2. Working with the Cinematographer and
Editor
Overall I felt that the team worked adequately together, however as a Director I felt that I
had a much better relationship with the cinematographer as she understood my vision for
the product whereas I felt that the editor perhaps lacked this understanding to a certain
degree and wanted to take the production in a different direction.The fact that the
cinematographer and I could openly communicate and understand one another was an
essential ingredient whilst working on set as we filmed in January it meant that we could
not afford to waste time due to the limited amount of daylight. I felt the relationship with
the editor was far more strained as he was unwilling to communicate with me which led to
confusion as to what the final vision was, that being said the final edit did follow a
narrative similar to the intended idea.
3. Group Communication andTime
Management
Overall I felt that group communication was reasonable, this was mainly due to the fact
we had media lessons almost everyday and were able to raise any concerns during or after
lessons, we also regularly met up outside of lesson time to complete and work and also
used social networks and Skype to regularly discuss progress made by each team
member. Out of the whole group I felt that Martika Dupigny-Williams (the
cinematographer) had the best time management and I had the worst, part of this was
due to other commitments as well as the workload from 3 separate A-Level subjects. As a
director I could have perhaps improved my organisation skills in order to ensure that the
production ran as smoothly as possible.
4. Organising Shoots
This was perhaps one of the most challenging aspects of the role as a number of other AS
groups as well as other year groups relied on equipment I had to ensure I chose a day
where crew, actors and equipment were free.The only days of the week which were
feasible due to daylight hours and availability were Saturdays.This added a lot of pressure
as we were working to a specific deadline if something were to go wrong within the shoot
we would have to wait another week before reshooting, in retrospect I wish we had
started filming earlier in the year where daylight lasted longer and therefore we could
have filmed after school if we had needed to. Another issue that I found was that relying
on actors to show up to location at a specific time, this often meant that time was spent
waiting and therefore delayed the production to a small extent.
5. Filming
Overall our group ended up filming on multiple occasions, the first time the batteries in
the camera died very suddenly due to the outdoor location we had no means of charging
the camera and had to postpone the shoot. Following the discovery of the poor battery
life we used the Sony Z1 camera on two separate occasions whilst we did manage to
capture some good shots the time taken to do this was far too great due to the
unfamiliarity with the camera, as we felt that we would not finish the production in time
for the deadline we decided to completely reshoot on the Canon however this time taking
multiple batteries with us.Whilst the repetition of the process was at time tedious and
frustrating it meant that when we had to reshoot the whole production within one day
myself and Martika were very familiar with what we wanted in terms of shots and
therefore were able to complete this in time.
6. Using Equipment
Both Martika and myself were familiar with how to use a DSLR camera due to the fact that
I had worked with one previously and Martika had used similar cameras in other subjects.
This meant that both of us felt comfortable using this as well as the tripod which we were
both familiar with.The switch to Sony Z1 placed greater strains on the production due to
the large nature of the camera it was difficult to manoeuvre around the forest in order to
capture the shots the we had previously caught on the DSLR.The switch from SD card to a
tape also meant that footage had to be logged which also used up a lot of time and the
quality of footage on the Z1 was lower that the quality of the DSLR.
7. Working with Actors
Ultimately I felt that the Actors did work well however the main actor (Ella Lockie) at
times found it hard to stay in character whilst working with Daniel Akinwumni and
therefore resulted in a longer shoot and unusable footage taking up memory space.The
main actor also could not run very fast meaning that the chase sequence had to be
orchestrated even then it did not look as believable as I would have liked as Daniel often
ended up overtaking Ella.Also this meant that our actors were easily tired out and felt
that they needed breaks which again delayed the production considerably.At times where
Ella had to act vulnerable she found it hard to do this in front of a group of people, this
meant that I had to often sent others away and direct Ella on a one to one basis in order to
achieve the intended expression.
8. Shots captured
I felt that I had captured a good variety of well framed shots which conveyed the intended
message of the film. However one some occasions we found continuity and believability
to be a big issue which rendered many shots unusable in the final production. For example
the shots where Ella trips over were often almost laughable and therefore would have not
been able to been included in the final film. In this regard I felt that the editor had done a
good job in organising shots into a believable sequence despite it not being my intended
outcome.
9. Final Product
Whilst I did have issues with the final product in terms of the deviation from the original
idea I did feel that the editor did do a good job in putting together the film however I do
feel that the sound could have been worked on and could have meant that I had more
input in terms of post-production work. Often the editor would want to work
independently and would not want to update me when prompted about editing this made
communication an issue between the two of us which I myself could have attempted to
rectify myself. Overall I am pleased with how the product did turn out despite it not
fulfilling my original idea, I think perhaps I had not anticipated how difficult it would be to
translate the idea to screen without major changes to the original idea.
10. What would I Change?
If I could redo this project again I would shoot much earlier in the year in order to make the
most out of available daylight, avoid adverse weather conditions and to ensure that both
cast and crew were more comfortable and could work their best. I myself would also be
much more organised with my paperwork and maintain an open line of communication
with all members of the group, I would also ensure that both myself and cinematographer
were well acquainted with equipment. I would also choose actors whom were better
suited to the roles as oppose to solely meeting the appearance of the roles. I would also
strive to much more involved in the post production process regardless of the
unwillingness from other team members to communicate.
