My first encounter with film direction as a novice

[Albe_the_Yogodan]

the very first time I encountered Fim Direction was when I did a documentary. I had absolutely no previous experience doing this. The thought that was running in my mind was that the shoot will be over in an hour because it is just a 10 minute documentary. So there I was at the location of the shoot with the topic in mind and the people (an elderly couple) who were to give the discourse were ready with their portion of the script. I had reviewed it and in the meantime I was contemplating as to how we would open it. I had told one of my team mates to prepare an introductory script which she comfortably forgot and she was the person who was supposed to anchor. Moreover she was a student of Mass communication. When I had asked her for the script she was blank. I was terrified because having hired the camera for Rs. 2500 and paying the camera operator another Rs. 500 would go for waste if the shoot is cancelled. Immediately I sat down gathered a few sheets of paper and started drafting the introductory script. in 15 minutes had it done. So I gave it to the girl who was supposed to anchor it. She read it for about 15 minutes and said she was ready. Now the camera was rolling and this girl was blabbering. That is when I decided that I will get her to rehearse the lines one by one with voice modulation. Now this alone took me 1 hour to rehearse and by the time she could deliver the 5 lines of introduction reasonably well. Again encountered problems with the anchor as she kept faltering while posing questions to the other participants. Somehow after about 5 hours of struggle completed the shoot. This ordeal was memorable because it gave me insights as the the groundwork as minute as it can be should be taken care of.