Entry 1: I first struggled with getting not only cast together, but also with rewriting the script. I feel like with my other projects it was easier to write the script as its whole new ideas so its easier to work off of them, with supernova which was based off my previous project “Dexter” I felt pressure to have supernova as a much better version of the original. This made writing the script a lot more difficult as I was putting too much pressure on myself to create something better than the original while also going through the original script. This was when me and my partner, Madeline Scott, sat down together and started working through the script together which made everything so much easier. I think by sitting there and talking through it all with her made me way more creative as we could just bounce ideas off each other and got the script finished fairly quickly.
Entry 2: I began creating certain graphics such as the introduction to Dexter’s show and the Channel 4 next up screen. This was a really fun part of the production as I love all the little details and creating something fun to watch from having no video or anything and simply just creating with what premiere pro has to offer. I think this made me appreciate my ability for making high quality graphics and was by far one my favourite moments of the whole process. If I really nitpick at these scenes there is certain moments that I would change. For example, in the channel 4 intro the slide that says “Next up Dexter Manning: Unfiltered” begins moving slightly earlier than the “Location, Location, Location” slide which is really something I was quite disappointed with after I realised, however I am still very happy with how this section of the film in particular turned out.
Entry 3: After struggling to get into the TV Studio to film, we finally found a time that worked and finally got ready to film. We first filmed my scenes sat at the desk in the studio and we started knocking scenes down one by one. Azan was reading off his lines to the side of me so in the moment I could realise where I was in the script and continue the filming, which was a whole lot easier than just saying the lines to myself and helped me react easier to what Azan (or rather his character) was saying. I was using a clip on mic which I didn’t realise until after filming was clipping quite often. This really was a bad look for me as I was trying to make the film look as professional as possible, and especially when it came to audio I really let myself down. When filming my scenes, I tried to do as much as I could in one take, which is a really difficult thing to accomplish. This made me wonder if this would ruin the film as much as I thought it was, however I just held out hope that I would be able to work around it in editing. In the future, I would definitely make sure I have enough B-roll so if I do come across issues such as that I can cut to something else. Azan’s scenes were a lot easier to shoot, as I was able to sit next to him to direct him properly. We faced a camera towards the glass and turned the lights off in the studio, but we still couldn’t get a great image of him. To fix this we went back over to Lister Building and grabbed a light that we could point at Azan to have better lighting in the scene. This worked and we finally got rolling on recording his part of the lines, which we got through fairly quickly. Because of how I was sat next to him and could easily give him notes or ask him to try lines in different ways or whatever else I could direct him to do, it made the whole process of filming way more efficient, and we had had a blast filming it. We did also have an issue with Azan’s microphone, as it was in the same room as the control room the audio from his mic was coming through on the speakers which was really noticeable in his raw audio. To fix this I put his audio in GarageBand and added an effect which sounded like it was coming through an intercom, which is the effect I wanted in the first place, and that seemed to fix the issue with his audio. We also in the end ran out of time, and had to run into our lunch time just to finish. However, I’m glad we got everything finished when we did.
Entry 4: When I got home I began to film the extra scenes I needed being the scenes of Dexter getting home, avoiding the paparazzi, looking at the pills and his suicide. With the paparazzi scene, we used two uplighters on strobe at different speeds. Because of the different speeds it looked like multiple cameras taking pictures and really had the effect I wanted for this scene. For the scene of Dexter getting into his room and then looking at the pills, I first filmed Maddie in the exact way I wanted Dexter to look so when she was filming she had an idea of what I was looking for with the scenes, and I feel like it was filmed really well. These scenes were obviously very important to the film, so I struggled with getting in the headspace of Dexter and I don’t think my performance as the character is brilliant. I would have rather had a actor that I could then direct from behind the camera, however as this film was very important to me I wanted to play Dexter.
Entry 5: We then purchased a green screen and got everything set up in our living room ready for filming the BBC News scenes. We had a few issues with the green screen, mainly with wrinkles within the sheet itself, however I fixed this in a moment by ironing out the parts I would be using in the film. We filmed that scene and then went outside to record the scene of the news presenter outside the house, which wasn’t actually planned. I decided as we were recording the green screen scenes, that it would be so much more interesting if the news reader was actually outside of Dexter’s house.
Entry 6: I then placed all of my footage into a single premiere pro file and began editing it all together. It was a lot of fun creating the different graphics and creating a story with the footage I had at my disposable.