Trapped in a perpetual loop, Alan shields himself from the harsh realities of the outside world, blurring the lines between good and bad as he navigates a relentless struggle to preserve his sense of morality.
Role: Writer, Production manager
Report on roles for the short film “Goodman”
Erman Olmus
My idea for the “Goodman” was pitched and selected in the class. Our group had been working towards the completed film since the beginning of December 2023 starting with my part. The project is completed with all steps of pre-production, production and post-production at the end of January 2023. There are many rights and wrongs, many mistakes made and many lessons learnt.
I worked as the writer, 2nd AD and the casting director. I came up with a logline, synopsis and a plot. With the help of our tutor, I redrafted 3 different structures for the main script. The reason I did many revisions is that the story was not actually working in the beginning. There were many missing or weak points. I made some critical changes affecting the outline including the characters and key point events. After the final product I still see some problems to discuss with myself.
Firstly, a self-criticism is that I was really excited about what the story is trying to tell and that I would be able to show and teach something to the audience. Even though I have good experience in the industry and as I believe an artistic vision, I think I still have the influence of being an Architect and approach to my works in a very analytical mind. I focused too much on the structure, I should have understood the importance of emotions. I should be more patient and calm, use them as a guidance for the audience, maybe lead them towards what to think or see in their own way and comment. My professors in architecture always suggested us to present our projects in a way that most basic human being mind would understand what we are trying to do. In filmmaking it is more complicated than that. It lets the audience be a part of it. I think this transition between artistic disciplines has its challenges as well as the advantages. I always thought it was more about creating new worlds and letting a story happen inside of it and yes maybe this is a part of the process but the feelings, manipulation of emotions, these are very crucial elements for the story and the expression of it.
The example our tutor showed “Stranger” is a good short film to see it clearly. 1 location, 3 characters, simplicity, good visuals, good sound, very good use of drama and strong emotional drive, well progression in characters. When I have a second look to my writing I see that regarding the expected length, structure of the screenplay was too complex, having lack of emotional drive, low quality with the progression and development of the character. Narrative drive is also I think should be better. End of the scenes do not really point to what the next scene is going to be exactly and everything happens too fast. If all the missing elements come together in this film, this time I guess, it would need more time to express it. So, maybe I should have kept it more simple and connect scenes better in addition to the missing emotional drive.
Another part of the criticisms would be on the characters and the world. We don’t really get to know them. The idea was that a protagonist having struggle keeping true to himself, stay as a good person with certain moral values in a heartless crucial world. Pushing him to a point to choose rather to give up, get corrupted or accept the harsh reality and deal with the pain. In act 1, we don’t exactly understand the difference. The loop/routine scenes are executed nicely but we don’t see him doing good, having decisions against struggles. We don’t see the community living in this world as one, acting badly on anything around them. Making us question whether these characters are just a group of people or the reality he is living in with the duality in between himself and the outerworld. The antagonist also is a big question. I think we definitely don’t understand that Brian is a part of Alan, he just seems like another part of the other group which is actually true in a way but because of the absence of the connection with the protagonist, it doesn’t really represent the whole idea. There are some problems with the pitch point and the resolution of the ending but I think this is the responsibility of the execution rather than the writing.
Secondly, as being the cast and 2nd assistant director, I think I did most of my responsibilities well. I found the right actors to match the roles. I tried my best to have good communication with them and keep everything updated. We worked with the director to lead and guide the cast. Time to time I had feedback on missing information about the characters and story from them. We worked on the problems and corrected them by giving importance to the given feedback. I worked with Kite (1st AD) about the permissions. I took care of the call sheets, daily schedules keeping in mind everyone's free times, who needs to be on the same set and when etc. Documents and the program were clear and understandable. Imer with his unquestionable experience and background guided me well during the preparation. My other comment on our teamwork would be we got too tired sometimes which made us a bit more slow-paced and fell behind the schedule in terms of timing. We really supported and pushed each other to complete it.
Even though everything was really clear on paper, we had some missing shots on some days. Maybe I should have made sure that everyone had a good look on the call sheets and kept the director updated during the shooting day more. I tried to make sure I’ve done my responsibility to inform and discuss the screenplay with the director. We put good effort with the director Harsh, and made multiple meetings for it. Our editor also had a good idea about it. We checked the rough cut together with the director and dop as well. Made sure the story was intaked with the right order and structure. We always had respect and kindness with good communications. During the management of work and production, we had some miscommunication from time to time but never had been away from talking about it and making it right.
Getting the right props was also a big struggle for us with the costume and of course the balloon. We tried to make the cost as low as possible. Also during the set, managing the balloons air was a big struggle. We couldn't afford a generator for portable electricity so always tried to get help from around about plugs to pump the balloon. We weren’t well organised about it. We should think about every aspect for what will be needed on shooting day better. What we did right about it is keeping a spare balloon just in case.
Seeing other roles this closely also was very helpful to make me empathize with their problems. We were able to see the whole operation and the importance of each role. Each actor proposed good performances. On some scenes there is no fluctuation between emotions but this is more my and the director's fault than the cast team. I believe we are really successful with visual storytelling. Some scenes were executed exactly as I imagined as the writer. Rashed, our dop, made a good job on it. Good quality and composition can be scene addition to the correct cinematic lighting.
Altogether, I am very glad that we pushed ourselves with the story and the production. It was definitely a challenge but this made us confront many problems and mistakes which makes it possible for us to experience and learn more and more. Hopefully, next time we all are going to do better and try our best again.
