Essentially, we messed up big time, but it was the best thing that happened to us.
When producing the pilot for Ghastly Solutions, my group and I had completely underestimated the organisational process and overestimated our abilities to pull-through in our roles.
Even though each person in our group had been sorted into the role of their choice, apparently that was not enough to smoothly film an episode for our serial, Ghastly Solutions. No one actually partook in their designated roles (myself included in my role as the First Assistant Director), besides the actors, as everyone on set was either doing everything at once or doing nothing at all. This really did not end well, which was evident in the post-production nightmare where these realisations came to play. The biggest mistake we made was rushing into filming without spending a sufficient amount of time on pre-production.
By lacking on the time that we spent on pre-production (location scouting, scheduling, storyboarding, etc.), when we went to film on the week 6 Friday during class, there had not been nearly enough organising done to make this shoot go smoothly. We did eventually get through the first day of filming, completing both scene one and three in the same location, deciding that we would have to film scene two during mid-semester break. As a location hadn’t even been organised in advance to the shoot, nor had a proper shot list/storyboard been thought out or a daily schedule been written up, this had really impacted our crew when filming. We ended up filming in a study space in building 9, but it contained a consistent low rumble which was evident in both the audio from the camera and the boom mic, lessening the quality of our work drastically.
Besides many of the crew being late to the first day of the shoot and there being very few people to help set up, we had no idea what we were doing visually and our pilot really shows this. Out-of-focus shots, not great audio audio, incorrect eye-lines and inconsistent lighting were just many of the few mishaps that are evident in our pilot. These small but many mistakes had made editing in post-production an absolute nightmare. Essentially, the pilot was not able to redeem itself, but thankfully this all happened when it did. We have thus come up with solutions and ways to not make these mistakes again when working on our other episodes, that mostly being actually spend a substantial amount of time on pre-production.
https://vimeo.com/233832620
In order to become more organised and prepared for our production, we have decided to maintain the crew roles in which we’ve nominated ourselves or others for. We believe that doing this, rather than rotating roles, will be a more effective and efficient way to both get to know one particular role, like anyone would on an actual film set, and to make this a more productive and coherent film set. Unlike last time where roles we had blurred the lines between our roles, keeping the roles will allow us to maintain and gain confidence in our jobs, thus producing a stronger team of qualified crew members. Below, each role and a person will be matched together:
- Director: Beth Morrison
- First AD: Josie Mortimer
- Producer: Dalena Omdara
- Production Manager: Ben Argall
- Casting Director: Gaby Seow, Heidi Frick
- Set / Production Design Manager: Áine Hamilton
- Cinematorgapher: Hazel Ilagan
- Camera Operator: Brooke Evernden
- Sound: Skylar Xu, Helena Li
- Lighting: Hazel Ilagan
- Script Supervisor / Continuity: Gaby Seow
- Editor(s): Josie Mortimer, Hazel Ilagan, Brooke Evernden and Skylar Xu (interchangeable).
Despite my thinking that this production was a complete failure, it really wasn’t. There were some great shots, such as Arabella (played by Beth Morrison) sitting at her desk, while eyeing off Liz (played by Gaby Seow). I also personally believe that the costuming for each character was very effective as it helped to depict each characters persona, while providing them a bold and unique look. Liz’s costuming in particular worked so well, as it made her look somewhat mysterious in contrast to the defined personalities of the rest of the cast. Seeing such excellent actors in these roles have also given us a strong image of what we wish our actors to be like for the rest of the series.
Although this pilot was not visually or aesthetically pleasing whatsoever, it was not a failure because it taught each of us why completing all the jobs our roles entail is so important in the production of a serial. It has been a very positive experience in understanding a filmset and each roles, and I’m pleased that these mishaps did occur when they did. Now, we have made many alterations to our working methods and production schedule, allowing us to be more realistic in our ventures towards creating Ghastly Solutions.
