Evaluation

In this essay i will be evaluating the short film the me and my crew produced, which is called 'Dollz'. I was given the role of the camera operator and being given this role i have learnt three important things during being in charge of he storyboard and the shot list for our movie. The first thing i have learned is that my position was an important role and it had to be done and that time is very limited. If we don't meet the deadline, everything falls behind and a lot of money would be lost. I successfully finished the storyboard in a way that the crew could easily follow and i was very meaningful because it was shot effectively. The only downfall about the storyboard is that it didn't contain he rule of thirds, which was and compulsive action to have within the storyboard. However i found a way to work around it and produce the rule of thirds on the screen of the camera. Apart from not having he rule of thirds the storyboard was clear on what directions was need to be done and straight forward therefore if someone didn't know anything about the production, they would understand it by just looking at the storyboard. The second thing i have learned is that the pre-production has to be perfectly finished in order to actually start the production work. For and example this includes collecting the props that we need, the permission plans because these things are better done before the production because you will have to wait for an email for you to know if you have permission to shoot on the premises and if you buy the props on the same day shooting, you would be loosing shooting time. The third thing i have realised is that as camera operator doing the storyboard and the shooting script is that no one can start shooting without them, therefore if the storyboard doesn't meet the deadline everything would fall behind because then we would have less time to shoot.

If there was a problem me and my crew were good at coming together and figuring out our next move to resolve the problem. An example of this is that at the last minute one of our locations got cancelled but we never gave up put all put our minds together and was able to think of a new location that we could use for our production on the same day.

At the start of out pre-production all the roles got divided in and each of us was given our own separate roles and the good thing is that everyone knew what their role contained. 
Our shooting script was done at the time we was allowed to start shooting on the locations that we picked; after asking them if we could have permission to shoot on their property and we got all our locations secured. It was perfect how this happened because it made our shooting script more realistic and easier for us to work on. Also the script was detailed because it required the times n hours we would be shooting for and the location we were shooting in and materials and who was needed to present. Our shooting schedule had contingency plans in case we needed to re-shoot shots or add in any pick up shots. The only downfall is that the storyboard and the shot list wasn't done early enough therefore that kept us back a bit.

The storyboard i produced was detailed and it contained enough shots for the film to be one minute. However the storyboard had to have changes made to it because the idea changed and there was more details that needed adding. 95% of our shoot followed the storyboard but the remaining 5% didn't because we had to change our location and the time we changed our location we couldn't go back to the storyboard, which was under the pre-production planning and that deadline already passed.

The shot list was also my role as well and it contained relative information for an example the shot types and the shot list was also based on the shooting script, therefore it made it easier to complete because the shooting script was already finished. The good thing about the shooting script is that it helped us out on how we was going to structure the shots and whenever we was stuck; not knowing what shot to use next, we always referred back to the shot list. For and example we was at the train station and we wanted to take an establishing shot and extra pick up shots, but we didn't know hat shots to use for the pick up shots therefore we looked at the shot list and it gave us the shots we needed to use and the composition. Because we changed one of our locations near the end, we had to switch the shot list and improvise.

When we had to decide on what location we was going to use we had various of ideas, however some of the ideas would of been difficult for us to film i. With the location we picked it was still difficult filming because of the lighting and background noises. Successfully we got permission from each location we wanted that we can film on their property. Therefore it made it easier to shoot considering we never had a case where was kicked of the premises because we never had permission. we was aware about the noise factors that would occur, especially in the train station we knew that there was going to be a lot of background noise, therefore we made our script not have any dialogue and considering we never used the sound from the actual footage, the background noises were cut off and you can only hear the sound effects we added in ourselves along with the backing track we also added in ourselves. however we used some sound from the original footage to make our film sound more realistic. Also we had our own lighting kit, which we couldn't get at our first shoot, that is why our first shoot was bad because the lights in the office ruined it because it was to bright and it was meant to be low key lighting to make it look like a thriller, Therefore we had to re-shoot those particular shots.

The producer was in charge of everything. The person who had that role had to be the the most organised and reliable person because of the fact that they have to watch over everything. They have to make sure everything is in place and everything is working perfectly because they have the ability to fire people from their crew if they are not doing their job properly or if they don't make the deadline. The producer has control over all sections of the films production. They have to provide talent and put together a crew that can work together.  The producer has the responsibility to come up with the idea for the production. The crew that the producer brings together include the director, production designer, cast members, pre production. The producer has to get permission for the locations and hire studios, he has to approve that the final shooting script is corrects, production schedule and the budget. 

During our pre production process we go our actors to sign all documents that are required in order to have their face shown on camera. The actors was really prepared for the role because the took drama as a course, however when it was time to film the production we couldn't use the actors we picked because it was within the week and they were busy during the week, which was not a problem because they gave us early notice. Therefore we had to improvise and and decided to use two people within our group to act in our short film. This benefited us because of the fact we already knew our short film's story therefore we knew how to act it and how everything went. We had a day to reherse and we also has to re-take shots because of the lighting, but that was the only the first part of our short film. 

Before we started proceeding with anything my group made use that everyone knew their role and that everyone knew what they had to cover, also the production manager made sure that everyone done what they was meant to do. During the pre-production and the production itself everyone took responsibility and done everything that they was able to do so we could meet the deadline.

All the equipment that we needed we was able to gather together. All except for the lighting pack, because our school ran out of lighting packs to give out but we managed to get a lighting before we finished out shoot. We had two extra spare batteries therefore if our cameras ran out of batteries we had spare to put in and also a charger to charge the dead batteries. We also had a tri pod and we also made sure that was working properly. Every time before we started shooting, we made sure that the camera had charged batteries and made sure that all of the equipment was working perfectly fine. 

The call sheet was helpful because it had what times we should be at our locations, therefor because everyone knew what time to be at the locations everyone would be on time. Or if someone didn't know where the locations was or what it looked like there would be pictures of the exact location. The call sheet included the crew members details and emails, so it made it easier for us to contact each other and tell each other any information that was required.

Overall i believe the management of the production procedure was 95% sufficient because of the fact we met our deadline and we was organised with gathering together our equipment and all the things that was needed. The reason why it wouldn't be 100% because the pre production document wasn't as effective as it should be. Next time the storyboard will be completed with the rule of third the first time round, therefore i wouldn't have to go back and add it in.