Evaluation

Introduction 

For my introduction, I will be evaluating my short film which is called Followed, I was in a group of four, which we all had four roles, which were Director, Director of Photography, Production Manager and Producer. I was the Production Assistant and during planning and organizing, filming, and editing the short film, I have learnt 3 major things throughout this process. The first thing I learnt was that all pre-production work is essential before can go any further (filming). An example of this is if the storyboard is not complete and or does not have up to 25 shots then we are unable to film. This was an issue for us because we only had 6 shots which made it incomplete. In order for us to film, our director of photography had to add more shots to our storyboard for us to film. The second thing I learnt was the producer was in charge of everything, which meant in order for us to actually shoot the producer had to make sure and or ensure everything was done. If the script was not done on time, the producer would have the choice to either fire the director, for example. Lastly, the final thing I learnt was how to work with a team to and complete the short film in a short deadline.

My group's problem solving was good as when we encountered a problem, we solved it quickly. One of these problems were with the incompletion with work. When discussing when to complete them, we were able to finish the incomplete work in a day, which was very effective for us because we were going to shoot the next day. 

Main Body

Before shooting, we had specific documents to complete. For example, because I was the production manager, I was in charge of the risk assessment, props/make up sheet, equipment booking and risk assessment. 

Our shooting schedule was made by the producer and was set out on the dates of when we would of been shooting. Luckily, we shot everything the on same day which left us more than enough time to edit. The reason why we needed a shooting schedule was to make sure everything is shot on time and on the dates that were listed. On the schedule, it has date and time, the location, storyboard shot number, actors and crew, props, costume, make-up and description and the video equipment that is required. 

The storyboard could have been detailed enough to make a 5 minute film if we had more shots included in the shot list. The shot lists on the storyboard was essential because without it, we wouldn't have been able to our desired shots.

The shot list had information which is relative to the script as we will know what shot to use for each scene. The shot list was organised correctly because when we shot the first scene, it was in the same place whereas for example, if the shotlist was in a jumbled up order, it would take more time to keep changing locations rather than shooting. The advantage we had with our shot list is that we only filmed in one location which meant that we had enough time to move around and choose our desired location; because we shot in three different areas by the lake which were quite close to each other.

When picking our location, Southmere lake, we were aware of the lighting and permissions but not the background noise. Sadly, when we were filming one of our scenes, a plane flew directly over us which prevented us from hearing our actors clearly and we were unable to re-shoot the scene again as it would have ruined our shooting schedule. For permissions, we knew that we had to ask for permission to shoot at Southmere Lake, so we emailed the local council for permission and was granted it.

Our actors were rehearsed and organised because they knew the exact date of when we were going to film and came on time. This was a major advantage for us because the actors knew what their roles were and got right into character when we started to film. In my opinion, I think I chose the right actors because the roles suited them well and were able to adjust to any changes. I liked the main character, Lucy because she stayed in character and knew exactly what to do. However, we were unable to get a male actor for Tyler so one of our crew members played him and we made him anonymous. 

We were able to book out equipment which was a dslr camera, tripod, memory card and lights. If we were unable to get lights for our short film we wouldn't have been able to shoot. However, if it came to that situation, we could have used an alternative which would be the lights on our phones. The camera worked perfectly fine and was charged fully as we put the camera to the setting which allowed us to record. The tripod worked with no faults which was to make it wobbly and the lights worked well, even though we had a bit of trouble trying to get it to turn on.


Our call sheets were very effective because it allowed us to make sure our actors will get to set or our meeting point in time. In this case, because we decided to shoot straight after college which meant that we could all meet at one place. We told our actors to meet us outside of the college building at the specific time and they were there. This was good for us because we were all able to get to the location together without having to wait for one of either our crew members of an actor to get there late. If anyone was late this would waste valuable filming time and lighting. 

Conclusion

In my opinion, I think that our production was 85% effective because we had incomplete production work that needed to be completed in order to actually film and do our report. What I would do next time is to ensure that all production work should be completed before the due date to make sure if any of the work is not correct, we will have enough time to re-do or re-submit it.