SMALL THINGS
I gained a sense of professionalism from this studio. I felt a purpose in each class that was brought back to this theme of being a professional in all the ‘small things’ that I do. From looking cool whilst setting up equipment, to being direct and assertive on set, to knowing how to avoid the red face flush in post production organisation; I felt as if I have learnt the key steps as to what it takes to be a good operator in the media industry. I believe what this came down to was organisation and concentration. It was evident this semester that planning well early and listening to instructions was key to creating smooth productions. These are the things I will definitely take with me out of the studio, as I believe they are two extremely important factors in any job. Lastly, I have gained an incredible amount of respect for all aspects of the media industry. Each part of every production stage of every film deserves the same amount of concentration. ‘Small things’ has taught me to be just as methodical with coiling a cable as I should be with operating a camera and I think that’s a metaphor I can bring into life outside of media and university.
Click here to view my final assignment
Assignment 3 – Reflection
The pre-production of this assignment was something I hadn’t experienced before, containing more twists and turns than I could’ve imagined. My group and I began to location scout three weeks before our shoot date, which gave us enough time to find a good location… or so we thought. We were not successful in finding out location until the day before shooting, which impacted the detail and concepts of our storyboards and shot lists. Not having a location when making these led to a mystery surrounding shot construction and how we were going to work with the space. We decided to take photo storyboards that focus on the placement of camera on the actors and chose not to worry about the location for the time being. This experiment came out well and gave us a strong visual representation for the cinematography.
We finally found a location within Bundoora Park. It was a café/ farm with large amounts of free space and quiet fields. We filled out the necessary safety requirements and ran it over the owners so they were aware of what we were doing and once they approved we organised our production. We also decided to cast an actor from Star-Now, who would play the Gentle Lady in the film. This process couldn’t have gone smoother, as Elizabeth was extremely eager to volunteer her time to make conference calls and meet us on set for the duration of her scenes.
In reflection of the pre production process, it definitely could have been done more efficiently. I now know how essential it is to have a location found and secured well before the day of shooting. By putting in the extra time and effort weeks before the shooting day, it will result in a much more organised and relaxed set.
Sound was a really important part of our film, as we had to replicate the environment of a circus, whilst having no actual circus to shoot at. This meant the soundscape of the film had to be rich enough to create this illusion. My soundscape was built upon 9 layers of different sounds that ranged from atmospheric tracks from set, downloaded ambience, crowd noises, circus sounds and the main piece of music for the film. The depth of my soundscape was successful with how I was able to mix the sound levels and create distance between the sounds from set and the artificial sounds from post-production. Building the soundscape was one thing, but making it work with the dialogue was also a large task. It was evident in the earlier rough cuts that the dialogue recorded on the zoom microphone didn’t match the sounds that already built in the soundscape. The white noise in the background of the dialogue created a distinguishable cut between the audio pieces that wasn’t fluent in the film. To combat this, I used a ‘denoiser’ effect tool to mask down the white noise in the zoom microphone recordings, which created a more seamless transition between the soundscape and the recorded audio.
Looking back, I think the sound was something we did quite well as a group. Myself being the sound recorder, I made sure to record as much ambience and wild lines on set as I could to build the rich soundscape we needed. However, with out AD not being on set for most of the day we were unable to call the shots for the sound which led to there being no clapper mark, which slowed down the merging process immensely.
In honestly, I found it difficult to work collectively in groups at the start of the semester. In the first production and editing exercises, it was hard to operate in groups with people I was unaware of or had a connection with, and so it often led to inefficient time use and complications on set. In my experience, there were often times where directors clashed with ideas, or that no one stood up as a director to get the production underway. This was also a similar problem in the editing suites as it was difficult to create a cut of a film quickly as there were long discussions about editing practices. In the earlier stages of this semester I thought these factors were going to define my experience of the studio, however it completely turned around. As we got more into what it takes to create a film I realised how much more efficient film making is working as a team with multiple points of view. I also became very comfortable with my classmates and I began to understand how everyone worked and who were best for what positions. This ultimately set me up perfectly for the final assignment, as the experience throughout the semester allowed for my group and I to find the middle ground in all the issues that arose. If I were writing this at the start of the semester, I would probably be writing about how I wish I could work solo in these types of class productions, however I am now more than certain that working in teams is a stepping stone for creating something good.
Safety
Risk Management Safety Report
-This safety report was conducted to display that our location was investigated for any possibilities of harm or unsafe practices. The graph goes through locations, scenes and actions to reflect on any possibilities that may occur, solving the problems before they may arise on set. This safety sheet was also given to the staff of the Bundoora Park, Farm & cafe for their own benefit of knowing our actions on their property.
-An RMIT safety report was also conducted, which can be found here.
