Directing our swede (Implementation)

 

When filming our swede of the movie Mean Girls (2004) I, the director,, had to start every scene with a hand movement to indicate the shot that was taking place and take number. This was a problem in the beginning as I kept getting confused on which way shot 6 goes versus shot 12. As the day went on, I understood more and more and by shot 22 I felt like a pro. The way I improved this was by looking up a 5 min video on the way to the next location so I can get a better hang of it. These signals will be very useful for my editor when done correctly.  Then she will know which scenes were good and those are the ones that we will be using to make the film blossom.

The picture above is the behind the scenes of shooting the mall scene where the "plastics" ask Cady how she likes Northshore. This scene was particularly hard to film so my hand motions were definitely practiced since it took about 12 tries. I feel like the most challenging part was remembering which take number was shot prior in order to follow the succession. This could have definitely slowed the process down a little bit but overall, the process was cohesive towards the end.

I would in the future do a little more research on the signs and practice to prepare prior to the film day. As I did some practice this time around it definitely wasn't enough to fully get the concept. It was definitely a good trial run to see what works and what needs to be fixed for future references.