The single shot vs. shoot-to-edit exercise we did today was essentially a combination of tasks we had done prior. Different to this was the limited amount of time we had to organise and shoot each exercise. The first was particularly interesting, as our director, Michael, made the decisions to employ zooms, a point which we had previously been told to avoid. The final product, while clumsy at points, actually turned out to be visually interesting and didn’t look as kitsch or amateur as I thought it would. Once again I was acting, however, so I only had so much to do in the exercise. This made me all the more conscious of time wasted figuring out things like camera, framing etc. To me, this illustrated the importance of proper pre production, as well as setting up the equipment and getting the crew organised ideally before the actors arrive on set.

The second exercise I was first AD. On some level this felt like an unnecessary job given the very small scale of the shoot. Learning and practicing the proper protocol and call and responses in setting up a shot was very useful though, as everything I have worked on has been incredibly amateurish until now. The role of the first AD is to give structure, protocol and efficiency to a film set, which allows the cast and crew to function as a machine.