Severin Smith

Production Report

The start of this film was a tad hectic. I had formed a group with 4 people but then the
next week I got sick and could not attend class, luckily Jessica was also sick so both of us were
removed from our group and could form a new one. We had 4 people in the group originally but
I think just two people worked far more effectively for this short film.
The effects in this movie were well coordinated and put together. My dad is a lighting
gaffer so he lent me some of his lighting equipment and black out tarps to create our set. My
dad also helped out by giving me shooting advice so that we could film as efficiently as possible.
We also decided to use my basement for the location of the filming because it already doe not
have an extensive amount of natural light. My dad has tremendous knowledge of the film
industry; he has worked as an actor and a director, and has been a gaffer for over 30 years. His
help was much appreciated.
My friend Phoebe has a knack for special effects makeup so I contacted her and asked if
she would like to coat Hunter in blood, she was very keen on the idea. She gave him a cut on
his nose, which was not in my initial plan but it looked great, as well as bleeding lips and
mouthfuls of blood. The mouthfuls of blood were interesting to shoot because we had to get the
correct viscosity and lighting to make sure that the blood could be seen. After a few attempts we
concocted a good mixture of lighting and blood and we created a really interesting shot. The
blood was extremely thick by the end of testing so we had to shoot it quickly so Hunter did not
accidentally swallow it. We ended up putting a bowl underneath his mouth that he could drool
into to prevent him from swallowing the blood.
My partner for this project was also extremely helpful. Jessica was great when it came to
editing and making herself available. She let me do my thing when it came to shooting but she
had a huge hand in editing the film. She spent a couple hours rotoscoping the film and colour
correcting it, then she and I spent six hours making the final cut and editing the music to make it
fit within our film. While choosing the music for the film I was showing Jessica a song that I felt
would be a good reference, then I thought, “hey, why not make this our song?” We managed to
splice it and make it our own and move parts of it around to make it fit where needed. Her
Russian speaking ability also came in handy because our quote is at the very beginning of the
film and we decided to put it in Russian because it looks cool. Jessica also had a super positive
attitude throughout the entire process which made filming and editing much more enjoyable.
Production Assessment
Thanks to the help of my partner, and our super talented crew, this film turned out great.
Managing people's schedules was super easy as they made themselves available for the shoot
day, and they were all happy to help which made the process of making this film super fun and
easy going. The filming of the film was easy because I knew exactly what I wanted it to look like
because Jesscia and I had planned most of our shots days in advance. The editing, for me, was
the hard part.
Jessica and I used Adobe Premiere Pro to edit our film which I had never used before.
For her it was fairly straightforward but I had to learn how to use it as we edited so it took us a
little longer than if I had already known how to use the software. Upon exporting the film to
Vimeo the quality of the footage dropped tremendously. We shot the film on my Nikon D3500
Camera which has super high video quality. During the editing process the film was in super
high definition but when we exported it the qualityThe start of this film was a tad hectic. I had
formed a group with 4 people but then the next week I got sick and could not attend class,
luckily Jessica was also sick so both of us were removed from our group and could form a new
one. We had 4 people in the group originally but I think just two people worked far more
effectively for this short film.

Severin Smith

Production Report

The effects in this movie were well coordinated and put together. My dad is a lighting
gaffer so he lent me some of his lighting equipment and black out tarps to create our set. My
dad also helped out by giving me shooting advice so that we could film as efficiently as possible.
We also decided to use my basement for the location of the filming because it already doe not
have an extensive amount of natural light. My dad has tremendous knowledge of the film
industry; he has worked as an actor and a director, and has been a gaffer for over 30 years. His
help was much appreciated.
My friend Phoebe has a knack for special effects makeup so I contacted her and asked if
she would like to coat Hunter in blood, she was very keen on the idea. She gave him a cut on
his nose, which was not in my initial plan but it looked great, as well as bleeding lips and
mouthfuls of blood. The mouthfuls of blood were interesting to shoot because we had to get the
correct viscosity and lighting to make sure that the blood could be seen. After a few attempts we
concocted a good mixture of lighting and blood and we created a really interesting shot. The
blood was extremely thick by the end of testing so we had to shoot it quickly so Hunter did not
accidentally swallow it. We ended up putting a bowl underneath his mouth that he could drool
into to prevent him from swallowing the blood.
My partner for this project was also extremely helpful. Jessica was great when it came to
editing and making herself available. She let me do my thing when it came to shooting but she
had a huge hand in editing the film. She spent a couple hours rotoscoping the film and colour
correcting it, then she and I spent six hours making the final cut and editing the music to make it
fit within our film. While choosing the music for the film I was showing Jessica a song that I felt
would be a good reference, then I thought, “hey, why not make this our song?” We managed to
splice it and make it our own and move parts of it around to make it fit where needed. Her
Russian speaking ability also came in handy because our quote is at the very beginning of the
film and we decided to put it in Russian because it looks cool. Jessica also had a super positive
attitude throughout the entire process which made filming and editing much more enjoyable.

For my next film attempt I will try to foster a more professional environment. I loved being able
to work with my friends but it did affect our ability to focus at times. I will also make a film that
has more movement and dialogue because I would like to see how well I do with a more
dynamic scene/story.

Severin Smith April 2022