I will be evaluating the making, shooting and editing of the film we made recently called "Followed" with my group of four known as 'GFF Productions'. Our group include four roles which were Director, Director of Photography, Production Manager and Producer. During the process, I have learnt 3 major things from the experience of managing and organizing the production of our film;
- The very first thing I learnt is meeting the deadline, which in my opinion is one of the the most important thing I learnt throughout this process. Failure to meet the deadline will obviously means my work will be marked as NYA, but in reality you could lose a lot of money. So therefore when working as a group we must plan and organised our time carefully, so each of us had their own particular job (pre-production work) to do as it is our responsibility in order to start filming and meet the deadline.
- The second thing I learnt that the producer have the most responsibility as they are responsible for everything and coordinating everyone working on the film. In reality, they manage the film's budget and keeping to a schedule, they bring together and approve the whole production team. They organised the cast and the crew, they also approve locations, studio hire and the shooting schedule etc. During the post-production, they deal with the marketing and distribution of the film. They have the power to fire a cast or crew, for example, if a Director of Photography like me didn't finish the storyboard on time, the Producer have the choice to fire the Director of Photography.
- Last but not least, the third thing I learnt was preparing for editing. I learn how to save time and prevent myself from not meeting the deadline and receive NYA for the course by following this procedure. Before professional editors edit a film, They put each footage they got from filming into specific bins which each should have a name so it would be easier for them to find the footage they want. After that they add comments to each footage so this way the editors will know if it is a good or bad shot to use for the film and then know what shot to use when they start editing and dragging footage into the timeline to cut, colour grade etc.From following this procedure, I had my short film produced before the deadline so if my audience is not satisfied with the outcome, I would have more time to re-edit to their satisfaction. This procedure can prevent wasting time and money.
Main Body
The shooting schedule was made by our Producer as it is one of Producer's specific job, I thought the shooting schedule is realistic and it approach professional standards, for example, everyone knew where they had to be and what they had to do as the shooting schedule was easy to follow. Shooting Schedule is important because we need it to make sure everything is shot on time and on the dates that were listed, they are there to keep crews organised and prepared. The reason why I thought it was realistic because it has date and time, locations, storyboard shot ref number, actors and crew, video equipment that is required, props, costume, make-up and description etc.
The storyboard was one of my job to do as I am the Director of Photography of 'GFF Productions'. The first time I created the storyboard was not detailed enough and it did not had enough shots to create a one minute short film. The second storyboard was much more detailed and it had enough shots to make it a one minute short film as I went to do the storyboard again. The storyboard is now detailed and substantial enough to fully cover the one minute film. If our group were to make a five minute short film, I will need add about 120 more shots to cover a five minute short film.
The shot list was another job I have to do as the Director of Photography, I made it detailed and easy to understand and follow as I made the shot list look organised and in correct order. The shot list contained information of shot types, angle, number, movement and notes. Without this, it will be difficult and time-wasting as, for example, we wouldn't know what shot type to use while we're filming and we have to come up with a shot type to use etc.
When we were picking our location, Southmere Lake which located in Thamesmead, we was concern about lighting and permissions but not the background noise. Unfortunately, a plane flew right above us while we were filming one of the scenes, which prevented us from hearing our actors clearly. The permissions part was no problem as we emailed the local council for permission to shoot at Southmere Lake which was accepted.
I felt our actors did rehearsed and was organised and prepared as they knew what date and time we are going to shoot a film. They knew what their roles were and they were comfortable and appropriate with the roles they were selected as.
Yes, everyone in my crew knew what their roles was and took responsibility for it. There was some issues during then but we solved it straight away in able to create a short film. I felt we done all our roles at near professional standard.
We were able to booked equipment we needed such as tripod, DSLR camera, SD card and light. Without these equipment we won't able to shoot a short film. We obviously need a video camera because it will be entirely impossible to shoot a film with no video camera. We need tripod to keep the camera still and not shaky. We need SD card in able to get the footage from what we filmed to the Apple Mac computers to edit. And finally, we would need LED lights in able to make our film look better and make it suit the genre (Horror: Low key lighting etc.).
The storyboard was one of my job to do as I am the Director of Photography of 'GFF Productions'. The first time I created the storyboard was not detailed enough and it did not had enough shots to create a one minute short film. The second storyboard was much more detailed and it had enough shots to make it a one minute short film as I went to do the storyboard again. The storyboard is now detailed and substantial enough to fully cover the one minute film. If our group were to make a five minute short film, I will need add about 120 more shots to cover a five minute short film.
The shot list was another job I have to do as the Director of Photography, I made it detailed and easy to understand and follow as I made the shot list look organised and in correct order. The shot list contained information of shot types, angle, number, movement and notes. Without this, it will be difficult and time-wasting as, for example, we wouldn't know what shot type to use while we're filming and we have to come up with a shot type to use etc.
When we were picking our location, Southmere Lake which located in Thamesmead, we was concern about lighting and permissions but not the background noise. Unfortunately, a plane flew right above us while we were filming one of the scenes, which prevented us from hearing our actors clearly. The permissions part was no problem as we emailed the local council for permission to shoot at Southmere Lake which was accepted.
I felt our actors did rehearsed and was organised and prepared as they knew what date and time we are going to shoot a film. They knew what their roles were and they were comfortable and appropriate with the roles they were selected as.
Yes, everyone in my crew knew what their roles was and took responsibility for it. There was some issues during then but we solved it straight away in able to create a short film. I felt we done all our roles at near professional standard.
We were able to booked equipment we needed such as tripod, DSLR camera, SD card and light. Without these equipment we won't able to shoot a short film. We obviously need a video camera because it will be entirely impossible to shoot a film with no video camera. We need tripod to keep the camera still and not shaky. We need SD card in able to get the footage from what we filmed to the Apple Mac computers to edit. And finally, we would need LED lights in able to make our film look better and make it suit the genre (Horror: Low key lighting etc.).
