Epilogue

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This 5-min short film was created as part of a Directing Techniques course I took, where the central challenge was to direct and execute an entire scene in one continuous shot. The concept I chose centered around a woman who sits down to dinner with a man, only to slowly realize he’s the person who’s been stalking her. The story unfolds not through action or cuts, but through discomfort, body language, and tension that builds in silence.

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It was the first time I had worked on a project like this — with a locked static camera, no cuts, and no edits to fall back on. The entire performance had to live and breathe within a single take, which meant that every pause, every movement, every word — or lack of one — had to be intentional.

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As the director, my main focus was on communicating the emotional journey of the characters through subtle cues: the way the woman shifts in her seat, when she picks up her fork but doesn’t eat, how long the man holds eye contact, the awkward pauses, the restrained glances, and the rising discomfort between them. I worked closely with the actors to guide these emotional beats, coaching them through variations of silence, nervous laughter, hesitation, and fear. We ran the scene seven times, each take lasting several minutes without a single cut.

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This project demanded clarity, patience, and emotional precision. Because the camera never moved, the storytelling relied entirely on the blocking and rhythm between the two actors. For me, it was a transformative directing experience — one that made me more attuned to timing, performance pacing, and how much weight lives in the smallest of moments.