Evaluation

The three main things I learnt from creating our film is to always make sure that both the cast and crew know when and where we are filming and where you are meeting up to start filming. The second thing I have learnt is to film each scene/ shoot twice just in case something goes wrong in the first shot and you don’t notice it. The third thing I learnt is that you should make sure that the camera that you’re using to film has a good sound recording or you have external microphone for the camera so you can get detailed sound without

picking up to much background noise.

When we were filming we did come across a few problems but we handled most of them quite well. The biggest problem we faced was the strong wind that made dialogue in some scenes inaudible when this happened we would wait for the wind to calm down and then film the scene again. Another problem we faced was on one day we were all ready to shoot but the camera we had wouldn’t record any footage so we had to reschedule the shoot to another day. Also when we were filming the second part of our film, the filming took a lot longer than expected and our camera ran out of battery. Luckily we were quite close to the college so we could easily get another battery for the camera.

When it came to the actual shooting of the film it was quite difficult to find a time when all cast and crew members would be able to make it which meant we had to shoot all of our footage in two days.

The shooting schedule for our film was very detailed and it let us know what shots needed to be shot and the order they would be shot in as well as telling us what props would be used in each scene and what costumes would be worn in each scene. We made sure that the shots were put in an order that allowed us to film as quickly as possible meaning we filmed all of a certain shot type at once and then moved onto another shot type meaning we would spend less time setting up for shots. The times it would take to shoot each shot however, were unrealistic and it took a lot longer than planned to shoot certain shots. This something we could definitely improve if we were to film again.

The storyboard for the film was also very detailed, when we made the storyboard we took photos of the shot types and camera angles were going to use which made easier to set up the shots when it came to filming. The storyboard also had a scene description for every scene on the storyboard to let us know exactly what was going on in that scene. We did improvise on some of the scenes though and which made filming a lot longer, this could have been improved if our storyboard was more detailed.

When we recced the locations we were going to use for our film we didn’t do any test shots to check if there were any audio interferences or whether people could be heard talking clearly in that area. This had quite a large impact on the shooting of our film. We did however make sure that the lighting in the area was suitable and we contacted the local film authority to get their permission to film on that location.

Our actors were very well suited to their roles as the characters we chose actors that were similar to the characters to our film which also meant they didn’t have to rehearse to act as their characters. Most of the characters in our film were very common clothing so we only had to bring a few items of clothing to finish their costumes. Everyone in the crew had their own roles but at times we would switch roles or give each other a hand someone was struggling with their role. The camera we using couldn’t use an external microphone so we didn’t have much use for a sound man. Instead the person who was supposed to be doing the sound did some co-directing and the camera work when one member of our crew was away.

One thing that could have been improved on is that we didn’t check the equipment was working and ready to use and at one point set up shooting before we realise the camera we had wasn’t recording anything and at another point ran out of battery midway through filming. We also had some problems with the tripods we were using for the cameras. We had brought a tripod that wasn’t the right fit for the head mount of the tripod and on another occasion we had a tripod with a broken head mount.

The call sheets were very effective in letting us know what time we were filming at, what costumes and props needed to brought and what each member of the crew was preparing what, detailing contact details for both crew and cast members. It also was showed the cast and crew where the location we were film at was and the different modes of transport that could be used to get there. But the call shot was didn’t have a good estimate time for wrapping up filming. Also we listed the times for both the cast and crew to arrive at the same time which meant that the cast had to wait for us to set the cameras. In future we could schedule the time the crew arrives before the cast so we can avoid the cast having to just sit there and wait for us to set up.

Overall I think our management of the production mostly went well. We could have improved the location recce and checked our locations sound by videoing around the area. We also could improve in checking that the equipment we are using is functioning properly. We also could have scheduled our filming dates according to the weather to minimize and interference from the weather and added more detail to our storyboard so we could have even more shots and wouldn’t have to spend time think of extra shots we could put in, as well as making the timings on our call sheet more realistic so we didn’t spend more time than we thought filming and ending up having to rush other parts. Finally we could make sure that each crew role was needed so we didn’t have to have anyone switching roles.