Project Flower Evaluation

 

This process was brutal. Not because I struggled to get to grips with anything new with the production, that was all a cakewalk. But it was the fact I was working with a team who are in a completely different stage of their televisual careers than myself. I tried to create this project like it was a fully-fledged production, as I like each thing I make to be bigger than the last, but it was unfair for me to do that here, as it would cause stress and I'd be a burden for the rest of the group.

The frustrations began right at the very beginning with the group being randomized, in the past, I found that working with the groups I want to work with has allowed for better collaboration efforts to be made and more stellar production outcomes have been produced. And on top of that, it was a team of people who were majority male and Maisie. This led to restrictions from the get-go, as we were using ourselves as actors for this, it put us in a creative strain that has persisted to this writing of the evaluation.

I began by being the responsible one of the group and assigned myself as the producer. This was key to our successes as my prior knowledge allowed for an upper backbone and it allowed the process to become a lot more streamlined. However this isn't the role I wanted to be in originally, I wanted to direct the project as I really enjoy being behind the camera more nowadays compared to being in front, it is just a preference that suits my position and with the directorial experience, it would've made for potentially a more concise and better shoot overall. On top of that, I had already proved my skills at the Chatham Dockyard in the directing department as the shoot went extremely well in the end. But it is only fair that Elliot got his shot and so we gave it to him.

The first job I did as a producer completing a tick-box table for the group that could be followed and everyone could do different roles. Here is what it looks like: 

This is everything that I thought would be important to get completed by the end of the project, and as they were completed people could fill them in and highlight them to say they had been done. It made for a collaboration of honesty and proof that everything was getting done and with the initials being at the side, the distribution felt even. This was my doing, ensuring everything was set up and everybody had a preproduction role. One thing I do wish though was that people were properly informed on planning documents and how they would contribute towards the project. I spoke to Mike about this who assured me that it was not necessary for this production, however for a course that is about being ready for industry, it is a bit unprofessional in my eyes.

But everyone was fine with learning the new things that I wanted to put in and I gave everybody the necessary roles to get a complete planning selection. This is what lead to production looking so stellar in the end and allowed a full production shoot to be accomplished in one day. I gave myself, the risk assessment, release forms, role list, call sheet and equipment list. Giving myself 5 shorter tasks over 2 longer tasks made what I was doing less menial and allowed me to accomplish more and feel as though I was contributing more to the team. I did end up completing all five documents too, as you can see below!

The Equipment List

I made this alongside the email assistance of Fergus, which was amazing, He basically walked me through the names of each bit of equipment and I basically added them to my list, ensuring that all basis were covered in case something went wrong. This was fairly straightforward and I am glad it gone done with the help of the expert in around 20-30 minutes, just finding the images so the crew knew what each thing was taking the longest!

 

Contributor Release Form

These forms are vital for the legality of a production shoot. Having everybody signed on was vital and it only took me around 15 minutes to create. It is fairly self-explanatory and it made for security amongst the team that we were all signed on for this.

Role List

Having all the contact details in a document like this makes everybody accessible at all times, and it is clear and concise what the roles are as well. This was the shortest task, taking around 10-15 minutes tops and was very simple and short.

Call Sheet

For the call sheet, I used a site called simplecallsheet.com. This gave me an incredible layout of a bunch of information in a concise space. This allowed the rest of the crew to see all the information all together all in one place in a concise and honest format, which was certainly helpful. I liked the ways in which the call time is centred and the map is to the side of it, it looks slick and clean. This took around 35-40 mins total to complete this task, which is about appropriate, I added some notes at the sides just in regards to the outside of the location which was mainly for Elliot and his car's sake.

Risk Assessment

This was the biggest problem that I had to deal with by far, the risk assessment. It gave me so much stress, not only because it took me nearly an hour and a half to do, but because I had to redo it twice. I could originally find the risk assessment file so I grabbed a template off the internet, which was invalid. At least for the future, I have a full-blown correct template from which I can pull, allowing for future risk assessments to go a bit quicker. When I had the correct one, however, there were a few errors, which Laura had gone through and marked with comments for improvements, these certainly were helpful. It was just ensuring everything that could have gone wrong was accounted for, this included things I didn't even think about. For example, with the weather section, I only originally covered the basis of the crew, whereas my mind neglected the effect of equipment. This was something vital I missed, especially since the forecast was set to rain that day, so having that overlooking of this document was extremely valuable.

We then enter the next part of the project, the production. This ended up being the most stressful shoot I have ever done. It was inefficient and a very surreal experience considering I had worked with people in the past that have more experience, and that caused a juxtaposition between myself and everyone else. It made shooting complex and convoluted, yet at the same time, also allowed for certain aspects to have been eased over a lot more due to that said experience. For example at the start of the day, there was a lot of faffing about, we only managed to do four angles in three hours and that really upset me. I was there to get a job done, to get the work efficiently sorted and all done, but it was just a nightmare. I still feel upset and ashamed of my team for letting this happen and I hope that in the future something like this doesn't occur.

Those four shots were walking shots, that had no dialogue and were quite simple to film. In fact, these were shot in the morning so we got some very nice lighting from the sun that came through. Considering on that day it was predicted to rain, we only had two sets of showers at about ten minutes each. Even then we kept filming as I had provided the team with waterproofing over the equipment, as well as an umbrella and towels in case people got wet.

To be fair to the team though, we did keep a lot of preproduction promises, such as the costumes, which were provided by Elliot, and the shot types that Elliot and Maisie worked on together in the storyboard. That did allow for a more authentic shoot, which will immerse the audience into the world that we are trying to build from the start to finish. I also wore the completely wrong shoes for this shoot as it was extremely muddy and honestly quite disgusting, but that is on me as I thought style over substance.

After those four walking shots though we thought it would be best if we stopped for lunch as it was coming up to 1pm, so we got our lunch as well as some props ready for the second half of the day. Funny story but the woman in Tesco where we went for lunch actually asked why we were all buying flowers and asked if she could have some which was a bizarre yet funny moment. Also, Maisie was freaking out in the car as I decided to buy a prawn mayonnaise sandwich, and apparently, it smelt bad but I didn't notice, either way, it was really funny!

We got back and made our way down towards the bottom parts of the park, in which there was a large strip of a walkway which was perfect for what we were trying to portray. Due to the UK being quite far up in the northern hemisphere, the sun will always be southern to us, I used this knowledge to my advantage as the camera would be positioned facing southward and we were walking north, it allowed for some really great backlighting for these shots, and it gives an extra prelude to the prior shots and shows the coming out of light where at the start we are going towards the light, showing the progression of time and what we had accomplished.

For this afternoon's scenes, it was all about the dialogue, so it meant audio had to be done, thankfully Adam was on hand with his boom pole to do this for us. Now because of how wide these shots were, it meant the sound had quite a distance to try and reach. Adam did have very tired arms after this shoot, but he managed to persevere through. And it was all done in around an hour and a half in the end, this includes all the main shots as well as pickups, which I suggested we did after completing the main shots just in case of time. Harry on the camera tried his best, however, the zooms were stuttery and are really unappealing to the eye in the grand scheme of things. I tried my best to fix it in the edit however that didn't really go to plan like I had hoped for either.

Lastly the lake shots, this is where we utilised the props, as well as making it look beautiful as well. The reflections on the water and the whole aesthetic of the area were really beautiful, I am glad I was a part of that experience. The photo above is Elliot getting a few pickup shots whilst the rest of us were packing down for the day. We were able to film the ending here and wrap up, so around 30-45 minutes were spent here in total. After this, we packed up dropped all of the kits back at the studios and began to head home.

When it came to post-production it was fun. The plan was that we made an original edit each and then we would combine elements of each of them together, for one final perfect edit in the end. I decided to create mine with the idea in mind that it would go onto my YouTube channel afterwards. This idea of working was a great way for me to optimise things for myself, and also to upgrade the group's work as well. When it comes to editing I can get a bit selfish, but that is ok, it is my interpretation of the footage that we made and this is how it turned out.

One of my biggest pet hates is lining everything up along one straight line, it makes everything look so basic. but maybe that's on me at the end of the day. However, there were not many special effects that needed the multiple layers, instead, most effects were applied directly over the top of the clips themselves. In the future, though I want to do it so I put an adjustment layer overlayed onto the top of the clips, in fact, I should definitely do this when it comes to colour correction. It would make the whole process so much easier overall so next time I need to remember to do that.

The greatest bit of VFX work was when I implemented the look you see above. It is by cleverly changing the colour correction to where it brings out a lot of the greens and then adding an effect called lens distortion, it defaults to a fish eye look but I wasn't the biggest fan of that. Thankfully there is full directional control over the lens including pushing it in the other way, almost inverting that fish eye. In the end, it looks like what you see above, with the trees and bushes being pushed out massively on each side, very stretched and confused. There is also a sound effect of whispers in the background which adds to the atmosphere and the mystery of the production.

Once I had finished my edit, there was a group edit that Elliot put together, adding a lot of my elements into the production, including this effect and my title and music, there were also some elements added from Elliot's own personal one and Adam's personal one. It created a big ultimatum that I quite like in all honesty, the video is closer to three minutes long, but that's alright! I personally would have cut the walking down a lot more, but I am in a minority for that one, which is ok. 

The whole post-production process took around two days in total. One for actually compiling the clips and audio together and one for streamlining it and "trimming the fat". Overall I am happy with both edits, there are certain parts I wish had worked out better, such as the previously mentioned zooms, but it is all a learning process, something that can be genuinely improved for next time.

A poster I made, ready for a YouTube thumbnail

So what now then, the project is done and the video has been made. What I want to know is why I now feel so much guilt. I have the ability to make a truly beautiful production and I feel my own skills have majorly flopped. Maybe it is the break I took in the summer from video making. Maybe it is my confidence being knocked from my last college project feeling a lot lesser than I know it could've been. Maybe it is the lifestyle change since moving down and the relationships I have built down here, some of which are my happiest points, some of which have fallen through. I am satisfied which I feel is the right word to describe my emotions.

Going forward I need to stay on top of things a lot more, continuing on the path of adaptation whilst also going back a bit to make things a bit more selfish again, so that my work is for me and that I come out on top over everyone else. Maybe that isn't the case for this assignment, which is disappointing, but moving forward, I need to screw my head back on and get back to basics, continue to push myself and fly further than everybody else in the industry that I want to work in. For now, it is time to move on to the digital news unit and come back stronger than I had before.

 - Josh Sears