Post 10: Job Roles Research

Post 10 was all about understanding the job roles and responsibilities within a film production crew. This was an important post as it helps us a group understand each role everyone has, not only themselves. We were asked to research into five different job roles/departments.

• Direction,
• Camera,
• Lighting,
• Production Sound,
• Art Department.

This will help me when I come to deciding what role I would like to play in the group my our A2 film. What I have researched will be the different roles each person has in the group but at a much smaller scale. Each person will be assigned to a job meaning each person in the group will have their own work to do. Knowing what each role has to do will help us as a group as every task can be product efficiently and effectively.

Direction

• The Direction department is a subset of a larger occupational group referred to as 'Production'.
• Best known role within the Direction department is that of Director.
• Within this department, the Director is also supported by a number of Assistant Director.
• Other roles in the Direction department include the Script Supervisor, Runner.

Camera

• Good cinematography involves the creation of beautiful and/or arresting images on screen; it can also tell us more about a character or a location.
• Shot composition, camera movement and the way a Director of Photography (DoP) chooses to manipulate light and shade, all combine to create each film's unique photographic signature.
• Camera crews work with extremely delicate, expensive equipment and are amongst the most highly skilled practitioners on any film crew.

In our group the cameraman must be able to work with their equipment succesfully. However like the directer when it comes to filming our chosen cameraman must have more of a say when it comes to filming the project.


Lighting

• The Lighting department plays a crucial role in most film crews.
• Although some productions may make use of daylight, for the most part it is necessary to use artificial light to achieve the visual image required.
• They set up a wide range of lighting equipment to achieve a variety of moods, atmospheres and effects, as well as helping to make the actors, performers and participants look right for their roles.

Sound Production

• Recording all sound on set or on location is the work of the Production Sound Crew.
• Although film is considered a primarily visual medium, much of the storytelling and emotional resonance of a script is conveyed through dialogue.
• Dialogue recorded must be suitably clear which is a complex job.
• Most actors and Directors prefer to use the sound captured on set or location.

The group member dealing with sound will have to take full responsibilty when learning how to work the sound and when we come to filming. Sound is one of the most important parts of film and the member doing this job will have to make sure they know what they are doing.

Art Department

• Films can be located anywhere.
• The look of sets or locations transports audiences into the world of the story.
• A great deal of work and imagination goes into constructing appropriate backdrops to any story.
• The Art Department usually employs the largest number of people on any film crew.

The person who decides to take up this role in our group will have to do more production work then practical work like when it comes to filming.

Post 9: Individual Script Feedback

First draft for 'Telephone Box';

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Feedback
After having my script read by my classmates and Becky Knapp i got many comments and feedback about my script. This was a great chance to see where i had gone wrong but also made the right decision.

One of the main problems people picked out was the format of my script. The layout was not correct for instance the description of the shot was not in the correct position and the font was incorrect. The font used was Times New Roman which should have been Courier, I took this advice on board and changed this for the second draft i made. Another problem picked up was my punctuation. On many parts i did not add in full stops, especially in the speech of the characters.

One point brought up by Becky was what made her change. This was something which was obviously not made clear and in the second draft i made sure the it was clear to the reader the graveyard scene was which helped Jenifer change her view on life. She also commented on a lot of my dialogue. She mentioned about the mothers comments. Becky said they were a bit unsympathetic which I looked to change when coming to the second draft.Other comments that were made about my script was - confusing, and why do we care.

After taking the advice on board I went on to draft a second script. I looked at the feedback and thought about how i could improve my script.

Second Draft;

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After reading throughout our scripts our class teacher and Becky Knapp chose three scripts from the class to use for the A2 short films. Unfortunately mine was not chosen, however i was put into a group of 4 including me. Our group was built around one of the scripts which was chosen. I was placed in a group with the script 'Karma' written by Emily Downer. My other two group members are Carolyn Thornton and Sohail Sadiq, all of us will go onto be assigned with job responsibilities and mush successfully work together to create a A2 short film.

Post 8: Decisions & Revisions

The first task i did to try and help me with choosing an idea for a film was writing down everything that came to my head on a powerpoint presentation. I had a slight idea on the genre route i wanted to go down and from that thought up ideas. The task was the basis of the next few stages which helped me go on to write my first script draft.

After researching into depth about scripts we finally came to the stage of producing our own. To help us come up with ideas for the script we went away and put down all the ideas that came to our heads. For me i wrote ideas down from a bubble of all the ideas i had in mind for a character. I then went onto bullet point an idea for what could be included in the plot of the short film.

After this page I then thought up of a world, character, need, want and obligation; something I looked at in post 7 when speaking about creating your own script. I then went on to make a very rough draft of scenes. This helped me allot to when i came to writing my script as I could refer back to it when writing out my first draft.



A new technique we was introduced to was an 8 way thinking chart. This linked back to the work I did in the earlier posts about creativity and involved being creative about the script i was thinking about writing. The eight words i had to think about was; Nature, Sights, Sounds, Actions, Feelings, Words, People. From these words I had to think about three different elements I could ask about. This was very useful as it really got me thinking about my script and the content. Below is an image of what the thinking chart looked like and what i wrote;

In the end i decided to name the script 'Telephone Box' this was in relation to the character i made up Jenifer (17). The message of the script was there is always a bright side to every situation but you just have to find it.

Synopsis
Jenifer is a teenager finding life tough and only just getting back on track with her life after a best friends death the years anniversary is approaching. Her relationship with her mother is falling apart while she turns to drugs and prostitution. Her views on life take a dramatic turn when she finally plucks up the courage to visit her friends grave after only seeing it at the funeral. We see her enter the telephone box numerous times to make calls to her dealers, but the scene she notices new hot line posters for help with life problems. With the piece of paper in her hand with the numbers of her clients and the hot lines in fornt of her we see Jenifer type in a number but is it for her the good of her or bad?

Post 3a: Target Progress

1. The first target i would like to achieve is to improve my skills on the edit suite.

I would say that i could not comment on how i am doing at this first target because we have not started to use the edit suite. However when it does come to this stage I hope, I specifically learn how to properly edit the sound as I found this hard at AS.

2. Another target i am setting myself is to have a stronger research before filming our task.

As we are coming up to preparing our short film I feel so far our research and planning has been very good. I hope as a group we can keep this up and create a strong foundation so we are more than ready when it comes to filming.

3. My third target i would like to achieve by the end of next year is to keep up to date with my blogger and make sure it is at a high standard.

I feel so far I have not kept up to date with blogger as I would like to be. However I feel the standard of the posts I have made are at a high order. In order to stick to this target I will plan out when to come on blogger each week to do posts.

4. The forth target i am setting myself is to keep to the shot lists we have prepared prior to the filming.

One again this target is another one I have not been able to put in to use yet. However when it does come to this stage I will make sure I stick to it by ensuring every time I'm about to film I check the shot list.

5. My final target I am setting myself to have done by the end of the year is to create a successful short film.

This last target is currently being met by the planning we our currently undertaking for our short film. This will be important as if its done right will make everything a lot easier not only at the recording stage but in the editing.

Post 7: Creating your own Script

The next stage of this project was a discussion with the class about making our own scripts. We started by speaking about the basics of what we should revolve our short films around. The 3 main elements we came up with we should think about is the world, character and problem. With the character we had to think about a need, a want and an obligation. This would come in handy when we came to write our scripts as it gave us a basis to our scripts.

To help us with this we watched a short film called 'Signs'. It was about a man and a women who worked in two different offices overlooking each other. They start writing on paper to speak to each other through the window. After viewing the film we spoke about what we had done before about the characters in a short film. We came up with his

want was to be loved, he looked a bit lost and confused away from home. His real need was to have some company because he was very lonely and bored but his obligation was him having to go to work and live up to his parents expectations.

We then went on the discuss why we make short films and what directors get from making them. For many it is to showcase their talent in creating short films. This could lead to bigger chances such as directing a film on a larger scale. One way they can showcase their talent to get this chance is film festivals. This gives the director a chance to broadcast their film to a large amount of people hoping to get recognised. Its not just music festivals where short films can be seen, online websites such as Youtube also allow directors to upload their short films for free. This is an easy and cheap way of getting your film out there. Behind the directors who would do everything possible to get their short film seen many just create them for a personal interest. This group of people could be creating them for close family or just simply for themselves.