Studio Shoot Evaluation

So, the studio shoot.

The studio shoot based project given to us was a task in which we had a month or so to come together as a large industry style and standard group and create a film in the University's film studio facilities. I came into this project having spoken to some 3rd years and had a little insight into how the process was going to be and as a safe bet I was recommended to stick with a role I was comfortable with to make the whole process go smoothly. I agreed with this but being myself I did want to push myself slightly. So when it came to the group configuration there was some debate on who was working with who as it seemed most of the class wanted to be in one group together, I also wanted to be in this group as it was where a lot of my friend were and I knew I could work well with these people. After a lot of debate the groups got evened out and people were in roles they wanted, apart from myself, I signed up for Production Design and as i feel comfortable in D.O.P/Art direction style roles so I though with my creative flare I could help with the looks of the film through set, costume, and make up. That didn't happen though, as the roles we're being assigned it defiantly felt like I was being left out because it ended up being just myself who didn't get placed and then when i spoke up about this I was just thrown in the left over role of Camera Operator. A role I was defiantly not comfortable with at the time. After more talking about roles I ended up just making everyone else happier and taking another role I wasn't comfortable with at the time, Director, Its not that Im bad at being a director its just I came to uni to build skills and so far most of the film work I've done I've directed. But, it was all finalised and I was Director again, for Group B.

The crew ended up being;
Director - Myself
Producer - Suzanne
Assistant Director - Adelaide
D.O.P - Savina
D.I.T - Lorna
Camera Op - George
Sound Tech - Ollie
Boom - Luca
Gaffer - Holly

With this team I had only worked previously with a couple of them so I wanted to get started right away with Meetings and Idea development to get a rapport going with the group. I also felt this was a good idea seemings as out time from was quite small to develop an idea, complete preproduction, build the set, and complete filming. The first couple meetings myself and the producer organised went rather well, most if not all of the crew came and had great idea development, towards a final idea, from here on is when it goes a little downhill as I wanted the film we ended up created to be a collaborative idea in which everyone was enthused about as I felt it would give the crew more gumption in wanting to create it and be present for the process, so I organised meetings for the whole group to attend for this and also so everyone in the group could stay up to date with the stage in which we were at in this project. My producer also created a Facebook page which we would place announcement for meetings and summaries of meetings in which people didn't attend. People not turning up was frustrating as a director because I had to take time out of my Directorial process and time out of other projects I had to to have individual meetings with people as they didn't turn up to meetings nor read the Facebook page posts. The Idea was eventually formed after a string of meetings where only Myself, The Producer, the D.O.P, and the Camera Op would turn up. I was thankful that these members of the crew were turning up but it was a strain on us four as we had to take on others roles in order to complete the production pack. It was also worrying as the A.D rarely turned up and was fully out of the loop. Because of this I spoke to them and we agreed to switch their role and the Camera Op around as this was a less intense role for them to take on and they felt it was one they could achieve more easily. It also benefited the new A.D as they could now fully complete the role of A.D rather then doing their previous job and the A.D responsibilities. The idea we landed on was to create a more abstract style movement based piece. This was decided upon because we felt the abstract style would give us more freedom with the camera and sound work. we also decided upon a minimalistic set, costume, and lighting to ease the roles for others. This in turn made my role harder as the interest in the visuals would come from the actors. In regards to this the class had workshops on directing actors which helped greatly with myself being able to create the right emotions with the actors. As the film is movement based I created plans for where the actors would be on set and the paths they would take around set and then I directed them in rehearsals with their motives and created characters for them to portray. 

Once the production pack was completed we could hand in and get signed off ready for the set build.  When the set build came along it started a little rough as there was discrepancies on the size and shape of the set but as a group we figured it out and completed the set, my group were filming first so we ended the set build by creating the set, this was mainly done by myself, producer, A.D and production design. After set build we had the pre-light in which set up the light ready for shooting, as we had just one lighting set up arranged to make the gaffers job easier (this was agreed upon with the gaffer as well). Pre light was useful for rehearsals with the actors who gladly decided to come along and we were able to get a better feel for the space, and ready for the shoot days.

Finally the shoot days, they definitely started on track, day one went well, myself and the camera team went over the shot list while costume and make up prepared the actors, this really set us up for the the day, while one of our actors got ready I went over the areas of the movements that were being filmed today, I also did this with the other actor when make up was done. This helped with filming as the movements were fresh and on the brain. The actors felt better with this too and they were more in character and more confident for filming. From here we started filming, At first it felt a little weird shouting action and having like final say on everything that happened but i soon slotted into the role. I felt I managed to do this because I made it clear to my crew, especially the D.O.P, that I trust their judgement and if they wanted to just go and film what they had listed and I'd watch for approval I was fine. I feel I'm a slightly lax director as I defiantly wanted to people to do their role confidently without having to come to me every time and say if this is okay which it what was happening for the first few hours on Day 1. I also felt that between shots I gave the actors useful improvements and key words to work on for the next shot, for example using words like "curly" and "round", for the movements of one actor, and words like "pointed" for the other. My actors felt this was a good step for direction as they were able to take those words and use their own knowledge to interpret them into the character, movements, and what I was asking of them. From here on n shoot day 1 the shot list kind of broke down and communication between the camera team stopped which made the shooting difficult and I had to step in and act as a middle man between D.O.P and Camera Op, a job the A.D should have taken on but as our A.D was new the the role and also working on the other groups studio shoot in a big role I feel they understandably weren't 100% present. I was fine to take on some of the AD role but it did make shooting take a lot longer as I had to work with camera and then work with the actors between every shot. Day two was slightly horrible as it progressed. It started on track but due to the slowing down of day 1 we were behind schedule and half way through the day the camera op had to leave which was a known and expected occurrence but it did kind of push us over the edge. it did because our AD took on the camera operator role as out of the crew they were the most experienced for this role but this then caused communication between all roles to stop and the AD was unfamiliar with the shot list and we just kind of ran around screaming and making it up as we went. which was very un organised and un professional but after this whole very stressful project I would have put money on us loosing our minds. I feel I recovered from this mess in the edit but it was a unfortunate end to the studio shoot.

Overall it was a great learning experience and I learned a lot in directing actors and the differences in roles in professional film crews which will help me greatly in the future. If myself and the crew had more time to achieve this goal. I also feel I did rather well in an unfavored role, and I could have blossomed more in a role I wanted from the start like D.O.P, Gaffer, and production design.