors were held back a few minutes after the actors left, as our lecturers
Greg and Maggie spoke to us about how we had to come up with an idea for our film. We were told that it should be no longer than 2 minutes, giving both actors that we work with an even amount of time to showcase their acting. We were then each given a phrase or buzzword that we could draw inspiration from for our films story line. Mine was “Seeker of Truth”. Due to it being quite an ambiguous phrase to receive, with lots of potential of how someone is seeking the “Truth” or what the “Truth” could be, it gave me a great deal to work with when coming up with ideas.
A few days later, Greg and Maggie had chosen the actors that the directing groups would be working with. Helena & I got Patrick and Olivia which was great news for us because these were two actors I was excited to work with and had already proved themselves to be good at their craft. I got to work on what the narrative of my two minute film would be, and decided that a good interpretation for “Seeker of Truth” could be a woman trying to find out if her boyfriend is cheating on her. It would create a lot of emotional and dramatic friction between the characters, which I think would be a good way to test the strengths of the actors’ performances.
On the first session back Helena & I, along with our two actors, started to look at each other’s film ideas and began working on the characters biographies with the actors, so that they would have a good understanding of the type of people they would be portraying and the relationships between each other and how that may affect the actions of the characters. When looking at the characters for my film, we did this by writing down some ideas of how the characters met, how their relationship evolved and what each one does for a living.
Patrick decided that his character; Chris, would be a university dropout who works full time at an office.
Olivia decided that her character; Kate, would still be studying a marine based course at university.
At the start of this session Greg and Maggie told Helena and I that due to a lack of directors attending the class that we would be adding Declan Delaney to our group. He also added that this decision was made due to us being two of the most “dedicated and capable” directors in the class and believes we can handle the responsibility of another actor in our group. The addition of a third actor meant that our film would have to be three minutes long to accommodate. Although this meant more work in writing in a new character and his involvement in the narrative, it also gave me more leniency in my time constraints, as I had an extra minute for the story to play out a setup, confrontation and conclusion. Fortunately, Declan had impressed me in the auditions so I was glad to work with him and as with the other actors I took notes on how he performed:
“Declan:
- (Relaxed to Angry) Starts by playing along cooperatively with boss despite the fact that he’s the only actor in the scene, pretty relaxed guy. Gets defensive when boss disciplines him for phone call, gets annoyed and quits job. 9/10
- (Happy) Good with boss, apologetic and trying to reason with boss. Jokey and light hearted towards his employer when proving a point. Leaves job with the implication that the job is “taking the piss”. 8/10
- (Desperate) Apologetic with boss and seems like a downtrodden character. By the end has had enough being pushed around and leaves, but doesn’t have an outburst. Good subtle character development in such a short amount of time. 8/10”
With Declan joining the cast it meant that I would have to make changes to the narrative and find a way for his character to fit into the script. After discussions between myself and my actors, we decided that it would be Declan’s character; Alex, who plants the suspicions in Kate’s mind that Chris is cheating on her.
As the story progresses it becomes clear that Alex’s motivation for coming between the couple is because he had feelings for Kate long before Chris started dating her.
Helena and I then started developing our ideas into scripts for the next session, whilst the actors went away to think more about how they were going to portray their roles. Once the final drafts were finished we started to rehearse the scene over and over again throughout the session to get a more defined performance. We went through this process by blocking the positions and movements of the actors, and when going through lines we talked about delivery, tone and the message the character’s trying to convey through what they’re saying. Greg filmed one of the rehearsals for me to study later on, to find what can be improved. For the most part everything went smoothly in this process however the only obstacle we faced was that the blocking we were doing in rehearsal might have to change once we got on location depending on the space we had available.
After three weeks of rehearsals we were ready to start filming. Patrick and Olivia agreed that we could use their house for the shoot. Helena and I went to film our assessed pieces on the 6th April 2017 using a Canon C100 and microphones. We filmed Helena’s piece first where I took on the role of sound recordist. I arranged for another film student; Kai Edwards, to work as camera operator. During the filming of my piece I recruited another filmmaker to be sound recordist; Ciaran Henry, whilst I focused directing the actors through the scene. As expected the layout of the house was different to how we imagined it during rehearsals, so instead of using just one room, we used three rooms of the house. The filming took about 2-3 hours to complete, using both interior and exterior shots of the house. There is a particular shot that starts with Chris quite blurred in the distance but then the focus is slowly pulled to him as the situation becomes clear to him. This technique was inspired by Mike Nichols’ The Graduate, which was used to demonstrate a physical representation of a characters state of mind.
The actors gave a great performance overall and I was really satisfied with the final edit of the film. I sent a link to the actors and Helena and received positive feedback from them. I believe that I learnt a great amount from this unit especially on how to interact and cooperate with my actors and I found out new ways I can get the best performance out of an actor, whether on set or location. I feel more confident as a director and hope that I can carry on perfecting my craft in future projects.