Ellie Pack - Television Blog: May 2018

Wednesday, 9 May 2018

MAJOR PROJECT: Critical Reflections/Evaluation

Now that the Major Project is completed and the film has been finalised, I can reflect on my role and input into the project and the final outcomes. In particular I will be focussing on my roles as the Producer, Writer and Production Manager, the successes and challenges I faced and how I overcame them.

What was successful?
I think on the whole there were many more successes than problems, starting with the writing. The script writing was a long process which began with the concept. Josh took the concept and wrote a temporary structure of events for the first draft of the script. We then worked through the characterisation and story structure together, culminating 11 drafts in total. Although, there were several times where we felt like we had writers block, I think that with Simon's support during tutorials which helped us to troubleshoot any problems, we were able to finalise a script that is comedic, lighthearted and punchy with a real twist at the end.

Casting was an important part of my role as the Producer. I think that this was very successful, as we had lots of interest in the roles which enabled me to shortlist them down to 6 people, all of which had lots of potential. The audition process was also very successful and highlighted the right choice for the casting, which we wouldn't have had without this process. Overall, I am very pleased with our final cast choices and think that they really help to invest the audience in the story and give it believability.

Admin was a huge part of my role as Producer. It was essential to have all of the documentation completed to a good standard to enable filming to go ahead. Prior to filming, I made a list of all of the documentation that would be needed prior to and for the shoot days. I then updated these accordingly as we got closer to filming.

On the shoot days, my main responsibilities included the schedule. Due to bad weather, I had to think on my feet and update the schedule on the shoot days to ensure that we had time to cover everything. I was very conscious of time and prompted the Director when we were running over during a scene to keep the schedule in order. I am also pleased with my managerial and leadership skills during the shoot days, and ensured that all of the contributors knew what they should be doing at all times.

What could be improved?
There weren't many things that didn't work as such, but instead there were several challenges and room for improvement.

During the shoot days, I was very conscious of the schedule and overrunning. We only had 3 shoot days in total and I think realistically, 1 more day would've been beneficial to ensure that we had as much coverage as possible. During the edit of Scene 5 where they take their masks off, we were unable to cut this shot down because of a lack of coverage, which would have been simple to film.

Another aspect during the shoot days was some inconsistency in the lighting. During Scene 7 which was filmed across 2 different shoot days, the lighting is noticeably different. As the Producer, I should have checked that they matched as it made it difficult to match them in the edit. However, with some adjustments in the edit and the colour grading, this was massively improved.

Working as a team
I think that the experience working with Josh and Ellen as part of a team to create our film 'Bobbie & Clive' was very positive. All of us were passionate about our individual roles and we all wanted the film to be a success and be our most confident piece of work on the course thus far.
I worked more closely with Josh who was the Director, as it was his concept and vision, but it was my job to enable production. He is very certain in all of his decisions, which is a positive thing but I found it very difficult at times to communicate some of my creative ideas to him as often he didn't want to take on my ideas. As the production went on and we established the final script I found that he came round to being more accepting and willing to take on other ideas which showed improvement in our level of team work. Working with Ellen as the DoP was also very positive. I found it very easy to communicate with her. She was enthusiastic about her camera work and lighting, which gave me confidence as she was very professional on the shoot days.
Generally, the experience working with this team was successful and I feel I learnt a lot from both of them.

To conclude this unit, I am very pleased with the final outcomes, the film in particular. Although, it has been a lengthy process, I am proud with what we managed to achieve in just a few months as a team and individually. I am glad that I chose to take on the roles I did, particularly Producer as I wanted to challenge myself and have input into every aspect of making the final film.

MAJOR PROJECT: Group Edit Viewing & Final Cut

Yesterday, we had the group edit viewing with the rest of the year group. This was an opportunity to show all of the films to our peers before they were finalised to get some constructive feedback. This was an important process because it was a way of seeing the reception the films got and would highlight any major problems that needed to be solved before handing in. Initially, I was quite nervous about this process as I think it is nerve racking enough showing a finished piece of work on the big screen, let alone an unfinished piece. However, our film was in its very final stages, with just some minor colour grading left to complete, so I was feeling fairly confident about the viewing. Watching everyone else's films was really enjoyable and I think that the range of work across the group was really diverse and interesting. As usual, everyone in the group was very positive about everyone else's work which takes the pressure off and made the screening an enjoyable experience. It was interesting to watch ours on the big screen as we have been editing together largely using the TV in the production room. I think that the film played well and the sound was perfect, which I was really pleased about. The music levels were also high enough but not overbearing which is good. The only thing that really stood out was the colour grade which looked different on the projector than it had on a smaller screen. Otherwise the feedback from Simon and the group was positive which is really reassuring.

Bobbie & Clive

Since the viewing, we went back and looked at the film again on the TV and on the laptop and noticed a few imbalances in the colour grade. It was the most noticeable during Scenes 7-9 in the main office with Craig. However, this has since been resolved and the final cut has been completed. Although, there were several challenges throughout this project (which we knew there would be), I am confident that we overcame them and collectively wrote, produced, shot and edited a film that we can all be very proud of as our final project for University. Although working as a team can have its challenges, I think that individually we all were keen to undertake our roles and we worked very well together to create 'Bobbie & Clive'.

Saturday, 5 May 2018

MAJOR PROJECT: Editing Process/Development

The editing process for me hasn't been very hands on or technical, I have been there to oversee the edit, offering my creative ideas and feedback and assisting the Editor, Sound Designer and Colourist in any way that I can. During the editing sessions, which we have been either doing in the production room using the TV or in lecture room 2 with the projector. Having the edit up on another screen for the other members of the team to see has been useful so that Josh can show me what he's been working on. He started by putting the rough cut together by syncing all of the sound and putting together a rough picture edit. This gave us a starting point to work from as a group rather than trying to work on it from scratch. Josh is very organised with his editing so I felt confident that he didn't need my assistance during this process. As a team we generally agreed on the best takes to use and the cutting of the scenes, which translated well from Josh' shot-list onto screen, making it very enjoyable seeing his vision come to life.

The Edit

During an edit viewings with Simon, he watched the rough cut and offered some suggestions for improvement. These included potentially undertaking a re-shoot for Scene 10 as the shot we had used was very dark. However, we found an alternative shot for this scene which worked much better. Other feedback included making some of the movements tighter, such as putting the masks on and taking them off. Unfortunately Josh was unable to cut one of these movements down due to a lack of coverage for that scene. Josh tried to troubleshoot this by speeding up the shot but that was too noticeable.

Colour Grading

Once we were happy with the picture edit, it was over to Ellen to incorporate her sound design and colour grade. She showed me her sound log which included several sound effects, all of which I thought were suitable to use. Regarding temp music, we decided to all go away and find some tracks for the underscore. After another viewing with Simon, his feedback included incorporating more music in the film, as it would be fitting. This is something that I had pushed for initially but Josh was happy without it. After we went away and found some suitable tracks that were subtle and added to certain scenes, Josh and Ellen were keen to incorporate these into the edit.

Ellen had chosen to go for a natural to cool toned colour grade for the film, picking out the colour blue in particular. I am very happy with the colour grade choice and think that it gives the film the cinematic look that I had envisioned.

On the whole, I am very pleased with how the editing process went. Although, my input was only creative and not technical, I feel like my ideas were considered throughout this process and I am very pleased with the outcome.

MAJOR PROJECT: 'Bobbie & Clive' Behind the Scenes

To give you a idea of what it was like behind the scenes of our production entitled 'Bobbie & Clive', I have attached several photos across all 3 shoot days. We had Isaac Carter as our Set Photographer which meant that we didn't need to rely on crew members taking photos which took the weight off us all massively. Throughout the shoot days everyone else had other jobs to focus on, therefore I am very pleased that we had Isaac to focus on capturing the shoot days for us. I think that the level of team work across all of the shoot days was very professional and improved as the shoot progressed and everyone felt more confident in their roles. I think that the level of communication, both with myself and all of the contributors and individually was really efficient and successful. From these photos, we will be selecting 2 behind the scenes for the hand in.

Production/ShootDay 1: