Josie™

No, but seriously – is it really week nine already?!

It’s the start of the week, and it’s already feeling a little too unorganised with pre-production, but we’re getting there!

Our communication within our group has improved drastically since we completed the pilot for Ghastly Solutions, but still has a lot of room for improvement. Thankfully for our wonderful casting director, we now have a set cast – but our schedule has changed, so we’re having to attempt to reschedule with our talent, which puts both them and us off track a bit. But we shall progress!

This week is going to be full of pre-production work, including:

• storyboarding;
• finalising locations;
• finalising production schedule/shoot times;
• creating a shooting schedule and call sheet;
• organising props and costumes;
• contacting the talent and organising schedules;
• and organising a table read/rehearsals.

We are going to be very busy fitting all of this in within the next week or so, and we are finding it difficult understanding where to start in this list without finalised versions of the first two scripts from the writers.

Personally, I am getting a little nervous for this production, as it is already week 9 and we are yet to start filming episode one. This is probably not that much of an issue as we are only filming the first two episodes rather than all four, but it just does not leave very much time for pre-production, rehearsals, shooting and post-production. From here on out we will be very busy, but I just hope it runs smoothly enough to be able to fit all of this into the cast and crew’s schedules.

All negativity aside, I am confident that my team and I will be able to successfully complete these two episodes within this time frame. We all understand where we stand within the creation of this film, which really helps to make sure every person is getting their job done.

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.

Oh my, the problems that occurred in post production were excruciating. Besides my group and I thinking that it would be a great idea to finish editing on the day of our presentation to the panel, we did not actually have some of the audio that we recorded, some of the audio we did have got deleted, and we realised many, many continuity issues that occurred when filming.

Let’s begin with the continuity errors, shall we? Essentially, we had no continuity. From the eye-lines being completely out-of-whack and unfixable in post-production to the lighting differed immensely, these were just the start of our problems. The visual aesthetics of this became completely messed up and these errors that we did not take into consideration at all had ruined the pilot all by itself.

Now, moving on to sound: IT WAS HORRIBLE. For one, we couldn’t actually do the sound for one section as it was not available to us, and therefore we had to use the sound from the camera. This was particularly bad, as you could hear the buzzing noise from the building – and loudly – so much that you could barely hear what the actors were saying.

On the day of the presentation when we were finalising editing, I was attempting to link up what audio was available to me with their visuals, and for some reason part of the audio deleted from the first scene and I was not able to recover it. Therefore, after a mental break down and a half, we had decided that we were unable to show the whole of the pilot (only the part where most of the audio was okay) for our presentation to the panel.

Ultimately, what I believe we have gained from this experience is to:

• Check continuity in eye-lines and lighting;
• Thoughroughly assess the sound at the location;
• Make sure everyone brings a hard drive so they are able to have all of the footage and audio;
• Make sure we begin (and finish) editing far before the due date.

This experience was yet another learning curve, but I am once again happy that it happened when it did, and was therefore able to gain positive feedback from the panel in how to stop these things from happening in future.

After thoroughly assessing what went wrong during our production, not fulfilling my job description as a First Assistant Director was certainly a key factor. Believe it or not, I am an organiser, especially when working on a film set. In past productions I have been very put-together, but I had completely failed myself with this pilot by lack of pre-production. So, I decided to do some more research on my role in order to better myself.

As a First AD, I should be the director’s ‘right-hand man’ – taking care of all the practical and technical aspects while they work on their creative vision. This will include working to break down the script and turn it into a storyboard with the director. Drawing up a shooting schedule after working on the storyboard is also a necessity to help keep things in order on-set. While on the film set, I need to make sure that this has been kept to.

• Communicator between crew members and the director;
• Overseeing the hiring of locations, props and equipment;
• Keep to the schedule and push it forward;
• Preperation of a ‘call sheet’.

I actually barely achieved doing any of these in the creation of the pilot, which is very disappointing on my behalf. My role is such an important part in the creation of a film, so by not having completely pulled my weight, I feel like I have let my team down. Although, I did attempt to organise everyone into roles before and during the shoot, but I did not put as much effort in as to write up a ‘shooting schedule’.

Previous to the shoot, I did know that the shooting schedule needed to be done before I was on set, I did not realise how much of a necessity it was to keep the set in order. By assessing all of what I did wrong in my role as a First AD, I have now understood ways in which to better myself in this role, and why my role and doing the jobs that it entails is so important in the creation of a film.

We were completely unprepared for our first shoot day.

My group and I had originally thought that we could film all three scenes in the one day, but ended up only being able to film the two that were in the same location. We thought that we were put together and prepared for the shoot, having our roles set, but we weren’t.

Everyone was given a role, and it was written down in our shared google drive, but these roles were not really undertaken properly. No one actually partook in their specific roles, therefore making the set a bit of a mess. As great as my group is, our pre-production was a failure. We went into the shoot thinking would be okay, but it took far longer than expected due to my lack of ‘daily schedule’ preparation in my role as the First AD.

When filming, we lacked in our shot list. The lack of details, preparation and ideas of what we wanted and how it was going to look ended up in bad lighting, sound (due to location) and, well, location. We had not scouted our location properly beforehand, and just decided on an empty study space in building 9. This was a common room, in which many people were wanting to walk in and out of, or were walking up the hall. These sounds, along with the opening and shutting of doors really effected our ability to work effectively and productively, as our quality of work was not up to standard.

On a positive note: our actors were incredible and greatly depicted each of their characters. Their costuming and makeup perfected represented each of their characters, giving them an edge and a sense of their personas. It is very possible to say that their performances is what really saved our pilot.

Despite these dramas, we did have a wonderful time nonetheless. I’m so utterly glad to have experienced all of these mishaps in our pilot episode, because at least now we know how to better ourselves (especially during post-production) and what to expect for the next episode that we film.

Our dialogue with the writers has advanced and matured greatly since the beginning of the semester, and it has been really beneficial in being able to understand the storyline and characters better.

I partially believe this began to happen when we were split up into our perspective production teams, and we were then able to communicate what we all wanted better with the people that we were actually going to be working with for the rest of the semester. We have been able to work closely with the writers and discuss the kind of style we wish to film in and who our filmic inspirations are – which is able to heavily influence how and what the writers write for the serial.

The Facebook group that I created, which includes both the media students and writers for our production, has really assisted us in quick communication with one another. We are able to ask questions and get responses in a short period of time, while also being able to update each other on any progressions.

It is very encouraging that writers also seem very interested to be working with us on-set, as their input is important in our overall vision. I find it important to have the people who wrote the scripts be incorporated into the process of turning their words into a web serial. One of the writers is particularly interested in helping Gaby and Beth cast the actors, which will reflect really well on our finished product, as they wrote the characters and have a better understanding of who they are and who will fit the role best.

Through working closely with the writers like we have begun to, I believe it will also assist us in getting to know the characters better and to grasp a more coherent idea of the storyline as a whole. We are essentially putting visuals and audio to their words, so their input on the creation of our work is greatly wanted and appreciated.