Saturday 5 September 2015

4.1 – 4.2 - Identify the resources needed to meet film production requirements and the technical skills and equipment required for your production role


What resources are needed in film production?

In order to create a film, there are a number of resources that you require or it is not likely to pan out. The most obvious resource is people to be working and creating the film - this includes everyone from directors, writers, animators, actors and designers. It is important to have a large number of people all with different specialties to work on a film production as it means everyone will know how to fulfill their role and work towards making a great end product. This includes a cast of good actors who play and understand their characters well. Without a great team behind it, a film production is likely to sink.

Next, it is important that you have the correct equipment to make the film with and to make it of a high quality. Having good cameras along with lighting and sound equipment for example will make your job on the film a lot easier as it means the process can go much smoother and be more professional if you are not fretting on having bad picture quality, sound or lighting. However, this could be considered useless if you do not have the knowledge of filmmaking to work with the equipment. A good knowledge of the process of making a film will help you go through the stages with better ease.

Furthermore, in order to make sure you have good equipment to use it is important to obtain adequate funding for the film. Film equipment is expensive and cast and crew will want to be paid for their work, so if you don't have funding it will be very difficult to make the film. This funding can be found by pitching to potential investors and producers for your film.

Additionally, finding the right locations and shooting at an appropriate time is also an important resource in filmmaking. This is why in the pre-production stages, you should scout locations so that you can find the most appropriate one for your film and then make sure you have permission to shoot there. You also need to find the correct and appropriate facilities and venue for your film to be edited and scored in, in the post-production stages as it means you can pull together your film properly and professionally. 

What is your production role?

My predominant production role was in script-writing.
I also worked as part of the live-action team and on several animation sequences and sound effects.

What do you have to do to carry out this role?

In script-writing, I was part of the brainstorming and collaborative phase in which we came up with the main story. From here, I worked with others on creating a basic plot outline and then served as the literal writer of the script, pulling the plot into a coherent script and writing - and later expanding and refining - the dialogue.

With the live action team, I filmed on-location at Colemere, operating the camera on establishing shots and slow motion shots such as the burning wooden chapel. I also worked with a team on the pop-up book shots and later on cloud tank shots.

In animation, I worked on some stop-frame animation involving the movement of one of the team members as a 'lake witch', as well as on several light painting shots. 

On sound effects, I assisted the main sound operator with several effects such as a cup smashing, as well as in a group on whispering and cackling sounds.

What skills do you need to carry out your production role?

In my role on the script-writing team, I needed to show creativity and a skill at constructing plot and writing dialogue. This process also involved a lot of collaborative and team-working skills in order to work towards completing the script productively. In the process of writing the script, I required the ability to self-analyse my work in order to improve upon it and make it better, something was difficult but ultimately necessary in order to create the best script possible. I also needed to be organised, punctual and hard-working in order to complete the task on time - the same goes for everything I worked on.

With working on the live action and animations shots, I needed how to use the camera's functions properly to create the slow-motion or the light-painting for example, as this was important in completing my tasks to the best standard possible. I also required creativity in constructing the shots, particularly when working on the stop motion shot of the lake witch and when filming the pop-up book pages. 

What equipment and planning documents do you need to carry out this role?

In the script-writing team, we needed a computer with internet access to research and word processing software to plan with. We also needed it for script-writing software on (Celtx) in order to make the script professional with the correct terminology and layout. On the live action and stop-motion shots we used mostly DSLR cameras with microphones built in, with the exception of  the slow-motion and pop-up book shots, where we used one of the supervisor's considerably higher-quality cameras. We also had separate lighting equipment rigged when filming shots indoors in order to make the quality of the footage better.

In terms of planning documents, we had call sheets and risk assessments so that we had a list of everyone who was present and so we knew how to use the equipment properly to ensure our safety.

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