Question by Case Productions: Case is mad! Bossy ppl?
So, the other day, I was showing my teacher some of my short film projects and today, she took me a my two friends that I do this stuff with, and she said that as a project, we could work together and make a short educational film. (Lang. Arts, Parts of A Story) So, she lets us use the school’s laptops and we go down to the library. I’m the main indie filmmaker that’s into this stuff and my friends Drew and Gavin are just my actors. Or so I thought. We all agreed that I’d direct the film, but Drew, (a very controlling, likes to be the head of things), just decided that he’s gonna be editor. So I tell him, “Drew, the editor works with the director to suit the requirements and preferred look that the director wants.” and he was fine with that, even though I wasn’t that comfortable because I like to edit my own films and not tell some person how to do it for me, but we got the opening credits done in the library.
This is the part where me and Gavin get mad. Drew gets our teacher to let us bring the laptop to gym, and get Gavin out of Ag so we can work on it. After our required walking is done, we began to work on the credits and Drew would not let me touch the computer. He barely listened to me at all, either. He tried to do all these things like, “thanks for watching” which made it look unprofessional, but I was able to get that part out. What do I do do to get him to stop being so controlling and bossy and get my point across that it’s not his movie, it’s ours. If it sounds like I’m making this all about myself, Gavin is doing the least. This is a my first film with Drew, and we’re having one next month, and this makes me scared about working with him again.
Plus its only us. We’re the only ones doing this class project because we’re indie filmmaker types.
We don’t exactly HAVE to do it. She asked us if we wanted to.
Best answer:
Answer by Cookie Cutter
This is not a professional project. It’s a school assignment. Therefore, you unfortunately can’t just fire him. The teacher wants the 3 of you to ‘work together’. You need to sit down (all 3 of you) and simply discuss what you’ve just told us. Also, please understand that the teacher DOES want the ‘3’ of you to work together so you, yourself will need to make some compromises to allow the other 2 to have a certain input as well. If this were not a school project, but merely a ‘Case Production’, then you could have it all your way. But that is not the case in this particular situation. You need to communicate with the other 2 about what you expect and about what they expect; ultimately the goal is to give the teacher what he/she expects. You were not ‘hired’ by the teacher; you were given an assignment and thus must learn to work together as a team with a singular goal. It seems you each have your own goal as to what this production should be and that’s because you’re not communicating with each other and concluding that the 3 of you have THE SAME GOAL. So just talk it out. Shout it out. Work it out. Good luck and fun! 🙂
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