First two days of filming breakdown

So, filming began and all went well. I managed to do all of the projector scenes and private scenes with TAI in that one day. However, managing to get all of my cast in one place at the same time has proven to be the most difficult part of the process.

All of the projection scenes came out beautifully and I have decided to add music throughout the second projection scene. The bathroom scene was hard to shoot and it took a few tries but I think it came out really nicely.

The Bathroom scene

I wanted to appreciate and talk about this scene because its very special to me. Directors choosing to shoot scenes where there is an actor or actress looking at themselves in a mirror and it is a common scene in cinema. This is because by looking at the reflection of the actor in the mirror, the audience feels as though they are seeing the most raw and intimate version of a character. This is because when someone is completely alone, looking in the mirror at oneself there's no judgement and no hiding of thoughts or feelings. I wanted to pay homage to this and also end my opening this way because I think that it (hopefully) makes the audience fully trust TAI and also sets the pace for the rest of the film as cyclically, it goes back into silence seen in the opening shot.

Why silence?

This is an interesting question that I have been asked by a few different people that I've shown my film to. They have said that there's too much silence at the end and they feel uncomfortable with it but that is completely intentional. The final scene is designed to make the audience uncomfortable and by adding music or even dialogue I would be essentially distracting the audience with other mediums. Being forced to sit and watch someone crying, being emotional and just sitting with themselves commonly makes people feel uncomfortable and when I watch back the final scene I feel incredibly on edge and not at all at ease. Silence is something that has also always made me uncomfortable. I feel a constant need to fill "awkward" silences so that I don't feel out of place. For these very reasons I've decided to leave the end silent. Furthermore, in terms of setting up TAI's character, if this were a full length film I would gradually decrease the amount of silence used and introduce more characters so that TAI's character can grow and learn along with the audience.