Unit 2 Part E

Review on Film

Alongside my group we successfully planned our film. Each person had their individual role and tasks that they were given, which made us work productively and get everything done in time. All though we each had our individual role we always discussed all plans with the group therefore we worked as a team so that no one felt left out and everyone contributed. We planned each day of filming, listing out the shots and scenes we would do with times that we hope to do them, as well as lists of what we’d need for each scene. The script and all the scenes were also run through with the actors so that they were aware of what we envisioned. On set there were some adjustments made to the production schedule as we were running out of time and had to cut a few shots or form it into one particular take, other than that the storyboard were followed accurately. All though we had our risk assessments, when it came to filming there were a few things that we could’ve added on to the risk assessment. An example would be when the camera and tripod were attached to the top of the lair in order to get the shot that was planned. This was not on our risk assessment and had many risks as the tripod and camera could’ve easily fallen, damaging both the equipment and the actress. Apart fromt his our planning was successful and everything worked according to plan.

Leadership developed

Being clapper loader on set I had to be assertive and aware of what we were doing next. This improved my communication. For I had to make sure I knew which shot we were doing next and so had to frequently ask the 1^st AD so that I knew exactly what we were doing.

I also improved my organistation skills as I ticked and marked off the shots we had done and any respective changes on the production schedule. This helped with my edit. I also had to label all the files so that I had a productive edit.

Once the filming was done I had the role of editor, with this I improved my confidence. For I had to make some decisions that weren’t in the original vision for the film. I always discussed this with the director so that he was aware of the changes made in the edit. 

Working as a team has made me be more accepting and understanding as everyone is different. For as personally I don’t get stressed easily, I had to be understanding of others that did as well as motivate them so that we all worked together and effectively.

Being a part of the BFI Film Academy has helped me develop my leadership skills and showed me what it’s like to work in a group. For all though I’ve worked in a group before, it was never as serious as this. For usually it involved my classmates, however this  group had people I’d never met before. Also have become aware of punctuality and deadlines, as falling behind on one of these not only impacted me but the rest of my group.

What would I have done differently

If I was to do the BFI Film Academy again there wouldn’t be much I would do differently for I do believe I did the best of my abilities and it has helped me be more confident as well as a better team member. However there were a few moments where we didn’t manage our time as well as we could have and so I would’ve tried to do a better job of this. As I was the editor I ddin’t feel like I could really be much of a leader during the shoot, therefore all though I contributed to ideas I never took charge.

Review on screening

As I was editor I was possibly the only one in my group who had seen the film from the actual footage to the final film.  For although drafts were shared with the director and sound person I did the editing, therefore saw the film actually turn into a film as I edited. Due to feedback from my mentor and reviewing certain clips there were some changes that had to be made to how the film was envisioned. Therefore I was quite nervous about the others in my groups reactions.

The overall feedback from my group was that they were all happy with how it turned out and thought it looked really good. All though some people were originally quite surprised for they expected to see certain bits which weren’t in the final edit overall they thought it worked really well.

My mum and uncle attended the screening and were both eager to see the film. The feedback I received from them was that they were overall really impressed, they thought the shots and lighting was superb except for a few shots where the light changes in the forest. They also understood what was happening which I wasn’t sure if they would.

Overall I was really happy with how the film turned out. However if I was to do it again I would have tried to shoot the forager scenes away from the road, as when editing it was quite difficult to get rid of the occasional cars that you could see slightly and hear. I would also have had or made myself be in charge of continuity, for when it came to editing there were a few continuity errors which lead to me not being able to sue certain shots. Other than these I think overall we worked well as a team and produced a really good film in such a short time. I felt proud to have been a part of this.

Final Film

Alder from Long Road Sixth Form College on Vimeo.

Behind The Scenes 

Behind the Scenes: Cambridge BFI Network Academy 2016-17 from Long Road Sixth Form College on Vimeo.

Unit 2 Part D

Working effectively with others

Commitments - Turning up in the morning every day during my half term was a commitment. I also had to edit a certain clip after the first day of shooting so that we could project that on to the wall the next day and use it when shooting one of our scenes. This was a commitment as if I didn't commit to doing it, I would have let down the crew and our vision for that scene as we would have had to do it another way. 

We realised on our fist shoot day that we were shot of a pair of red contacts, as the ones we had were only one day use so we would have to go buy another pair for the next day. As I was the closest to town I committed to go buy it before we were scheduled to meet at our location to start filming. 

Below is evidence from the group chat. 

Communication - During the shoot I had to communicate with the first AD in order to know what shot we were doing next so that I could productively mark the clapper eliminating confusion in the edit. I also had to communicate with the cameramen, both verbally and non verbal as they would assist me in placing the clapper in the right position, so that it was in focus and could be seen. 

Here is me with the clapperboard

Co-operation - I co-operated with all crew members, especially the sound recorder as after the shoot he took home the sd card with the sound files to label, add more foley sound and brought it back for me to log and save in the respective folders on the computer that I'd be using to edit. I also had to co-operate with the director, in order to make sure that the edit matched majority of his thoughts and vision for the film. 

Feedback
Getting feedback was important both on the shoot days and later on when I was editing. On the shoot days I would get both verbal and non verbal feedback from both Francis and Kelsie our cameramen. This was so that the clapperboard was in shot and could be seen. Our mentor and assistant Bradley gave me feedback and taught me new things to do with the clapperboard. As he told me about false starts that happened a few times. This helped me do my job as clapper loader better. AFS stands for After False Start and was used when we had already taken one take but it stopped before the actors started acting due to the camera shutting down or a similar issue.

During post production, I received feedback from Ryd who helped give an outsiders perspective as he didn't read the script or wasn't a part of our planning and production stage. I also sent rough cuts and drafts to Owen our director and Alex our sound recorder who gave me feedback that helped make the film. 

Self Evaluation
While editing I was able to self evaluate my role as clapper loader, as I noticed some shots were blurry on the clapper board. The lair was dark and as a result in some shots when holding the clapperboard you couldn't see anything at all. There were also some instances where I had marked the take wrong, however I made a note of this on my production schedule so it didn't cause too much confusion. 

Unit 2 Part C

Day 1

Cast and crew planned to meet at Long Road Sixth Form College at 10 am. Our cast consisted of James Kirk who played the role of the forager and Kate Handford who played Alder. However we did not start filming till around 12 as it took us longer than we realised to set up and get ready for the shoot. While I helped Kate get ready, which mainly consisted of her putting in the red contacts, the cinematographer Francis, camera operator Kelsie and director Owen alongside our mentor Bradley Stearn went out to the location to set up the cameras and get some test shots. It was very useful having Bradley as he brought lots of lenses and filters that we got to use and had a lot of knowledge on framing and lighting the shots. This was especially useful as we did not shoot chronologically and so we needed to manipulate the natural light we had so that each scene matched and made sense visually. We shot scene 10 first as it was the scene with both actors. As my role is the role of the editor, on shoot I had the job of clapper loader. This got a little confusing as we didn’t always follow our shooting schedule, as according to the light we decided to shoot different shots. We also added in shots and ended up having to cut down shots as we were running out of time. While filming our Art Director Will turned the bike shed into a Lair for us to film in the next day.We realised that the contacts were one day wear and we needed it for the next day as well, as I lived closest to town I took it upon myself to cycle in and get the contacts before I came to Long Road where we were filming the next day.

Day 2

I managed to go and buy the contacts and be at Long Road for 10 as that was the lime we planned to meet. Once we all arrived, we started promptly as we had to film some shots that was on our schedule for the day before. We managed to get all the necessary shots of the forager done by 12 pm. By that time Kate our actress had arrived and Will our Art Director had everything needed in the bike shed that we used to film our lair scenes. We had a quick lunch break and got to filming in the lair. As the bike shed was quite small, only some of the crew could actually be in there when filming. It was hard to place the clapper in some of the shots as they were tight closeups or darkly lit and the light didn't catch the clapperboard. I had to make a note of this on the shooting schedule so that I wouldn't get confused when it came to editing.

Leadership skills applied
A key leadership skill applied was communication, as during the shoot I communicated with the first AD and cameramen in order to properly mark the clapperboard marking it correctly and so that it was properly in shot 

I was also organised, and ticked off the shots we did on the production schedule, if changes were made I added a little note beside the shot. 

Limits to my role and responsibilities –

As I was given the role of editor and clapper loader this limited what I could do on the days of the shoot :

• I never had control of the camera as this was the role of the cinematographer and cameraman
• I also didn’t direct the actors in what they should do as this was upto the director, however we as crew members gave the director our input on what we thought of particular shots and it was up to him to direct the actors choosing if he would take our input or not.
• I didn’t run through the takes, set up for a take and make sure everyone was in place and ready as this was the role of the 1^st AD and it would be complicating if several people did it. 

Post Production & My role

Everyone got a chance to edit on Saturday. As I was the editor, I got input from the director as to what shots he thought worked best and wrote a rough paper edit.

I then took the laptop away with all the footage logged in folders. I started editing and sent Ryd a rough cut by the 7th of November, we then met up and he gave me feedback on how to make the edit better as well as linking up sound. I then sent the 2nd roughcut to Henri who would be composing the music for our film, the 2nd roughcut included the foley sounds.

Health & Safety -

Health & sfaety is very important when shooting. There were several risks that we could have encountered when filming. We listed many of them on our risk assessments. However there were a few we hadnt thought of. On the second day of filming, we had planned to do an overhead shot of Alder as she messes with the dirt and bones. We hadn't thoroughly thought of how we would achieve this shot, and on the day we attached the camera and tripod to the top of the lair(shed). \this was not thought of before and was not on our risk assessment. This was dangerous because it could have fallen and damaged the equipment and the cast and crew. 

Below are our Risk Assessments 

Forest Risk Assessment 

Lair Risk Assessment

Unit 2 Part B

Script

We made a few adjustments on the script, we got rid of the dialogue as we felt the film would work better without the dialogue. 

Storyboarding

Our cinematographer Francis, cameraman Kelsie and director Owen went through storyboarding each scene with Owen Sherwood the storyboard artist. This mainly consisted of the angles of the shots and linking the forest scene to the lair scenes. For exampling having the forager kick leaves to the right of the screen and the next shot is Alder throwing dirt with a similar movement and to the same idea as if its following off from the leaves being kicked.  The storyboarding was important for our planning so we had the vision of our film laid out on paper and when it came to filming we weren't deciding on what shot to do as it was already planned. It also gave us a visual idea so that if things didn't match we could change it accordingly. 

Props & Costumes
Our Art Director went through the script and wrote a list of all the props & costumes, we then looked at which props we could bring from home and what we would have to buy. The foragers costume was pretty straight forward and the actor had most of the items, Alders costume was a green dress which our art director found in one of the charity shops.

Prop List

Risk Assessments -

Our producer evaluated the locations thinking of every possible risk we could encounter on the days of the shoot.

Below is are Risk Assessments - 

Forest Risk Assessment 

Lair Risk Assessment

Shooting Schedule - 

Thursday Shooting Schedule

Wednesday Shooting Schedule

Our producer and first AD planned our shooting schedule so that we would be organised on the day of the shoot. We also planned the shots so that we used the actors productively so that they wouldn't be waiting around and wasting their time.

Call Sheets -

Feedback
During the shoot I will be getting on going feedback while being clapper loader. For the cameraman would give me feedback on whether the clapper board is in the right position, with the feedback given I will have to adjust accordingly.

During the shoot I will also get feedback from the director on what ideas may have changed while shooting and possibilities on how I am to edit the whole thing together so that it works and what his vision for the film is.

During the editing process, I plan to share the edit drafts with the director and sound person. So that they can help me improve, as well s see the changes i will make.

Deadlines
There were several deadlines for this project. The first deadline was the planning stage, as we had to have everything planned in time to start filming on October 26th Wednesday. This lead to the next deadline, of having 2 days to film and get all the shots we needed. Everything from the visuals and the sound had to be done by the end of October 27th Thursday. This was so that post production could begin. As I was editor I had till the 21st for picture lock which was the final deadline. Before this there were deadlines for rough cuts November 7th so that our composer could start working on it.  

promoting the film
The film is being screened at Cambridge Arts Picture house on the 28th November. We will be able to bring friends and family to attend, and get feedback from the others in our group as well as others who come to watch. The film will also be put on social media platforms such as Vimeo or YouTube.

Unit 2 Part A

LEADERSHIP SKILLS 

• Communication skills – The group I’m working with will have people I’m not comfortable with and have never met or worked with before. As editor and clapper loader, I will have to be communicative with everyone, especially the director in order to understand what his vision for the short film is. On the days of the shoot I will have to communicate with the 1^st AD to make sure I know what shot is next. I will also have to communicate with cameraman & sound, to make sure that the clapper is in place and can be heard.

•  Organisation skills – On shoot as I'll be clapper loader I'll need to also be marking off which shots have been taken will create less confusion and a more effective and smooth shoot that’ll also help me when it comes to the edit.

• Calm and understanding -  Shoot days might be stressful, however stressing out will only make everyone else more stressed which will not result in a productive shoot. As clapper loader I will have to repeatedly ask the 1st ad what shot we are doing, this may get a bit irritating however I must be understanding as might be stressed as he's in charge of a lot of things during the shoot. 

ARTS PROJECT

To make a short film in a production team of young people aged 16 - 19. All 3 stages of film production will take place, we will go through pre production, production and post production. This will be so that we make our film as close to industry standard a we can. Pre production will consist of adapting our script, storyboarding, location scouting, thinking of costumes & props, risk assessments, legal and ethical issues. Once pre production is all in place, we will start production where we will have 2 days to shoot our short film.Once production is done it will be post production and as I got the role of editor I will be editing the project with help from Ryd. Once the edit is complete, there will be a screening at the Arts Picture house where we will get feedback on our film and how to improve our film making.

MY ROLE 

I was appointed the role of editor. My role is the only role that carries on from after production and the shoot. I will work closely with director so that I have a clear idea of his vision and can carry that forward in the edit. On the days of the shoot I will be the clapper loader and will be marking each shot to simplify the editing process. I will also be logging the footage on the days of the shoot and making sure we have all necessary footage I need for the final edit. On shoot I will have to work alongside the 1t AD so that I am aware of what the next shot will be and what shots we have left. Once production is over I can start on post production and start editing together our film.