My experience during the production of Retribution was very informative and great hands-on experience. I held the title of the director's assistant on this film. With this being a student film and low budget I was also a production assistant and did a little bit of makeup.
 Our mentor, Buck, has always taught us to think of Murphy's law during pre-production. We spent a lot of time thinking ahead and preparing for every situation that could occur. We made a list of every object we would need including props, equipment, tools, extra batteries, etc.. During this time we really learned how much work is put into making a film. It is much more than just an idea and some storyboards and if you don't put the work in for pre-production it will show.
 My classmates and I had a couple of conference calls outside of class meetings to double check each other's work and progress and I believe this helped us tremendously. While in class we focused on what we needed for the shoot, on the conference calls we made sure it was taken care of so we were very prepared when it came time to film. By doing this I believe it kept us from having any major problems come up during production. We went through every shot and pictured what they each required. For example, this murder film took place in the muddy woods. This is when we realized we would need to make mud and cover the killer in it. Although this is a simple step it is very important and could have been overlooked if we did not go over every aspect together. The director and DP went over every angle and light set-up but we all had a copy so we were all ready for the next shot. I took care of the call sheet and brought a few of my own props. 
The first day of filming I learned it is important to prepare for yourself as well as for everyone and thing else. The temperature dropped a little lower than I expected, but I am lucky enough to have had a crew that brought feet and hand warmers so that I could focus on my job more than my numb fingers. We thought we were going to be in trouble when a moving van pulled up in the back of this very intense shot. Lucky for us they were only dropping off a couch and left before we began shooting. With the location being right on the main road we did have to pause a few times to let traffic pass. Aside from that everything went pretty smooth. We even had one chance to shoot a close up shot of the killer walking on the carpet leaving muddy footprints that turned out perfect. We stayed on schedule and the actor portrayed great emotion. 
Before the next shoot we had another conference call and along with making another call sheet, I made the shot list. This location required a lot more shots and was a little bit more difficult to accomplish. I failed to find a makeup artist to bruise the victim so I watched a few youtube videos and did it myself. I was shocked and proud of how well it turned out. We were outside even longer than the first shoot so it was a little more difficult to keep my energy up in the cold. I spent most of the time checking to make sure we were on schedule, moving lights, and making sure the tied up victim was as comfortable as possible.
We had similar difficulties during the second shoot with car lights and sounds in the background. However, since there was no dialogue throughout the whole film it was very easy to cover up the audio. With having a lot more to shoot this time I was more aware of staying on time. We managed to stay on schedule with great shots. The actors were amazing and owners of the location were very accommodating. Besides passing cars, the only other thing that went wrong was the brand new fog machine did not work. We didn't it affect our schedule though. 
I was a little nervous about this project since it was the first time our mentor really put it in our hands. Of course, he was there and would not let us completely fail but I feel that my fellow and I classmates did a great job and had a great time doing it. Buck prepared us for anything and everything and that really helped us succeed. I believe this particular story was a great first short film for Robert to have and for all of us to shoot. With there being no dialogue and only two actors it was simple in a few ways and helped work around some obstacles, but it is a very interesting story. The rough cut looks great so far but the end is my favorite and looks perfect in my opinion. I love the feeling of being sucked into a film and wanting more and that's how I felt by the end of the short and I believe other viewers will feel the same way. 
Overall, I think everything went according to plan aside from a few annoyances. Nothing went terribly wrong. Next time I would probably make time to better prepare for the small things too such as having my own copies of documents and checking out the sites beforehand. The director did look at the site and warned us of any issues that could come up but it wouldn't hurt to have more eyes next time especially for a more complex script.