My given role in this production was to be the director, operate the camera and fill in the camera sheet. My job as the director was to tell the cast where I wanted them to be placed in order to film and tell them whether their performance was good enough or if I wanted them to perform the scene again. I also had to make sure all the crew was ready on the set and knew what they were doing in order to make the film perfect. I had to call out to the crew to find out if the sound and camera were running before starting to shoot. This is where I had the importance of telling the cast and crew “action” and “Cut” so everyone knew what stages the production was at. This was a difficult role to take on, as I had to make sure that everything was perfect and the acting was luminous. I also operated the camera; I had to make sure that the camera was rolling at the appropriate times and was placed in the right position so all the shots fitted in with the storyboard, However most importantly I had to make sure that there was nothing in shot that shouldn’t be there. With this role I also had to take on the responsibility in filling out the camera sheet. This is an important job as it is vital that this is filled in correctly, as this helps us greatly when it comes to editing. Editing cannot happen without correct sheets.
Furthermore, I contributed in some of the paperwork that was essential to do in order to start the filming. I chose to complete the storyboard, equipment list, contact list and shot list, and was in charge of the camera sheet. This paperwork has to be complete and correct before filming is even thought about. I really enjoyed participating in this paperwork because as a whole group we can see how our film will gradually be made and the undertaking of pre-production work is a great experience and gives a vast sensation to think that as a group we have produced a film in a professional way.
I participated in creating the blog where we had to keep a diary of everything that we had been doing. However, on the blog we had to link all our pre-production paper work so people could see the steps that we took to create a film. We had to put scrap pieces of work onto this blog to show all the different ideas that filmmakers can come up with. Nevertheless, we had to re-produce our blog due to all the pre-production paperwork being incorrect. We simply linked our old blog to the new blog so other people could see the mistakes that we made.
Unfortunately whilst starting to edit we realised that our shots were not going to fit together with our sound. Therefore, we decided for the best to film again and change our story. This was good for us because we learnt from our mistake and did a better job at it when we re-shot the film. We really focused on what we were filming. Furthermore the paperwork that we produced was not up to its expectations. Re-writing and filming our production helped develop our group dynamics; we were able to overcome our difficulties through the support we provided for each other. Working together to solve our problems was beneficial both to our roles within our group and our overall production.
In order to create our new production we had to re-write most of our paperwork. Team member Kirsty took the lead on this and assigned myself and Sam roles.
My given role in this production was to be the sound operator. I had to record atmos and dialogue with the Tascam and most importantly make sure that there was no interruptions with other sounds that was not necessary in the film. In one scenario we were using the Tascam to record the atmosphere of an empty room but we had to stop recording due to the cleaner in our school hoovering downstairs. This was extremely clear to hear, we had to wait for the cleaner to stop so we could get the correct atmos that we wanted.
I worked closely during the recording with Sam who was in charge of filling out the camera and sound sheets. With our previous production not working out I was fully aware of the importance of correct paperwork and was therefore actively precise in my reporting of sound file names.
Having previously created media productions I felt that this was a totally new experience as we used sync sound for the first time. Before filming we had to be taught how to use the sync sound by using the whole class to act out a crew and role-play that we were on a set ready to film. This was difficult for us to get to grips with it as it was still confusing to us and took us a while to learn.
In addition, I was given the role of editing the sound; I had to fit the right sound, atmos and effects to the correct shot. For the reason that we had done the sound and camera sheets correctly this time, it was a great deal easier to read them. So therefore it made the whole editing much simpler as we were just able to read off the sheets and find the right shots and sounds that we needed to use.
In conclusion, the proud feeling that comes with finishing this production is astonishing. It is remarkable to achieve the experience of filmmaking and knowing that we all contributed as a group came up with all the ideas to make this film work. Although we made a few vital mistakes, it was important that as a group we did not give up, we all knew that this production had to be complete so we all stuck by each other helping one another out. It is important as a group to work together and not to get too anxious out about the work. By making mistakes, it gives you the advantage to know the faults that can go wrong and can give you the knowledge of what went wrong so you can do a better job at it in the next productions.
