Unit 4

1. Project management task What went well?
Logistics Finance Creative Processes
Managing people I feel that I managed people very
effectively. For example, I
organized my actor's early and
sorted call sheets, so they knew
when and where to turn up. One
thing I felt helped me was asking
close friends to act in my film as
they are extremely reliable, and I
already have a good relationship
with them. If this were a
professional setting in the
industry, this would work in my
favor. The cast members also
helped transport any equipment
around.
Finding out what the rate of pay
for each actor is and using this to
add up the grand total of my
budget in pre-production went
well. Planning who I wanted for
that role also made me reassured
that I had made the right decision
for where I wanted to spend my
money. Estimating budgets also
went well as I met the budget
that I had set.
Managing my crew was
important in order to make my
shooting as effective in time and
space. A briefing proved useful
beforehand to make sure I had
been over everything and that it
was understood to a level of
understanding that I was satisfied
with. This included briefing on
health and safety, setting up and
setting down and how I wanted
the shoot to go. I explained that
the main priority was the camera
shots and the lighting for each
show so that was set up first in
every location.
Management of resources
(human and physical)
Booking forms for equipment
proved useful during my shoot.
The form allowed me to think
thoroughly about what
equipment I needed for every
shot and how I could justify my
budget. I double checked that I
was going to use everything I had
booked so I wasn’t wasting any
money. The form also let me see
how long I needed the
equipment and when I should
book it.
Because I knew what kind of
budget I had, this made it easy to
decipher what equipment would
be in my price range and what I
would spend less on and what I
needed to spend more on. I
prioritized the camera and lights
as in my opinion, these are the
most important assets for my
shoot and for my film to look as
professional as possible.
I was the director for my film so
during the creating process, I had
to make sure I wasn’t taking too
much on board. To do this, I
assigned the lighting crew to take
care of everything light based
and the sound crew taking care
of everything to do with sound.
To do this, I had to make sure I
had hired the right crew to be
able to trust them with the
equipment that I hired and that
they would take care of the
equipment to avoid any legal
issues while shooting.

2. Managing time Time management was essential
for my shoot as time is
everything and is the most
valuable resource. To make sure I
was optimizing my time as
effectively as possible, I created a
production schedule. The
schedule told me when I was
going to do things such as host
meetings with my team, finalize
script writing and do light pans
for new scenes. This proved very
efficient as it made me be as
productive as possible for my
shoot.
The production schedule made
me very effective and showed me
when I need to hire certain
people. Because I optimized my
time, the amount of money I put
into hiring decreased and I was
able to put that money into
something else like more
equipment and camera stands to
gain desired effects. This made
the shoots extremely productive
Call sheets were useful for me as
I was able to decide when I
wanted every cast member and
crew. I figured out that days that
the second protagonist would be
needed as they weren’t needed
in every shot. We did not once
fall behind schedule because I
planned out enough that we
didn’t have to rush. By doing this,
the team worked more
efficiently, and the actors
remained focused.
Being professional Main aspects of a professional
film maker are things such as
making sure everything is
complete to a high standard,
prioritization, commitment,
budgeting, organization and
management. I feel that I met all
the criteria well. I also hosted
board meetings with my whole
team to show leadership skills as
a director which went well. I was
organized with call sheets, a strict
production schedule and
equipment forms. This all tied in
to produce my film.
A professional attitude is a
financially smart attitude as
having this attitude helped me
save money because I make a
budget plan and stuck to my
budget. If anybody proposed an
alternative approach, I listened to
what they had to say and
provided a suitable explanation
to how I thought about it while
maintaining a healthy
relationship to maintain a good
reputation. All financial
documentation was met, and I
was successful in carrying out my
financial plans via booking forms.
The first thing that I did to ensure
I was being professional was
carry out a risk assessment of the
locations I was shooting in as I
believe that safety in a shoot was
extremely important to avoid as
may issues as possible. I provided
enough rehearsal for my cast to
go over how ii would like the
scene to look on camera. I gave
everybody good and useful
feedback on what they were
doing in order to get to the end
goal together.
Ensuring progress is sustained I never found myself moving
backwards or staying in the same
lane for a while because of my
To make sure I wasn’t
overspending or making
unnecessary payments, I made
Timing for a project like this is
crucial in order to get completion
on the film. To get to this, I set up

3. production schedule. Progress
was sustained with my team and
I working together by effective
communication and management
of job roles. I made sure
everyone knew what they were
doing.
sure that all the equipment was
looked after to avoid breakage
and that having to be covered on
my budget. After every shoot,
everything was put away in its
place and sensibly to avoid wires
breaking, wiring in mics coming
lose and bulbs being damaged.
a very clear production schedule
to make sure timings were met to
keep everybody updated. I sent
emails to my crew with any
questions I had about anything as
communication is key.
Managing risk The best and only way to do this
was to create a risk assessment
for all the sets and a pat test for
equipment to make sure it was
safe to use to ensure any
accidents are avoided.
In my opinion, I put a sector of
the budget into high quality
equipment to make sure the
equipment was not going to fault
electronically. You can’t put a
price on safety. This included
bulbs, strong heavy stands and
tripods etc.
During the shoot, I made sure
that my cast and crew had access
to clean water, toilets and sinks. I
made sure that wires were visible
to avoid tripping and that there
was a first aid professional on
deck in case of emergency.
Managing crisis If something I needed to worry
about came up, I tried my best to
use the production schedule to
come up with a solution to work
around the issue.
Nothing came up that affected
my finance but if there was a
scenario where a crew member
fell ill, I would give them sick pay
to an extent to follow BTECU
guidelines.
During filming, I had done my risk
assessment to make sure I had
taken all factors into
consideration that I could
control. If batteries failed on set,
I had spares. This was also the
case with bulbs, and spare wires.
Keeping documentation up-to-
date and relevant
I made sure throughout the pre-
production process that I was
keeping up to date. This meant
organizing edit folders for post-
production using housekeeping.
To avoid spending money on
hiring I didn’t need, I double
checked call sheets, booking
forms and checked that scripts
made sense and were completed
in a way that everyone could
understand.
I double checked the storyboard
that I had created made sense on
set as the drawings of the
background were slightly
different. However, the camera
shots and angles were the same
and coherent throughout the
shoot.
Aspect What could be improved?
Logistics Finance Creative Processes

4. Summary of any problems with
project management
The main issue was not gathering
enough people to help transport
equipment to and from different
sets. Also, for some of the
window shots, the subject got
slightly over-exposed. This was
hard to fix in post-production.
Allowing myself a higher budget
to allow for contingency planning
due to absence of the actor or
crew. This is also the case for
weather.
At first, the while idea generation
process was tedious as I wasn’t
sure exactly what to shoot. Next
time I would host idea generation
meeting with other people to
gain more inspiration for my
production.
Ways I could be better in future
productions
• Pay attention to the
weather we shoot in and
how it might affect the
overall shoot.
• Setting a higher budget
for contingency
• Meeting earlier with
crew to maybe share
more ideas