The Brief
Unlike in the preliminary task, our brief for this project was much vaguer - all we needed was to make the opening minutes of a feature length film. As the options for the brief were so wide, this made the process a lot more hard but much more exciting, as it allowed us to be very creative.
The freedom we were granted in the project meant that we needed to do a lot more planning, so our group blog was very useful for sharing information. From the outset, we used it to communicate ideas with each other.
Our informal way of communicating with eachother was via facebook, where we created a group to share comments, photos, web links and video links with each other.
Organisation
Just some of the paperwork we needed for the project:
- Storyboard
- Script
- Shot List
- Shooting Schedule
- Equipment Sign-off forms
- Final Treatment
- Seward Studio Booking Forms
- Actor Contract Forms
As the size of the project was much bigger, it meant that we were more susceptible to influence from unwanted external factors. These included unreliable cast members, unavailability of the location, background noise during recces, dysfunctional boom mikes, and the power to the school being shut down on the day of a shoot! However, we were able to work past these in order to have a successful final product.
Organising Cast and Location
As we required some extras for our shoot, we used the social networking site facebook to collect them together and let them simultaneously see what the latest plans for the shoot were. This proved very helpful in knowing exactly what was planned for any specific shoot.
facebook example 2
Our location was slightly easier to manage, as unlike in our preliminary task, we didn't have to shoot in the same area as other people. As long as we had the Seward Studio booked, we were guaranteed no outside interruption.
On the shoots
As we were by now well practiced in our film understandings, in both the theoretical and practical sides, this made the actual shoots pass a lot faster, as we knew how to work the equipment and automatically followed film making techniques such as the rule of thirds or checking continuity. This meant that despite having a total of 10 'official' shoots, in the final shoots where we intended to use footage, we actually ran ahead of time, giving us time to experiment with shots and work in the edit suite.
Post Production
As our preliminary project did not have any special graphics or effects, we had to make lots of time to edit so that we could teach ourselves any programmes that we were not accustomed to. Fortunately, our previous experiences with Adobe Premiere Pro meant that our basic editing was a lot quicker, giving us more opportunity to deal with the more challenging aspects, such as the green screen integration and the opening graphics.
Getting Audience feedback
Because our prelim task was a lot smaller, we only gained feedback by posting the video on facebook and requesting feedback. This time round, we publicised a test screening in the media block using posters round the school and a facebook group, as it was important that we could convince lots of our target audience to attend, which they did.
facebook example 3
Working in a team
Our group was lucky, in that Narishma, Frank and I had already worked together on the preliminary task, seen below.
Even with the addition of Eoin, our group worked with a similar dynamic as we all understood each others strengths, and used them to our advantage. Because of this, we also knew each others weaknesses, and could avoid problems by working around them. In my evaluation for the prelim task I commented that the most important thing it had taught me was the importance of planning ahead and documenting my work, which I feel I have achieved a lot better this time around. Overall, the practice we received as a result of doing the prelim greatly improved our work in this project.
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