No Film School - Unit Production Manager

No Film School is a website that provides students and aspiring film makers with information based on specific topics. In my previous blog post, I talked about what it was like being Unit Production Manager on The Kansas City Savior. Today on No Film School, I read about what it really means to be a Unit Production Manager and learned a few things.

1. Unit Production Managers are what make the ship sail in pre-production and post-production.
2. They're main job is to manage the budget and make sure spending doesn't exceed too much
3. Unit Production Managers are in charge of hiring the casting director and whoever else is needed on set.

When it came to being Unit Production Manager on the Kansas City Savior, I was not in charge of a budget or anything like that due to the fact I was a student. We had our own casting director within the crew so that was already taken care of for me. However, I do believe I did a good job keeping things going as smoothly as possible due to the fact that I made sure things were extremely organized. Overall, I do feel as if I completed my job as the Unit Production Manger on the crew of the Kansas City Savior.

KC Savior Reflection

Starting back in October, the entertainment class began working on treatments and building scripts. Along the way, we developed the Kansas City Savior which turned into our feature film. The story was created by Keenan Capps, our director, whose vision was to recreate a sixties superhero sitcom in modern time.

My Role: 

For the Kansas City Savior, I participated as the Unit Production Manager. Initially, I was to help keep track of budgets, scheduling with the actors and help keep things organized but it turned in to a lot more than that. I helped rewrite the script as well as find and contact different locations. I was part of a team we called the “Core 7” that worked to pull the film together. There were days when it came to filming that felt like everything that could have gone wrong, did. Our production team had moments where everyone was stepping on each other’s toes and arguing over what should happen, but we all wanted the same thing: a quality feature film that we would be proud of.
Along the way, I was able to learn how to manage/work with outside sources, such as actors and different locations. I was able to build upon my communication and team building skills which is beneficial for anyone no matter the production team role. I also learned how important it is to be open-minded because when we initially started, I was not involved in this film at all. I had no interest in it, but after the first month, I started putting all of my free time into making sure this would be good.
My overall opinion towards the film was that as a class, we could have done much better. eCommunications teaches us skills that freshman film majors in college would not know and we are only in high school. The Kansas City Savior was a film that I felt did not accurately reflect what our program is about. As UPM on this project I know I could have done better when it came to getting all the call sheets out in advance and place ahead of time that way our actors were more focused, and I could have also put my opinion out there on how I thought the film could be better. There was always a fear of starting an argument or hurting someone’s feelings which would not have been productive at all, so more often than not it was easier to let the director execute his vision as opposed to everyone else’s.

Building the Kansas City Savior: 

When making the Kansas City Savior, my time in class was spent in “Core 7” meetings, making call sheets, brainstorming plot, as well as getting in contact with actors and different locations to approve filming dates and times. Most days in class it was hard not to be busy. From Mid-November to the beginning of April, there was always work to do on the film. Most of it was preparing and getting things organized for different shoots. When I finished early, the rest of my time was usually used as a study hall or completing other assignments for eComm. However, during this time, I was not doing any of my films outside of school. There was nothing personal that was done because I did not have the motivation to take my work home. After working on the Kansas City Savior all morning, my time at home was used to catch up on school work, my job, and time with friends and family. It has been quite a while since I’ve gotten the opportunity to work on something I choose to. Over the summer I plan on making at least three different videos so that I have my work on my reel that I’m proud of. I plan to continue and work on my eComm skills outside of school aside from the fact it is not my choice of career.

Strengths: 

Inside the program, my strengths include Communication, Leadership, and Technical Skills. One thing that I love about eComm is that it’s entirely okay for people to express who they are through projects. There are no limitations to the work that we do, the genre we produce or the editing skills we choose to use. Communication is a big part of my life, aside from my shy side, I am very much a “social butterfly” when it comes to things I’m interested in, as well as when I’m with “my” group of people. The leadership aspect has always been a trait of mine in every project. I like being in charge of situations because that’s where I’m most comfortable. Not being the director on this project did help me learn how to take a step back, and let someone else take control even though now that the project was finished I’m not thrilled with the outcome. Planning is what I’m very good with. Organizing and keeping things in order is what I excel at because it keeps things moving smoothly and everything has a place and knows where to be and what to be doing.

Improvements: 

Collaboration and Project Management are the two guarantees that I struggle and usually need improvement. While I like being in charge, I also tend to make decisions on my own without consulting the rest of the group of people I’m in. When it came to working on the Kansas City Savior in class, it was easier for me to take a step back because to some extent I was in charge of the movie. I took the lead over actor contact, working on the script, making things organized for everyone- all of this made it easier not to be the only one in charge. It helped in not only in class but also in life outside of class. It was easier to realize that I can not be in control of every situation and that I do not always have to be the one giving my ideas. Project management was also more comfortable to some extent while working on this because the crew relied on me to have my things done on time so having that good pressure in class allowed me to make some improvements in quality and not slack off.

Summary: 

The evening of the premiere, I loved being able to see everyone dressed up and seeing all the parents watch our work. I very much enjoyed “The Hidden,” as someone from a different class; I was so proud of how well the afternoon class did. A lot of times in class, it feels as if we are in constant competition with that class, and that kind of discourages a lot of us because there were only a select few who were interested in making things look good. With that thought aside and being able to watch their work, I felt proud to be in the eCommunications program even though I was not able to help make that feature film.
When it came to the Kansas City Savior, I loved being on set. My favorite day was being in Downtown Kansas City for filming. I love the river market with my whole heart and being down there with Cyle, and George made that the best filming day in my opinion. I also liked the bonds that were created with some of my classmates in the process of filming these last couple months. Some days we were really at each other's throats, but it didn’t change the fact we all do love and care for one another.
Next year, my overall goal is to have an equally as good movie as the other class at the premiere. I also would want everyone to be happy and get to participate as much as our directors' team did because as the UPM, I know the editors and a few other people among the class that was interested in the filming process felt left out. Keeping the crew small and allowing everyone in the class to participate seemed to be the hardest thing because we legitimately had to choose who was not allowed to go based on jobs that were assigned back in November.
After making this, I do feel like I learned a lot, and not just about film. All of our actors were such unique and fun individuals who were open to sharing their lives and experiences they have had. Gordon Lamb, a mentor for all of us, taught us so many great things that I’m sure people who are in film school don’t have the opportunity to learn. There was a day we were filming a fight scene, and he had sat down and talked to me about his life outside of film, and it’s those personal sharing experiences which create the best memories and have the most significant takeaways.

Final Thoughts: 

This was a great experience, and I am genuinely thankful for it. I lost myself this year when it came to eComm and lost what initially got me excited about the program. Next year is a new year though, and I am looking forward to a fresh start even though I’m losing some of my favorite people: the seniors in our class. The friendships made, the new skills learned, and the incredible people I got to meet this year make me thankful for Olathe Northwest, inside the program and outside of it. The support from parents, friends, and teachers who all encourage us to follow out our dreams as well as put in the hard work to make our projects look good are the best boost of confidence, and that’s one of the beautiful things about the program and our school. I will be interested to see how things turn out next year in the program, but I do know that while I lost what I loved along the way, I believe I will get it back once we have a fresh start.

Semester 1 Reflection

Semester One Recap: 

During semester one, a lot of projects and activities took place. We learned through creating PSA's, short films, writing scripts, guest speakers, a lip-dub production, as well as a field trip. At the start of the year, our first project was our PSA, and our group chose the topic of racism. 

Racism PSA

The project itself was completed before two weeks. We had the idea of bringing everyone together to create unity instead of the separation between race. When it came to the challenges we faced during the production of everything, the biggest complication was getting actors. We initially wanted a large number of people to be there for the ending shot of everyone holding hands but we were unable to get the number of people we actually wanted. Along the way, we had learned that our planning as a group needed to be a little bit better as none of our times for production worked with every group member. When it came to present to the class, we were given feedback that discussed our lighting. The class liked the concept and the set up of the video, they just felt it would have been easier to watch if it was brighter. We were unable to go back and make changes without redoing the entire video because when it came to color correcting in the editing, everything turned an orange color or a blue color, the picture no longer looked normal. Overall, this is a project I would not consider my best work, but it was a learning experience considering it was the first project we did coming back from summer break.

Short Film

Our next project we created was a short film, that also involved our second assignment of the year, my script. The original idea behind my story was Christopher Robin, from Winnie the Pooh. He grew up in a broken family, with parents who did not want him so I ended up taking that idea and making a story out of it. We had a mother, an older sister, and a younger sister. The mother who is an alcoholic is very aggressive towards the older sister who goes out of her way to protect the younger sister. It was based on family dynamic and who actually took care of one another in the family. We spent an entire day of filming, after a week of pre-production, and three days of editing. The most challenging part of all of this was that we had a camera die right at the end of the production so we ended the film very abruptly.  Along the way, we learned that even though you are filming something that will be five minutes when done, it can take you 4 hours to shoot. When my group and I presented to the class, a lot of what we got was positive but some things that people pointed out is that we didn't have a variety of close up shots. There were things in the film that would have been a lot stronger if we had got shots that were closer or conveyed more emotion. They also made notes of the ending, about how the film just ended at the end of act two without any resolution. We were unable at the time to go back and change things like that because it would have resulted in a restart of the entire production process just for that ending scene. Looking back at it now, it would very much be something I would like to change, but our group never took the time to. Overall, I was semi-happy with this project, I look at it and can see a lot of things that need to be fixed but for my second short film created, I would say it was pretty decent.

Class Time

Class time this semester was used very productive some weeks, and not so productive with others. During this semester I took on additional projects like the lip-dub which took away a lot of "menu item" time. A few of us in class spent a lot of class time in pre-production for the lip-dub video which kept most of my attention when things were not happening in class. Once the lip-dub was done, my focus immediately switched to the scripting of Kansas City Savior so it went from on project to another. Any real downtime was spent doing homework, or going over menu items, or working on videos for an upcoming youtube channel a few of us in eComm would like to be starting next semester. Outside of class, most of the eComm work done was centered around pre-production things. It was rare I took home camera equipment this semester. When the equipment was taken home, it was for personal use, working on filming different things, or taking pictures - nothing that was published for eComm. 

Strengths and Weaknesses 

When it comes to my strengths in eComm, I believe I am strongest in project management and leadership. I spend a lot of time planning different things and keeping what I can organize in class with all of our projects and I feel that is where my skills are used best. When it comes to my communication, I also believe that is a stronger trait of mine, but it still needs some work. Collaboration is something I feel I do well because you can't do all the planning on your own and you end up needing help along the way. My technical skills I feel are my weaknesses in the program because I don't put as much time into the camera work or editing when it comes to production as I do with all of the planning in pre-production. Editing is something I do believe relaxes me once I get into a rhythm or in the "zone" of editing, but outside of that, my technical skills are something that will always need work. 

Guest Speakers

During the semester we got the chance to hear from two guest speakers, Gordon Lamb and Joshua Smith. I loved listening to both of them talk about their experience. When it comes to what we learned, I had learned most about the personality behind filming and producing videos from Mr. Smith, and the different times of professional equipment from Mr. Lamb. Overall, I was very very happy listening to them and learning about all of the equipment and experience both of the guest speakers had gone through. They were able to give us not just information over the film industry, and production but also over things they had learned in their life that helped them be where they are today and that was really important, I felt when speaking to a group of high school students. 

MX4D Experience

Our field trip this semester was something I was really happy I got the chance to experience. We were able to sit through a movie and had numerous features actually you and your senses to feel as if you were actually in the video. The biggest takeaway from the field trip for me was that, when it comes to production, there are higher standards of how this movie can be shown so trying to make it realistic is important. The new technology in the film industry I do believe is very cool, but it is also something I feel needs to be executed correctly otherwise it can ruin a whole production. 

Summary

The first semester, I thought was great. My favorite part, of course, was the production of the lip-dub because that was the project I got to take on as my own with a whole team of people. It was one of the most positive and fun-filled experiences I had had throughout high school and I am really really thankful for that. If I could go back, I would put a little more time into our first two projects because I know they can be a lot better than they are now, but it has to be something everyone in the group is dedicated to, not just a few group members. One of the biggest takeaways I learned this semester is that no matter how much you plan, not everything will go the way you want it to, and that was probably one of the hardest things for me to be okay with considering I always spent so much time planning things. My biggest goal for next semester is to have a quality feature film that runs smoothly. When it comes to our eComm class we know our strengths and we know our weaknesses, and we have to be able to work as a team around those things. Aside from all of that, I am genuinely very thankful for everything that happened this semester and I'm looking forward to coming back after the break and hitting the ground running without feature film. 

MX4D Experience

Recap

This past week we got to experience Justice Leauge in MX4D. MX4D studios provide an experience that places you in the movie. You sit in chairs about as big as an airplane seat and throughout the movie you are experiencing the movement that takes place in the movie. 4D is very precise when it comes to sensory detail. Sight, smell, touch, and sound are all integrated into the movie. When it comes to watching Justice Leauge in the MX4D studio I felt that it took away from the overall feel of the movie. The biggest thing that pulled away from the overall experience was that it was somewhat distracting. In class, we did a recap where we talked about how we felt about the movie and much of what was said was that the 4D effects, did not line up with certain parts of the movie. During fight scenes, your seat was being moved around a lot and it was hard to figure out which character you were mimicking because so much was going on at one time. When it came to Batman or Superman flying, the wind that was blown on you during the movie was very loud so you were very much able to hear the 4D which drew away from the sound of the actual movie. In my opinion, 4D is a really unique experience, and I do not regret going at all. I think that it has to be the "right" movie to experience a really good MX4D effect.

Favorites vs. Least Favorites 

I loved the movie as just the movie. I felt that it was done very well and the CGI effects used were amazing. There were not a lot of continuity errors, nor prolonged parts that made the movie drag on. However, I do wish certain characters would have been developed more. Aquaman and Flash were characters in the movie, but I feel that you barely knew anything about them. When it comes to the other characters like Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, you are already aware of their stories because of the movies that have recently come out featuring their life stories. I really did not have many complaints about the movie. I loved the cinematography as well as the music, I felt that this movie was directed and executed very well. 

MX4D I think is something that would be really interesting to watch in different genres like horror. As I am someone that loves the rush you get from jump scares and things like that. This is something I would love to watch a horror movie in. I think when it comes to our feature films in school, this would help enhance the experience if the effects were done correctly. That was the hardest thing about watching Justice Leauge was that the effects did not always line up with what was taking place. When it comes to MX4D verses a normal 2D movie, I feel that it really does change the normal movie experience. I don`t go see movies very often so it was very exciting to get to experience the movie with all the added effects. As 3D is something I really try to avoid my choice to go see Justice Leauge again would be to see it in 2D as I think that is how the movie would look best. 

When adding improvements to MX4D or making changes to the technology, the first thing I would fix would be the smells provided throughout the film. Justice Leauge we got to smell things like grass, and dirt, and whiskey and the only smell that I thought was accurate was the dirt as it smelt like fresh mulch. I would also change how things like snow and ash and fog are produced throughout the theatre. A large group of us sat in the first two rows and while we experience the fog from the front of the movie theatre, we didn't get to experience the snow or ash because it took place behind us. 

Overall Thoughts/Conclusion 

This is something I was very happy I got to be included in. While I did not like the effects of Justice League in MX4D, I am excited to see what other movies are shown because it really does change the average experience of new movies. There are a few things I wish would have been better, but I am happy that I went and I got to see the movie because it was a very good movie. 

ONW Lip-Dub 2017

Back in August, I approached my entertainment teacher with the idea of bringing back an all-school video in order to promote positive press towards our school. The original idea behind all of this was that with a new school in the district was opening up Olathe Northwest had large changes regarding over half of a new staff, as well as a decrease in students transferring to the new school. The intention behind the video was to bring the student body together and show off the love for our school because it was something I felt we as a school needed. From that point, my teacher Mrs. Smith began helping me plan out how we could make everything work.

"Pre-Production" Process - 

Building a Team 

The very first thing I did for this project was present it to the two entertainment classes in the eComm program in order to build a team of people who would be helping me with this project. Surprisingly 34 different students were interested from the start which was amazing to see. A power point was presented to them showing Olathe Northwest's first Lip-Dub from 2011, as well as our latest video made in 2015 centered around High School Musical's "We're all in this Together".  I had talked to the classes about how I would like this year's video to be the traditional "Lip-Dub" style because it allowed everyone to participate and show off their love for what they spent high school involved in. After getting a team together, our production crew was asked what positions they would like to be apart of (Director of Photography, Editor, Art Director, Location Managers, and Music Supervisor) and filled out small applications allowing Mrs. Smith and I to pick who was right for each part. Our next step from there was to present the idea to administration and get everything approved before we could plan.

Administration Pitch 

After scheduling a meeting with the administrative staff, I presented to them the same power point I originally presented to my production team. We sat in a room and talked through all the possibilities and different ideas we would like to have in the video. They asked questions about how we planned to execute this video and how they could help. They agreed with the reasoning behind why the video should be made and they felt that this was something the school really needed due to the changes made. By the end of the meeting, we got the approval for the video and we were able to start planning.

Production Team Planning 

About every week we would meet one morning at 7 am and would have breakfast and talks about the different things we would like to have in the video. One of our biggest things was the song as that is the most important part of the video. We worked to create a path to maximize the number of students we would put throughout the school as well as where each group should be based on how many participated and how much they wanted to do in the video. A drone was incorporated to show the entire outside of our school and then we focused on showing off the students, what Olathe Northwest was really about. One thing we wanted to make sure we HAD in the video was a big ending scene with everyone coming together because that showed off what the "Raven Nation" really was. In the time of planning, posters and t-shirts were made for the entire production team. The administration was given shirts as a gift for all their help, as well as additional staff t-shirts for all the eComm teachers and a few additional who were part of the planning and execution of the video.

Prep-Night 

As the student director, this was the most fun I had aside from the actual lip-dub. Prep-Night was November 8th, the day before the lip-dub. My production team helped hang up posters, blow up 600+ balloons, do walkthroughs, go over job assignments/final procedures for the next morning. Different rooms in the school were arranged different ways, we figured out where rugs needed to be placed for camera movement to be clean, as well as where poles needed to be moved from what doors. Our final touches resulted in taping sports on the floor where our RFC members (Raven Flight Core) would start their lip-sync section. A small group of us stayed the entire night and by the time we left it was 10:20 pm and the next morning we were back at 6:30 am ready to go again.

Production

November 9th, 2017 was the day my production team and I had been prepping for since the second week in August and the day production took place everyone was very excited but on edge, because we all wanted this to be amazing so it quickly was a reality check that the video was happening. Fox 4 was there getting behind the scene footage of the filming of the Lip-Dub as well as additional people from the district in order to see the process. There were some complications during filming that day. We originally planned for the lip-dub to be shot two times through completely that way we had options, but we ended up having to do four complete walkthroughs because we were running too fast through the path.

Take One/Take Two

Our first two recordings of the lip-dub, you were not able to tell what each group was because we were running instead of just walking. We had an incident at the end of the second run through where the music had stopped right before entering the gym so our last couple people lip-syncing made up what they were doing and people around them had just continued cheering and keeping the spirit going.

Take Three 

On our third take it the music had stopped halfway through which resulted in a total reset right after making it past Golf into the commons. At this point, we switched out speakers in order to make the music louder as well as make sure it would work all the way through the school.

Take Four

The fourth time we were able to make it all the way through with the music as well as slow down our speed so everyone was noticeable. By the fourth take, the timing was practically perfect, there were only a few things noticeable about the first three takes to the final take and that was the spirit in some parts of the hallway. It was hard for everyone to maintain the hype by the end of the fourth run through due to all the time it was taking.

Gym Scene

The gym scene was by far the most successful part of this video in my opinion. The entire school came together and we did our "Oh When Northwest" chant and at the very end the student body rushed the floor and balloons were pulled and thrown into the crowned. This really showed the unity and pride our school needed coming together for the shot.

"Post-Production" Process - 

As soon as we finished filming in the school, we immediately headed upstairs and the editing team got to work. We started to pick our what shots we wanted to use for the gym, as well as which take we wanted to use versus ones we could not use. The editing team worked Friday, then the following Monday-Wednesday on getting color corrections, nat noise, music integration, clip alignment, as well as transition shots were done. Thursday, November 16th was the day of our premiere to the school and all of us were extremely pleased with the outcome even though there are things we know we can change.

Final Thoughts/Conclusion - 

The entire experience behind the lip-dub was extremely fulfilling for me. While there was a lot of stress, I was very happy with everything in the end.

Changes - 

There are a few things I think would be beneficial for next year if we choose to do this again.
1. Communication between location directors - During our run-throughs, we had art directors calling and yelling what we were passing so the other side of the school knew what was going on and it made things hard on both ends. The other side of the school didn't know, the calls would drop, different things like that.
2. Louder speaker(s) positioned throughout the school - Everyone needs to know where we are and there were points where I feel like students were a little blindsided by the fact that the camera was right in from of them cause it would be a really quick turn of a corner and it instantly was there turn to get hyped up.
3. Press - I think this would have been beneficial if we were to bring more publicity to what we were doing. Posters being made sooner and hung up for the rest of the students to see and be made aware of. Mrs. Smith made a good point that we could have easily drawn more outside attention from this that would show off our school in a positive manner so that was something to keep in mind for next year.

Those were the three biggest points I thought would have made the video smoother but I know there are others. The week following the lip-dub we got feedback from both entertainment classes where a lot of good points were brought up that I also think will help change how next years video is produced.

Conclusion - 

I could not be more thankful for the experience gained from being student director on a project this large. I learned a lot about myself during this time, as well as what it really means to be a leader. Seeing the entire school come together the way they did was one of the satisfying and heartwarming feelings I have ever gotten because I really showed off who we are as Olathe Northwest and that was something I think everyone needed to see. A huge thank you goes out to every single person who was apart of the process because without all of them it would not have been possible. For the future, I hope I will be able to make a second one senior year and find ways to improve this year's video.

Short Film Analysis

Assignment:

Create a Short Film: A short film is designed to reach a specific audience with a strong beginning, middle and end storyline. It will tell a complete story (Act I, II, III) and entertain an audience. Your short film should be a minimum of 5 minutes to a maximum of 10 minutes long. It should contain your title and have ending credits.

The script: 

The short film you see above was originally a different script based on Christopher Robin's childhood story. The script was re-wrote and was produced as the following: 

Two girls living in a broken family. The father is not present and the mother is an abusive alcoholic. The girls are unable to continue living in their house because the older sister does not feel it is safe for them so she attempts to leave but runs into different problems. 

Production Process:  

Pre-Production - 

In Pre-Production, we picked groups and production roles based on who in the class wanted to do each script. I had a wonderful production crew that consisted of Armin Dikic [Cinematographer], Erin Johnson [Editor], Makenna Snowbarger [Art Director], Jordyn Whitfield [Storyboard, Documentarian], Katie MacDonald [Actress]. Our cast list included Eva Johnson, Katie MacDonald, as well as Polly Whitfiled. They were all wonderful to work with, it was a very easy going process getting everyone on board for our film day (October 7, 2017 8am-1pm). 

Production - 

Production was almost like a team-bonding experience for our team. The day started out with breakfast and a cast reading, as well as a walk through of shots and directional notes to be made so the overall vision of the film was kept consistent. We ran into few complications even though we had a couple of complicated scenes. The house was extremely hot, so we would find ourselves stopping to stand outside and cool off. Eight people in one room that is filled with sunlight is not the most comfortable in all honesty. We also dropped the plate off the counter causing a small dent in the floor that we are now hiding form my parents...fun times filming, every shoot is an adventure. Our final problem that seemed to effect us the most was that we had multiple cameras and by the end, all the batteries were dead or dying so we were racing against the camera battery. We were able to get all the shots we needed before it died, but not all of them saved to the SD card. 

Post-Production - 

Post-Production was very short for our group. Monday when the editing began, we found that our very ending scenes did not record onto the SD card, so about two minutes of footage concluding our Act III had disappeared resulting in an abrupt ending at the end of Act II. Erin worked very hard on the editing for three days and produced "EVA".

My Role - 

For this project I was the director and script writer. During production, I also did a small amount of filming but that was not my main role. After this project was completed, I learned that being director is not my favorite role due to the fact that the script would only be produced the way I wanted it to. If I were to give my script off to another person in the classroom, I guarantee you that we would've had a completely different film submitted, and I like to take other people's ideas into consideration which is why the script was changed the day before we filmed. 

Technically/ Professionally - 

For this project, Adobe Premiere Pro was used, as well as YouTube for our background music. As this was not treated as an extremely professional project, it should have because our Five Guarantees were used in this assignment. 

Technical Skills - 

Cinematography, Editing on Adobe Premiere Pro, Script writing on Celtx 

Communication - 

Contact with crew members and actresses, coordination between location owners, members jobs and supplies needed

Leadership - 

Everyone on the team was a leader in their own way. I led the vision, Armin led the camera, Jordyn led the process of shoot day, MaKenna led continuity and getting the actresses costuming/makeup, Katie led the actresses and Erin too lead on editing. We all had the opportunity to be a leader during this project. 

Collaboration - 

Sharing of ideas and script changes, brainstorming the overall vision or outcome of the film, working on fixing on the spot problems brought on during shoot day. 

Project Management - 

This is where I personally believe we lacked the most because we did not have time to go back and re-shoot the shots that we ended up not having the weekend after we filmed. We had a limited number of hours to edit, and it really effected out short film. We spent so much time in pre-production but didn't acknowledge how equally important production and post-production was in this process. 

Conclusion: 

Changes I would make - 

We really did have a good experience filming, but I would make sure I was more tedious about filming when getting the chance to re-do this project. I would like to have all of our shots, and there are a few shots I would re-do because they are a bit shaky or dark and I effects the continuity of it. I would also probably change the location to somewhere with a larger kitchen just because we spent a lot of time there and it was SO hot by the time we finished. I also think the short film would have benefited from a little bit of script touch ups, and having another person make changes to "slower: parts in the film. Next time I will also make sure that everyone has formatted their camera cards so we do not have missing shots when starting editing. I would also make sure the profanity in the one kitchen scene was removed. 

Things I would keep the same - 

Almost everything I would keep the same regarding what is left. I had a wonderful team, our production crew's family that helped us were some of the sweetest and funniest people I have had the opportunity to work with. I am overly thankful for everyone that help with this project because while I am fully aware our short film could be much stronger and more detailed, I felt like for our first short film of the year it is sitting in a very good place. We were given very good feedback from the class consisting of people really liking the editing style, the variety of shots and music chose. Many spoke on behalf of the fact that broken families are a very real situation and it was portrayed very well in this film and it was easily understandable.

Final thought: 

From here on out I would like my projects to continue to improve because I know I do not push myself hard enough. I would also like to take the time to branch out and try other jobs as I do love being behind the camera as well as editing but it is not always my first choice. 

PSA Video Reflection

Assignment: 

          Our first assignment of the year was to make a PSA that was between 50 seconds and two minutes long. The group decided our PSA would be over racism. We thought using silhouettes would be a really strong idea for the video as it never showed the color of someone's skin, only the outline of their body sticking with the theme "we are all just people".

Pre-Production:

Pre-production consisted of a lot of brain storming. We came up with the idea to take a bunch of different people with different races and ethnicities and having them speak/take pictures for us. We stuck with visual representations of "coming together". The storyboarding nor script took long because we pulled statistics for or actors to say, and much of our story boarding was just pictures of silhouettes. We all took rolls in the group, choosing what we were most comfortable with for this first project which helped it move along quite smoothly. The hardest part of preproduction was getting the cast list to work best with the production team. It unfortunately fell apart right at the end because we were unable to use all the people we originally wanted so we improvised and worked with the smaller group of people and turned in a product that was not as good as originally planned. 

Production:

Production was a really short process. We filmed other eComm students during class so we could get all the images of silhouettes we needed. Our actual footage took about 15 minutes to shoot after school one day, and most of that time was spent waiting around for people to get there or finding people that could help. 

Post-Production: 

Post-Production is always my favorite part of the process because it is an "all on your own" part. You are able to sit and edit, and you generally get a different product from the rest of the group because you interpreted the concept a different way. Especially with such a short video, it is easy to get really caught up in small details and finding things you would change and make better for next time which is why I like it so much, because I'm able to learn from it. 

My Role: 

For this video, I took the role of cinematographer. I was not really needed until the afternoon we shot video. I helped a lot in the brainstorming how we thought the video should look but after that I was more hands-off until they needed my help. While filming all of this I learned the video would have been much better if we were able to get a lot more people to come help us because it would have looked like more people were helping support what we were doing. We had 6 actors come and help us and they were very easy to work with, but it was a real eye-opener on how much our pre-production fell through when we started filming. 

General Information:

For this project we used Adobe Premiere Pro, which is what we used last year for all of our video edits. Much of our five guarantees were used in this project, but all in different ways. Technical skills were not as enhanced in this project as we took pictures of silhouettes and used and dolly to push and pull a camera. The communication between the group was pretty average for our first project. We all chose each other which made the communication between the 5 members easier as we were all friends. Armin really took leadership in this project as he was our director and it was him who made all the final choices. Collaboration was heavy in this assignment. We worked with other eComm classes, students we didn't know personally, and so that was a little bit of a challenge because everyone was a little nervous when we were getting pictures. Finally, the project management skills went right along as planned even though not every film went as planned. We did everything on the days we planned to film, edit, ect. but we didn't have all the people we originally hoped for. 

Change and Keep the Same: 

The concept of the video is very strong, and that is important when we are making a video about a sensitive topic such as racism in America. However, when it came to post production I found more things we could have done better than what I liked. The biggest problem was the lack of people, so the planning of that I would change. I would also change some of the silhouettes into not only faces, but full body too just because it is more of a visual impact of "No matter what our skin tone is, body type, gender, ethnicity, ect. we are all just people, and we all make a shadow". I would have added in a shot where we showed all of our actors smiling or laughing in front of the camera to make the heavier topic more light hearted. It is my personal opinion that if we were to get the chance to re-do this over, we could produce something better than what we have now. 

General Thoughts: 

I did enjoy doing this assignment, it was an easy one to get back into the swing of things. Being able to point out the mistakes makes it easier to learn, as well as fix things in the future. For the next project, over-planning in pre-production seems like a smart move, just so there is a back up incase something is to go wrong. For the first piece of the year though, I am proud of what we have and I do think it somewhat relays the message we needed to get across.