If you’ve checked out my website then chances are you’ve read up about my first short film, The Girl in the Café. My page dedicated to the project details how and why I decided to make this film, as my first film. I will say this, it wasn’t by any means easy. In two weeks time, on Monday 29th July, the film will be uploaded onto Youtube in its entirety and this will mark the end of my journey with the film. So, I’ve decided to make a blog reflecting on this journey.
I consider myself a creative person. I have a wild imagination, I like to be with my thoughts a lot and I come up with some insane ideas for stories.
Although I know with my first film I had to restrict myself as I was working without a budget and without many resources. So the hardest part of making the film was coming up with an idea that was cost-effective and set entirely in one location. As you might know, I soon spawned the idea for this film.
Once I had the final script I decided to start looking for the cast for these characters. Luckily, I had some very talented people reach out to me. Sarah, Jess, Nicky, Kate and Maeve all had previous experience with theatrical work and other acting work, which helped a lot with the process. Paula and my dad, Lachlan, both have limited work in acting but I believed in their talents and I wouldn’t have cast them if I didn’t think they could pull it off. In the end, the film stands out more thanks to all of these amazing actors.
I’ve never gone into the technical details of making this film, and this is for one major reason. I am still learning about the technical side of filmmaking. The sound-work was my biggest obstacle and was the hardest part of the process for me, just because I didn’t know how to create realistic sounds and create the illusion that it was all done separately. Syncing the sound with the film was also a technical hurdle that I had to overcome, but it was a massive learning experience for me and I am proud of the final result.
It has been unfortunate that this film didn’t have any legs on the film festival circuit, but yet again there’s so much competition out there and this was a first time filmmaker’s amateurish first production. So it had a lot to prove. I really enjoyed making this film and I will treasure the experience very fondly.
All the people that helped me out were incredibly supportive and it’s thanks to their encouragement that I’m still pursuing this as a career.
For more information about the film please click here.
Thank you for reading!
Alex Murray, the Head of Eyesight Productions
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