A look at the PROCESS behind my nano-budget short film
Lockdown Alone, divided into 4 stages and 16 steps.
STAGE 1: THE CONCEPT
JUNE 2023
1: LOCATION
The location was the key inspiration behind the film’s story of a young woman named Nell and her solo 2020 lockdown. This stunning converted church was my next-door neighbour’s house.
2: SCRIPT
Finalised after securing the location. Written in mind with the film having almost no dialogue - due to having no mic budget.
4: STORYBOARD
The last thing I made in the concept stage. All hand-drawn, and inspired by the moodboard and based on the available angles in the house.
13: RECOVERY
A week after the shoot, I collapsed in the street and ended up needing a 2 month break. After this, I began scheduling more and longer breaks into the editing process than I’d had in the earlier stages, to avoid over-exerting myself again.
15: EDIT
Funny to summarise this as a single step, when it took 11 months to do…! What took by the far the longest was this brief but insanely detailed special effects moment - which my ancient laptop would render for about 20x as long as a modern one.
3: MOODBOARD
Used to figure out an artistic representation for Nell’s decadent isolation. A remix of surrealism, domestic mess, and DM’s - feat. Home Alone and Marie Antoinette.
STAGE 2: PRE-PRODUCTION
JULY 2023
6: COSTUME
A mix of my clothes, the actors’ clothes, and the personal wardrobe of the house owner. With the film’s story spanning over 12 days (=12 outfits), costume was both a storytelling device and a helpful continuity shorthand.
8: TECH & PROPS
…prepare tech and props. I got food containers, empty bottles, distressed a dress, and ordered smartphone lenses to help the film look more cinematic.
5: CAST & CREW
Both actors in the film were people I had previously acted with in plays, and they confirmed their interest and availability early on.
Finding crew was harder. It ended up being only me and a production assistant behind the camera.
7: PLANNING
This is where I confirmed shoot dates, synced schedules, made hourly itineraries for each one of the 4 shoot days, prepared the house for the shoot, and began to…
STAGE 3: THE SHOOT
AUGUST 2023
12: SHOOT DAY 4
On the final day, we shot scenes set in the huge open plan area. Elizabeth wrapped before me, and I collapsed into a deep two-hour nap the minute she’d left. When I woke up, my production assistant helped me tidy up.
9: SHOOT DAY 1
We began by filming the scenes on the rooftop terrace. The weather went from sunny to stormy all day - a tech nightmare. But the weather changes often also added a beautiful dramatic flare, totally unscripted.
10: SHOOT DAY 2
We shot scenes in backwards chronological order. I started the day by decorating the room we filmed in to look as messy as possible, then gradually removing items - as it was quicker to throw props to the side than keeping them organised.
11: SHOOT DAY 3
Our one day with the other actor, Sam. A big part of it was spent blocking her scenes with Elizabeth. This was the only day that we just shot 1 scene in a day, rather than a handful of them. Meaning no 12 outfits to keep track of - nice!
STAGE 4: POST
DECEMBER 2023-NOVEMBER 2024
14: MUSIC
Right before starting the edit, I reached out to musicians I knew and either got permission to use their work for free, or had them re-record the public domain classical piece I wanted. This alone took over a month.
16: GRAPHIC DESIGN
For the film’s titles and many text conversations, I created a new font made up of letters from a 1960s birding book, and scanned a blank, yellowed page from the same book to use as the backdrop. I then copy-pasted each letter into words, emulating the look of hand-printed text. This fit the film’s aesthetic and served as analogue contrast to the film being set in the very digital year of 2020.
And that’s all, folks!