One of my cousins is a director who has worked with multiple well known celebrities and is always acknowledged for her fantastic directing and script writing skills. In the September of 2021, she asked all of her cousins to come together to take part in the 50 hour filmmaking challenge. I am elated that I agreed for this challenge because it was one of the BEST 50 hours of my life. Although it was a long delayed process with lots of actors impoverished and drained due to having to shoot that one scene multiple times for absolute perfection, all of us had the best time of our lives.

I was playing the role of the main character’s girlfriend and I had to constantly be in-front of the camera because I was so closely related to the protagonist. All of us had decided that we are only playing a part because it sounds interesting and adventurous and none of us had the aim of winning the challenge. For 2 whole days, none of us could dare to complain about being sleepy or exhausted because my sister was working really hard with the camera angles, camera shots and giving constant signs to the actors that were messing up their lines from the script. Thankfully, I had a handful of lines that I had to memorise unlike other actors who had huge scripts to memorise.

The Learning outcomes connected to this experience were LO2 and Lo4:

LO2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken developing new skills

During the shooting that occurred for 2 days, most of the actors had not been a part of such an activity or had never even been so closely observed by other peers around them. Naturally, all of us were extremely timorous and apprehensive of how our performance would turn out while we are constantly surrounded by cameras and have a fear of being watched. I, personally am extremely bashful when I am surrounded by cameras and my first reaction to a camera is hiding my face. However, during the shoot of the movie, I did not engage in any activity that led to me covering my face or even shouting at someone for getting the camera so close to my face. Apart from this, I developed good vocal, communication skills along with getting rid of my fear of cameras around me all the time.

LO4: Commitment to and perseverance:

All of us put continuous effort into completing the film successfully despite the difficulties and the fear of not being enough for the film as actors. Since most of the cousins were first timers, it was very challenging for some of them to overcome their insecurities because the camera showed the raw versions of themselves. Shooting a film naturally comes with lots of commitment because there are times when you try so hard but are unable to get the right shot, the right lines from the script, etc. This is the time when most people give up because they lack patience and commitment. However, our sister taught us that this is exactly the time where you do not give up. She told us that you never give up especially when giving up and quitting looks beguiling and tantalizing.