The process of creating film project one has been a long and lengthy one, which in honesty I should have anticipated. For film project one I wanted to test my own limits and comfort levels by joining a group with an abstract idea that could help me develop my technical skills and creative capacity. I was assigned the role of the ‘producer’ and although this was a seemingly loose term within film project one I generally did most of the producer type of things, for example creating and filling out all of the pre-production documents including:

• Risk Management and Safety forms
• Call sheets
• Filming schedule
• Lisa Miyagi’s release form
• Location release form

 

Some of these forms like the actor and location release forms I have dealt with before, however call sheets and the risk management forms took a while to fill out because I’d never used them before. I had to look up on google what different letters on the call sheet meant such as “SWFW” (start work, finish work) “P” (page number of script.) Filling out all these pre-production documents was a shock to me as I didn’t realise that these types of things was specifically a producers responsibility however I was happy to take on the learning curve and sift through all the files on my own.

 

We had a slow start in terms of organisation for this film, with one or more of us being absent from class for about two weeks due to illness or different circumstances made it really difficult to get our feet on the ground for this project. However once all five us got together in week six we sorted out important logistics like a filming schedule, location, actors and gear. And by this point I thought we were good for the mid-semester break for filming.

Almost all the gear we used through our shoot was equipment that I had never used before, the Sony x70, Canon 5D, and a GoPro on top of the lighting gear which included the Dedo lights and the LED lights. So this was really exciting for me (and the group) to have some stuff to play around with. On the shoot we used my Dads film camera the Panasonic PV:DV52 which films onto MiniDV tapes however because of the amount of time it was going to take to convert them to a digital file we weren’t able to use them for the final cut of the film which sucks, but it was good to play around with different equipment on set.

 

We experimented with the different filters on the LED and Dedo lights to see the altered effects it would have on the lighting and the shot in general. I got to film a few shots on both cameras as well as be involved in controlling both lights in different takes, so I feel as if I have gained a bit of experience with this sort of equipment after filming this project. The first day of shooting was really trying to figure out logistics but also trying to work with the camera as it wasn’t picking up the light the way we wanted it to. It was also strange because we had to figure out how to work around each other, which by the second day we found our rhythm. Ally was missing from both days of shooting which in my opinion didn’t really affect us in any way because four people was enough to do what we were doing, but it would have been good to have another person in the mix thinking creatively on the project.

 

The editing process has also been really dysfunctional, there has never been one time where all of us have sat down and edited the film collectively together. Pat, Izzi and myself have all sat down together, and in pairs on separate occasions creating the structure of the film, experimenting with speed, rhythm and duration of the clips. Pat and I had to look up some YouTube tutorials to create certain things in the film like the timer in the CCTV footage which you can see here:

 

 

We also used some YouTubers (Peter McKinnon, Alen Palander) LUTS packs which I have come across for some of the colour grading to accentuate some colours while dimming others, but also using the filters to bring out the lighting. So in this aspect I again feel as if my technical skills have developed with editing because I’ve gotten more experience with colour grading, using a timer in premiere pro and using masking to create a blurred effect on other scenes. This picture is an example of using a colour grading effect ‘AUSTRIA’ on one of our shots.

I feel as if working on this project has tested me creatively in a few different ways. Trying to grasp the idea and make something with very little stimulus, plot or structure has been something that I really struggled with, especially before commencing filming. As the creative process went along I began to understand the concept, and even think of different angles or takes that we could make at the shoot. This has been the first real film I’ve ever worked on besides my year 12 project which has been really exciting but again challenging, after completing this project I feel as if my eyes have been opened into what it really takes to make a film pre to post production and how you really need a good group of people to make something. I found at the shoot on both days we really had to work on our feet to try and make something unique and different, working around barriers such as shadows and reflections as well as the equipment in the room was all a part of the process, but again something I’ve never had to really think about before.

 

As a group I feel as if we had a pretty dysfunctional dynamic happening from beginning to end. We didn’t get off to a good start as I previously with all of us not attending class collectively for two weeks. For shooting Ally was only present on the first day to set up the equipment which I don’t think was fair to the rest of the group who gave up their time be there. The editing process was honestly just as malfunctional as the organisation of this project. It started with Ciara and Ally who started the editing together but when we (Pat and I) went into the suites the next day it wasn’t as far ahead as we thought it would be. So we spent a lot of time basically restarting the project in premiere in the structure of shots that we talked about in the group chat. Izzi has contributed a lot in post-production as well, between the three of us in different combinations and times all three of us have had a real go at editing the project. Izzi working primarily on colour grading and final modifications, Pat and I worked a lot on the structure and playing around with the rhythm, pace and speed of the film/clips in the initial stages, and working together on the CCTV timer and a few other things.

Overall working on this project has taught me a lot of things about film making, technical things, production elements and a lot more about working in a group. Using new equipment for this project was really cool and exciting because it gave me a chance to expand my technical capacity especially with the lighting equipment which I’ve never used before. Creatively I feel as if my mind has really been opened up to experimental films and how you can make something really great without the typical need for a narrative driven storyline which is something I’ve never really considered before. This is probably the main thing that I’m really excited about taking into the next film project .