Pre-Production:
The Lenny project highlighted some very important points about pre-production in film and why the hierarchical structure in film crews is necessary. We initially wasted valuable time by trying to assign crew and talent roles on the day of filming. Had we arranged these roles the previous day, each crew member could have had time to do a bit more research about what each role entailed. As a result there was a lot of confusion on set as to the jurisdiction of each role, a lot of noise, little time to film alternatives for each scene, not enough time to record atmos and many situations that would have been an OHS nightmare. Fortunately, we did learn a lot from this situation and were able to apply it when helping group 2 film their Lenny project. Also, having done a set diagram, shot list and shot schedule greatly added some flow to process.
Filming:
Filming “Lenny” was both simple and challenging. Simple in that the script was short and not too technically demanding (e.g. we were working with available light and not having to learn about additional lighting techniques); but challenging because we had to work with time constraints, had underestimated foot traffic in our chosen location and the extent to which it would slow down production. Switching roles mid-way also added a bit of confusion to the mix, once we began to get the hang of what was going on, everything changed. It was also interesting to note how we can sometimes have the propensity towards the certain roles, and can approach roles in which we are less comfortable with reluctancy. This being said, it was definitely a great learning curve that reiterated the importance of planning in pre-production stages.
Post Production:
In pre-production, I appreciated Paul’s documents explaining cataloging of files in Premiere as this made it much easier to find footage and audio recordings. I found it interesting that the “merge audio” function is a feature that was only recently added to Premiere, being that it is such a vital part of the film-making process. This being said, while this method was convenient it is not fail-safe. Because there were many things going on while on set for Lenny, we ended up with clips that were not slated and audio that went for twice as long as its visual counterpart. In such situations, and understandably so, the merge function can not compensate for this sort of discrepancy. Again highlighting that care and attention should be paid at each stage of media production, as complacency at one stage can cause problems in later stages.
Images courtesy of Edward from Group 1.
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