Contribution Evaluation - Rhea Goddard

I originally became involved with this film when the idea was predominately about social anxiety and mental health. After a few meetings with out tutor talking about how we were going to portray this, the idea became more focused on sexual assault rather than social anxiety. I think this was because it was important we didn’t show the protagonist as weak or over sensitive and link sexual assault with mental health issues. This interested me as this topic was very controversial and I wanted to be a part of a crew that may be able to shed new light to this kind of situation.

The meetings were good and everybody had interesting personal experiences to share as well as contributing ideas of how we could portray these emotions through experimental themes. Sarah Bowen was great at understanding the thoughts and ideas that we shared but also questioning why we had suggested certain things and made us think about the possible perception as the film idea was so controversial. 

I shared a GoFundMe on my social media which managed to help raise enough money to pay travelling costs for cast and crew.

Filming went well. Everybody worked really hard to achieve what we had set out to do in the meetings. Originally, as the editor, I didn’t have a set role on shooting days. I helped Hannah with script supervising and helped where I could with regards to crew. I also played an extra in the party scenes for a little while. 

When it came to the edit, I created short assemblies of footage to show Sarah in the next meeting that we had. This included an opening sequence of Lucy brushing her teeth and getting ready as well as the black screen footage. I discussed this footage with Connor, he seemed to like the styling. 

The only issues were in post-production. There was a lack of communication between crew which meant that I wasn’t too sure what I was supposed to be editing and what was going to be re-filmed. I understand that this is trial and error and I do believe that we are all passionate filmmakers, but in future I would make sure there were specified meetings in place to discuss the edit with the director. 

This issue led to Connor creating an assembly of footage where I wasn’t available and I did not have as much input as I would have liked in the final cut. I do believe that Connor did a great job editing and I understand the pressures of getting everything done by a deadline. I just wish I’d known more about it. Overall, it was a great experience. Great crew. I’m glad I had the opportunity to work on this film. I think it looks great and tackles a hard-hitting issue with grace.

- Rhea Goddard