Movie Review: Introverted Extroverts Looking For Distraction (2024)

This isn't much like the movie reviews I do, however I am going to discuss my decisions and how the process was. A short musical directed by Grace Hookway, written by Bella Harrison starring Yiling Yang and Tao Deng. A film following an introverted girl telling the story of the night she met this guy in a bar in Thailand.

Pre-Production

People say the musical is made in post-Production. For me, every process you are making the musical. Pre-Production, I learnt I wasn't going to the beats I wished for this musical. That hurt me. A lot of this was because of me. This is when I realise the pain filmmakers go through and it is normal.

I wouldn't use the word problem but an obstacle we have to walk with is our Production Designer not being able to be present. So we had to communicate online which wasn't a problem so much.

I had a conversation with one of my tutors, he reminded me what I put myself through and how hard making a musical is.

It was tough

Production

Production came along and everything feels ready. Closing up to the shooting day, my production design came along and helped out to set up. We had two days t set up the sets and scenes.

The first day was not so stressful. The set ran smoothy and I was really happy with the shots. My crew were happy and my casts were also. We did have miscommunication but at the end of the day, I'm glad I'm making mistakes now.

The second day was stressful. Too stressful and lacked the communications. Everything felt like it was all stressful in places which their could've been ways.

Post-Production

The post production process was fun but also stressful. I all I had for the music was a song with no arcs or build ups. It is the same thing over and over again. Though this should have been dealt in pre-production, I was putting a lot of stress in myself.

Of course I was working with a music composer and we did not have the chance to meet face to face and discuss. Was quite a stressful time and I didn't feel I was dealing with the stress that well.

Directing this musical is definitely was a challenge and an experience. I would want to direct a musical again. It was a tough experience but the results were worth it.