One scene, three shots.

That was our class exercise this week. As a collective, we needed to film a scene about a girl telling a guy that she was moving to a different country using three different shots.

There were some roles to fill – director, first assistant director, cinematographer, first assistant camera, camera production assistant, clapper loader, boom operator, production sound mixer and actors. I assisted with setting up but didn’t undertake one of these roles during the filming of this scene. I was among others who were only spectators on ‘set’. And considering that we treated this exercise as if we were in an actual film set, it was quite intriguing to watch the operations of a set.

Everyone has their own job to do and everyone has to remain focused on what they need to despite how tedious it might get. Even as assistants to the camera operator and the director, every crew member plays a vital role during production and also ensures that post-production also have smooth operations. The assistants have to ensure that they record the details of the shots captured on set and also makes certain that filming occurs smoothly. It was also interesting to learn that actors only take directions from the director and the first assistant director to avoid confusion on set.