“Creative Solutions for Blocking and Information”: Director Patrick Brice | Corporate Animals
Whenever directors watch their own films, they always do so with the knowledge that there are moments that occurred during their production — whether that’s in the financing and development or shooting or post — that required incredible ingenuity, skill, planning or just plain luck, but whose difficulty is invisible to most spectators. These are the moments directors are often the most proud of, and that pride comes with the knowledge that no one on the outside could ever properly appreciate what went into them.
So, we ask: “What hidden part of your film are you most privately proud of and why?”
Hidden in plain sight within Corporate Animals is the challenge of shooting a film that features 10 defined characters existing in the same contained space for its entirety, making sure the camera is giving equal attention to the performances and keeping in mind that audiences need to track multiple characters, all while trying to find creative solutions for blocking and information being presented on screen. The looming fear of things becoming stale or visually boring provided the necessary anxiety to come up with ideas during production that kept things feeling dynamic. If the movie works at all it’s a result of these choices coming together in the final stages and are (hopefully!) hidden in the fact that they don’t really draw attention to themselves.