[Confrontation Unit 8] Shooting Day #1 - Evaluation

Today I decided on shooting the first scene of the mockumentary. The scene includes the entire class entering the room, and myself playing a character talking obnoxiously, garnering frustrated reactions from the class in an otherwise silent room.

One of the issues I have with what I have recorded so far is that the sound isn't great, and so it was sometimes hard to hear was I was saying. I did predict this being an issue, so I had a camera recording audio right next to me, however the audio from that wasn't any better, as the microphone I had attached sounded muffled. I also feel that part of the scene felt a bit out of place, partially due to the pacing. It slows the scene down to a crawl, and being the first scene, if feels a bit jarring. A more skilled actor could have been able to provide more energy, however I was not able to provide that. I also wanted to mask my stutter during my lines, as I felt the stutter would interrupt the arrogance of the character I was playing, however I found this difficult, and I do think it took away from the scene.

One of the main things that made David Brent seem so real was his sense of confidence, that fed his arrogance. It helped the audience to believe Brent was really as egotistical as he seemed, and that he genuinely believes in what h's saying. You also get the impression that he is acting this confident due to the cameras, knowing he was going to be broadcast over national TV, he wanted to make himself look as strong and confident as possible. This is explored some more in the Christmas Specials, in which he starts internet dating, and again, begins showing off to the camera. During that scene he says he is "well built", pointing to his stomach saying "its all muscle". Its clear he knows this isn't true, but he wants people to think highly of him. This was the basic idea around the character I was playing, so it was important that he sounded as confident as possible.

An example of this can be seen here:
Its his confidence in himself and his 'skills' that really sells the scene.

I am considering removing the moments that include me acting entirely, and keeping the focus away from me, so I can sink more time into directing rather than being in-front of the camera. Attempting both I think may have been me biting off more than I could chew.

Something else I would like to do is include more unscripted scenes, maybe keeping the scripted stuff as rare occurrences that help move the film along. Something that was a bit lacking in my Sci-Fi Weekender video was the fact that there wasn't really a structure or sense of progression, so it is possible I could keep the scripted scenes as small moments to keep a sense of direction.

This new direction will likely turn it more into a documentary than a mockumentary - with the office only as light inspiration rather that it be something I am attempting to duplicate in a different context.


This change in direction may require some restructuring of my schedule, detailed in my first post.