Lights, camera, action!

Ta-dah! Filming is done. It actually went more smoothly than I was expecting and I'm fairly confident that we got all the footage we need. We all got the hang of it pretty quickly; setting up the camera and lights and audio equipment, white balancing, framing, etc, etc. I don't mean to sound boastful, but I feel I did a really good job of keeping everyone on track and organized. I kind of took over the role of director for most of the filming. However, I made sure that everyone got to have their say, each person's input was taken into account, and if people wanted to try their hand at camera or audio work, they were free to do so. To be sure that everyone was comfortable, I even asked if I was being too pushy, and told them that if I was, they should just tell me. Everyone did a good job though, and everyone took part.

We did run into a few snags. The main one being Zehn. He missed our first day of shooting. Don't get me wrong; it wasn't completely his fault. His flight from Cairns was delayed, and when he arrived on the second day, he did work hard to help out and be involved. We've had issues with him besides that though. He's missed several classes, missed numerous group meetings, didn't help at all with planning or writing the script/production schedule/shot list, and is really bad at keeping up with group correspondence. I did talk to him about it briefly after we finished shooting (separate from the group, so he wouldn't feel like everyone was ganging up on him), and it seems like he's going to step up. I think he's more interested in the post-production work anyway.

Another issue we had was with the weather. It rained on and off for both of our shooting days, so we had to adapt several scenes that took place outdoors. One we managed to do under cover, and the other we finished our final shot just as the water came tumbling back down. Lucky timing. Overall though, it was a successful couple of days, and we didn't end up killing each other. For the most part it was actually a lot of fun.

Schedule this!

This past week we had to submit our first hardcopy assessment: the production schedule, script, and shot list. It was a little bit difficult because most of the group didn't show up when we tried to put together a meeting. Out of our seven members, three of us were present and put together the shot list and schedule. I had already gone through the scene breakdown pages before we met up. We got everything finished, and I'm even fairly certain that we did it properly. Yay!

We've had to rearrange our schedule however, because we didn't get the shooting days we wanted. Turns out that everyone wanted to shoot on Wednesday and Thursday. We've also run into the issue that one of our actors is going to be in Byron Bay for our filming days, so we're finding someone to fill the role.

The thing I find most frustrating at this point is that not all of our group members check the group email, so then when they come to class, they ask me all kinds of questions that have already been answered and figured out through email. I guess it's hard with group assignments to find a group in which everyone is dedicated to the project. You just have to manage with what you've got and hope that the number of dedicated students outweighs the slackers. Sadly, it seems like it doesn't in our group.

Here a camera. There a camera. Everywhere a camera!

This week we got to play with the video cameras. And of course, by "play with" I mean "learn about for our academic and professional benefit." They are really cool. Kind of complicated (there are a lot of little things to remember), but very very cool. I'm definitely excited to get to the filming stage over the break.

As for our group, this week we assigned the roles of Producer (that would be me), Director (Bec), and Production Designer (Mel). We also wrote the script. This we did as a whole group, which worked out really well. We already knew what our scenes were going to be, so it was fairly easy to go through them one-by-one and put them into script form. We've continued working on the script draft by sending it back and forth through the group gmail to add things in and make revisions. Bec, being the director, is in charge of putting together a first draft shot list and then sending it out for the rest of us to go over. We've discussed what we want the film to look like, so I think we're all on the same page for that and hopefully shouldn't have to revise it too much. I'm in charge of typing up the shot breakdown pages so that we can put together the actual production schedule. We're planning on filming on either the Tuesday-Wednesday or Wednesday-Thursday of the break. I think we're all really excited to actually shoot the video now that we're really seeing it come together in the script. The script, shot list, and production schedule are due on Wednesday, so our plan is to have everything done by Monday night, have Tuesday to double check and make final revisions, so that it's all ready to go first thing Wednesday morning.

So many shots and so little time.

Last week, something that was discussed in the lecture was the use of a shot list, as well as the value in reverse engineering a film based on the shots used. After giving this a try, I can honestly say that I probably won't look at films the same way from now on. I went through the opening scene of P.S. I Love You to break down the individual shots. Within the first two minutes of the movie, there were about 20 shots. A lot of them were only two or three seconds long, switching back and forth rapidly from one character to the other. You never really think about it when you're watching a movie, but the shots are constantly changing, often so fluidly that you don't notice. It's the same effect as looking back and forth between two people in a three-way conversation. For P.S. I Love You in particular, the first scene has the couple arguing in a stairwell, placing the angry woman in a dominant position above the apologetic man. He is shot from above to make him look smaller, while she is shot from below, giving her the position of power. It's definitely a technique that caught my attention.

As far as our group work goes, last week we acquired a new team member: Peter. We also had two members absent (Bec was in Sydney, and Zehn was sick), but we managed to power through the tutorial assignment (shooting footage for a possible opening sequence) and got a sense of how we all work together when it comes to actually coming up with ideas for shots, setting them up, and executing. The dynamic of the group is a little too passive, if you ask me. No one seems to want to stand up and take charge, which makes it difficult to get things done. There are a lot of good ideas and suggestions floating around, but I feel like they have to be pried out of some members, like they're too afraid to share what they're thinking. I don't usually tend toward leadership, but I've been trying to keep everything organized and get people on track with what should be getting done, such as defining the details of our idea and starting to come up with a basis for our script. In our group meeting, we came up with a basic outline, so I typed that up and shared it on the group gmail, to make sure that everyone's on the same page.