Pre-production Evaluation
Initial Planning
Logistics
For the pre-production to keep everything organized I used a folder to keep all my work in one place. This meant things wouldn’t get lost. As for getting to place I had to use public transport, so things had to be carried on the bus. This just made it awkward to carry everything. However, when possible my partner would be able to use his car so logistics was easier as everything could be placed in the boot which made things far easier. To keep a log of this we made a equipment list. This allowed us to keep track of everything we needed each day we went out to shoot.
Finance
With finance we had to look at what funds we would need to carry out the task at hand. We had to decide what equipment we would need and how much it would cost to get to the locations that we would be filming in. Finance didn’t have a huge impact when it came to the pre-production but it did however limit the reach and we had to film within areas we could get to on public transport. Within the pre-production we planned what cash we needed. Luckily, I had cameras, tripods and SD cards to hand so it would not cost anything up-front. I did however look at how much it would’ve cost should I have needed to buy the equipment I used. If I had of had to buy the equipment it would have had a huge impact on the final product. As with the equipment list we also made a finance list. This allowed us to keep track of all of the spending on the project. It meant we couldn't go over budget on things such as transport.
Creative Process
The creative process to making “The Feeling of Love” began with me initially not knowing what to write about. This had a direct impact on the pre-production because it slowed things down in the beginning while I decided on what I wanted to do. All I knew at the beginning of it was that I wanted to help people with any piece of creative work that I’d ever have the opportunity to make. I knew at a later date that I wanted the genre of it to be educational, but I still was unsure of any ideas. At the time I also wanted it to be a drama as that is the genre that my short stories usually fall into, but I wanted to challenge myself and try to write something different. I ended up talking to a friend of mine about dating and that’s when my first idea came to light. Originally My idea was to recreate a date that I had been on. But the issue with that was the short film had to be fictional, so I decided to create two fictional characters named Sam and Charlotte. The short film ended up being an educational romance due to a single idea for a scene that I had. As I want to help anybody who watches my work, the scene entailed one of the characters explaining how nervous they were as they were getting ready for their date. I decided to use that as the official starting point and elaborated on it. I made the decision afterwards to have both characters explaining how they felt on the build up to their date. This is due to educational side that I wanted it to have. With these scenes in particular I wanted to show young people some of the feelings and worries that they may encounter in a similar situation and possibly show that it is completely normal to feel that way. But in order to show that in those scenes I needed to show how the characters met in the first place, which is when I came up with the idea that the characters would be students who met in college. I decided that they would be college students as that is the age that many people begin to date and I felt that the characters being of that age would make it easier for the young people to relate to it. However, I also wanted to leave people questioning the outcome, which is why I thought it would be a good idea for the film to abruptly end during the date, making the audience question how the date went and if the characters were worrying for nothing or if they had a reason to. To help people understand what I wanted to portray I decided to write it all up into a script and then support that by making storyboards. This allowed the cast and any crew to see the same vision I had.
Project Management
Personnel Management
For organization of personnel I had all the cast within a messenger group chat. This made things easier because everyone could see what each other had said. This made organising people to be on set at certain times easier. It meant we could see both when people were available and unavailable, so that I didn’t have to try relay information and made getting replies faster. Along with this we also had a personnel list. This list included the cast/crew members name along with contact information. This meant we could easily have access to them should we need to contact them.
Resource Management
All the resources I had included, a camera, a tripod and an SD card. To make sure I had all of this I kept it all in my house and took it with me when filming. Sometimes it would be transported in a car, sometimes on a bus. Once done everything was given back to its respective owners. Some of the cast kept second outfits on them which they kept themselves and just brought along to shoots. As for software I had use of two different editing softwares. At college I had Premier Pro which didn’t always work, because of this my partner had HitFilm installed as a backup software. With all of this we also kept a resources list. This meant I knew what I was meant to have with me and allowed me to do equipment checks. This is good because it means if anything is to go missing we can spot it sooner rather than later and fix the issue.
Time management
The hardest part within time management was getting everyone on set at the same time. With all the pre-production was easily done and ready at the same time. This meant the pre-production was easily finished and things didn’t need to be changed to meet the needs of the actors. I had dates set when I wanted things to be done by which I followed to the best of my abilities. The start of the pre-production was slow because of trying to get ideas together on what I wanted to do. Once I had this idea time wasn’t an issue. Whilst we didn't have meetings with the pre-production work if I was to do a similar task again I would have meetings and to make sure I was working to time properly I would keep meeting minutes. This would be a good idea because it would mean everything is written down and we can refer to it when needed. With the work I done I did however write everything out on a schedule and kept to the deadlines I set on it as best as possible.
Professional Practice
I followed the industry standards by doing all of the pre-production in the most professional way possible. This impacted the pre-production because it meant everything was very in-depth. This consumed more time, but I was happy with how it made things look. Another direct impact that it had was that it took longer to do, however this didn’t set things behind due to effective time management. To help keep things professional all the paperwork we completed for this task was kept nice and neatly within a folder. This meant anyone looking for anything could find the work straight away and it saved time. I believe this makes things more professional as within the real world this is how things would be kept.
Monitoring Progress
To help monitor my progress I had all my work within a folder. This allowed me to keep tabs on what needed doing at what hadn’t been done. With this I also kept screenshots of the process and took photos of the processes I carried out to monitor what was being done. This impacted the pre-production because it meant I had more files to manage, but because I named and organized all digital files properly the extra files didn’t prove to be an issue. By having a system in place for the storage and management of files it saved time and as stated above everything was easy to find. This made everything more professional and meant during the pre-production process things were less likely to get lost and people could reference the paperwork at ease.
Risk Assessment
For the risk assessment I had someone who has experience carrying these out. I had my partner who’d done them at college go over it. When he had finished the risk assessment, he took me over any issues he had found and walked me through them showing me how to avoid them. This meant the environment we were filming in was safe. With the risk assessment everything was written down on a risk assessment form. This meant that during the process people could have a look at it at any time they needed. This meant if issues were to arise they could check this form and know how to deal with it in a safe effective manner. This paperwork was also stored safely with the rest of the pre-production paperwork in the folder.
Crisis Management
One of the biggest issues we had during pre-production was within the restaurants. Laila wasn’t able to make it to where the restaurant was located. To compensate for this Adam’s girlfriend who also worked within a restaurant asked her manager if it would be possible to film there. After being agreed that we could use that restaurant the manager fell ill so we were again without a location as the location was closed until he recovered. This had a huge impact on the pre-production because all the paper work was ready to be signed for the first restaurant and had to be scrapped when we couldn’t film there. It had to once again all be scrapped when the manager fell ill. This was really pushing me to the time frame we had set and meant I had to work a lot faster to find an alternative. I emailed a new restaurant and couldn’t get a response, because of this I went down to talk to the manager who kindly agreed and that got me back on track.
General Thoughts
During the pre-production process we ran into a few small problems and the big problem stated above. Overall, I am happy with how I carried everything out. If I was to carry out a similar task again, I would set a timetable to work with. I feel not setting a proper schedule and timetable had an effect because I was just working my way towards deadlines and trying to do everything at the same time. This impacted the pre-production because in the beginning everything was a mess before it was sorted into a file. This had an impact because it slowed me down meaning I had to take time out to sort all the paper work to make it tidy and understandable. If I had a schedule everything would have been done on set days and my time management would have been better than it was. A few small problems arose with actors and when they were available. In the future to reduce the negative impact on the process I would have reserve actors in case others couldn’t film at all.
