First skills audit for the G321 Foundation Production

Initially, I was quite excited about the prospect of being able to produce a small film, but then realised just how much work was actually involved and it became fairly overwhelming. I am quite lucky to have someone in my group who has already studied First Diploma Media, and another person doing film studies which has been a big advantage as they have had slight experience in similar areas to this one. On top of this I am studying photography as another A level and thereforeexperience in framing and lighting.

At first we had difficulty deciding exactly what to film and we brainstormed a range of ideas. We had already decided to focus on drama as this seemed the most logical thing to do with lack of equipment quality to do a comedy for example. As well as this, it gave us a broader range of sub-genres too choose from. Eventually we focused on crime drama and my chosen roles consisted of creating the script and being in charge of the camera work.I was advantaged to be put in a group that gets on well and feels comfortable around eachother, especially as I had worked previously with Alex and share other lessons with Charley. This has made it easy to come to decisions and has meant that if we do feel unsure about doing something, we're not afraid to voice it.

Once we had got through the majority of paperwork, we began looking for a room, as well as actors to use and costumes.
Most of this required deliberation so that we could make the setting as fitting as possible. After looking at one possible room and then deciding it was far to unattractive, and there were were components of the room that we could not avoid being shown, we decided not too use it and instead focused on the radio suite in the media block which was the best we were going to find, with a semi circular table, perfect for portraying the rule of thirds, and a window that could possibly be disguised as a one way mirror as well as good lighting. After that we decided on a date and filled out the rest of the paperwork needed such as the risk assessment and camera booking forms.We also decided on actors although a back up plan was required as one of them has told us she may be ill come the day of filming which caused more careful deliberation.

Although I initially found the idea of being in charge of a production quite daunting, I found that once I got into it I began to understand that it's not as bad as it first seems and once we had got organised it became easy to move from one part of the planning to the next depending on what ideas were under developed and what was fine.
I am feeling fairly nervous about filming on tuesday having never manned a camera in such a professional manner before and being in charge of the camera work seems quite discouraging as there will be a lot on my shoulders, however I believe it will go quite well and if I follow what is planned it should be fine. As well as this there are opportunities to retake if something does go wrong and I will have my group there to support me