First weeks back

Feb 10, 2025
3 min read

Updated: Mar 4, 2025

Upon returning in the new year, 'Sense of Place' was the brief for our projects. Going through the handout guide to understand what projects we will be undertaking, we had a think about what scripts peaked our interest to work on from some short pitches. In the following days, I contacted and read my classmate's work, trying to find something new and creative to edit and possibly direct.

-There were very few ideas in the first few days as people were still working on their drafts, and I wanted to wait for an idea that really excited me. After a week or two, The White Nightgown was added to the drive, and it really drew me in. I found myself visualising the film while reading. Already having three team-members, I was lucky they were looking for a director. Wanting the opportunity to properly develop my skills in this role, especially feeling more confident now with the learning previous roles on other shoots have taught me, I made some notes on the script for suggestions to bring up at the meeting before the next draft.

My main points of feedback included;

Cut down on dialogue, especially at the end, as it felt a bit repetitive. I didn't want it to feel like a play. Breaks with more action. Show and insinuate; don't tell.
Establish more time with Elspeth at the start.
More visualisation of her inner psyche can be done through momentary flashes of her murder/ echoed eerie, repetitive sound design.

-I feel like my knowledge in other departments, especially the Director of Photography and editing, allowed me to have a comprehensive grasp of how the aspects of film work together to tie a film together.

-Overall, I gathered more information about the atmosphere and intentions of the writer during the meeting, which helped me build on the character profiles to help direct and select actors. Lea's (writer) motivation to focus on male greed and John's (the dad) cold cowardice towards his daughter's fierce resilience.

Pink is from discussion with the writer

Improvements post meeting.

As for my primary role of editing, I also wanted to wait a while before committing to one project. Both to wait on other possible ideas and to see which crew members I would be working with if the project was to get green-lit, prioritising working with new people. It did take a while for everyone's ideas to be finalised with scripts added onto the drive, and the ones that initially piqued my interest were chosen by other editors in the year. Wanting something with lots of creative opportunities to learn from, I was checking the drive frequently every few days, but after looking through Letterboxd one night and seeing the DoP Morven's list with inspirations behind Screamsaver it sparked my curiosity as I had watched and liked a majority of the films on there. (Click to see the now completed list).

I had never worked on something with such a horror/thriller genre and was eager to have a go. After reading Guenole's script Screamsaver and contacting him, they were pleased to have me on the crew as editor.

Most recent script draft ↴

(Second draft)