The filmmaking process is generally a collaborative one, whether you have a huge crew or a small group – there will almost always be numerous contributors to any film project. This was one of the reasons I was excited to take the Film3 Studio, as it seemed to offer many opportunities to work cooperatively with others on different tests and projects.
Through our class exercises we were exposed to many group tasks which required the sharing of ideas and division of jobs. I’ve found these group sessions to be really helpful in developing my ability to work cooperatively on film-specific pieces of work. However I think that in most cases, greater experience and knowledge can be gained through work completed outside of class, where you need to figure things out for yourself and make more precise and self-informed decisions. Working collaboratively outside of our Film3 classes is something that I think is important and luckily for me (seeing as my personal research project has ended up being more suited to solo-shooting) Ella invited me to help her and Jamie film some footage for her investigations into the area of sound design. As the three of us are all experimenting with night-time shooting in some way, I think that the team we formed worked really well as we shared a common interest in the context of the dark.
We shot Ella’s footage on Saturday night, using the Sony ex3, a Zoom h4, and a single Litepanel (with some phone lights also being used here and there). It was interesting to shoot in the darkness with the ex3 because I don’t think any of us had used the camera to shoot at night before. It took us a while to figure out the camera’s low-light capabilities and to learn how to best make use of the one Litepanel we had. Once we had figured this out, we managed to efficiently test out various set-ups and capture some really good looking footage. It was also good to get some more practice using the Litepanel to learn various ways to use and setup the light. Also quick side note: battery powered lighting is the greatest! Not having any wires really makes things easier; especially when shooting outdoors.
We seemed to naturally figure out what needed to be setup and what roles we were going to fulfil for each shot. No single person did the same thing 100% of the time however and we took it in turns to do different things – I actually think this helped shape each shot, and because Ella had explained what she wanted to achieve, we all had a similar idea of how shots should/could look.
I feel like this demonstrates the importance of a group sharing a somewhat detailed and clear vision, so that each member can visualise how the final product may come together and how the product may look when it is finished. This allows for production to move more smoothly and cooperatively as each individual can make decisions that are informed by the project’s goals. This also highlights the importance of the director’s role in uniting everyone’s understandings of their individual creative vision – sharing their artistic ideas with a group of people who will help bring those ideas to life.