The second part of this semester has been heavily based on collaboration, I think to discuss this i will separate it into the different areas I’ve worked in.

The class shoots. 

So the class test shoots has been a really enjoyable collaboration experience, at the start we had to allow the first years to be more involved as they were still learning to use the equipment but this meant that throughout the semester we were able to help each other out and assist them in the different element of using the camera. Although this also meant less camera time for those who had used the cameras before. I really loved taking out the camera and just playing around with what shots look really good and getting a second opinion from other classmates. It’s also nice to see how much more efficiently things get set up and shot when more people are involved. I enjoyed the relaxed nature of these trials, we were able to just play around with different roles whether that be audio, camera, acting or directing and just see what we thought looked good. I liked that most of the time its not stressful of intense it was just trailing different methods to get a good looking shot. The only pitfalls with some of these class activities was perhaps learning to engage with different personalities and figuring out how we could all compromise to get the shots we all wanted.

Individual test shoots.

The individual test shoots is far more difficult when you only have yourself as a resource, I much prefer having a few people around to help out with the whole charade. This meant that my first few tests didn’t work as well because I was by myself and its hard to hold the camera and act.

* I also found it quite difficult to shoot without having an easily accessible camera and tripod.

With the other test shoots I roped in a few people this made the testing far more enjoyable it meant we were both able to put in our creative ideas and actually be able to do them because there were enough people to achieve that shot. Michael helped a great deal with some of these assisting with a camera, and together we just trialled different ideas that we had previously thought of.

Final group project. 

I started of with this project being sick so I missed the day that groups were formed and ideas were set. This threw me off a bit so I ended up joining a group that had already established most of its ground work.

* i found getting the flu twice this semester extremely inconvenient it really set me back as I missed two and half full weeks in total of any university work or test shoots which not only stressful but it pushed me back a bit.

I partially feel like my contribution to this very very minimal because I came in towards to end of there idea process. Nonetheless I still went through the rhythms of ideas in my own ideas and some of those things I wanted in mine is replicated in this new idea.

Having come in so last minute meant I wasn’t completely caught up in the overall aesthetic and vibe that the boys wanted so it was hard for me to add any new ideas to something that I wasn’t familiar with in terms of stylistic elements. I think the boys had a very clear vision for the script they wrote so they want to really follow through on what they want to achieve. For me I took the part of the script I am directing and really tried to grasp their vision as well as what I think would a) look fantastic cinematically and b) be humorous to audience thorough these shot constructions.

Another limitation we had as a group was location, we all live extremely far away from each other and this made test shoots difficult. It was also difficult organising shoot days due to the fact I work every weekend and they wanted to shoot on the weekend. So we compromised that I’d help shoot the Wednesday shoot and Saturday, Sunday I would have to miss. Perhaps I could take more of a lead role in the editing stage, editing my and micelles parts to make up for shoot days.

I think something else to get around again is work types, for me I love organisation. Knowing whats happening when its happening and planning it all out, the others were a bit more just go with it, on different schedules so this was something I had to accommodate. I think splitting it into 4 parts helps with this as we have the ability to work in the way we wish. Its always different when working with new people and Ive learnt to try to compromise with people to get things done. Often as a group wed establish what needed to be done and we’d work on that individually which worked out better than us trying to get things done together.

As an update, the final shoot day was hard to get finalised and organised so after having a discussion with Paul I ended up doing some filming on my own. I took a part of the script and adapted it slightly to have one character purely because I had not a lot of time or access to people. I just shot it in the way I envisioned how I thought the original script would looked good. Overall I think I got out my intentions of the shoot, I wish I had more time to prepare and plan. I think the shots could’ve worked out really nice with a bit more time on my hands. I really enjoyed doing all the test shoots as this made it so much easier to shoot my final shoot (so to speak). I am also going to help out editing together pieces of their shoot which I will enjoy doing, working with the people in my group has been enjoyable and they’re really great people with really amazing ideas and shooting techniques.

overall collaboration

Overall it has been good to share ideas, it’s been nice working with people who’ve had more knowledge in film than I and I have been able to learn a lot from them. Despite having a few ups and downs, I’ve learnt that collaboration is important in any creative works. I think its hard sometimes to be on the same page with people but nonetheless there is always a way to figure out how you can work things out.