EVALUATION
Our production began by first arranging ourselves into groups of equal amounts. We then proceeded to delegate ourselves to our chosen roles. It gave us the opportunity to pick our strengths and work with them in order to better contribute to the team as a whole. A few amendments had been made when presenting our roles to the tutors in order for people to maximise the most out of the roles and even some had to become part of both groups, to fill out the spaces still available.
I chose to be the head of the sound department in the production as the sound editor and mixer. This, in turn, made me the head of a two-man team with Luca becoming sound editor and grip. Although these roles were ours. Both Luca and I made the decision to spread out the responsibilities of each role helping each other in the tasks that were ahead. This was a smart and effective strategy to our team as this meant that both of us would work to our strengths and exercise them where necessary without the need to pressurise ourselves with tasks, not best suited to us. This made us both an efficient team in the group production.
During the start of the production when it came down to moulding the idea into form for the group video. We arranged many meetings primarily based in the library, to discuss and communicate ideas and develop our thoughts on storyboards and scene by scene layout with the director (Joe) and the producer (Suzanne.) As we proceeded to finalise the idea which was later called 'Push and Pull before Cohesion.' Inspired by Ying and Yan. I then took to discussing the proposed music that would become part of this piece. What would it be like, what genre, would there be foley work, would all sounds be made in post-production and will there be sound needed during the shoot.
As Luca and I had done our research and gathered materials necessary for making the piece, understanding where the idea was going we took to hiring a composer to create a short piece using subtle violins and piano in a slow-paced, discussed with the composer during the meetings we had with him. The good news we had was that the composer was uni based (accessible to the music equipment.) and more than willing to help us out with the group production. The bad news is that we had already done all our tasks sooner than we anticipated. Adding to this, on the day of the shoot we would have very little to do in terms of work.
which then made us suggest foley work to the director as a way of perhaps incorporating sound with more abstract features. Long story cut short, we managed to get the green light go ahead and Luca arranged and booked out the foley room on the days of the shoot.
Despite both Luca and I being well managed in terms of time and scheduling we did face some difficulties as any good team would. The composer had unfortunately stopped communicating with us which then led us to presume they had opted out of the task and so landed the pressure of coming up with an alternative plan B. Eventually after we had resolved the issue, the composer recently got back to us with a piece that unfortunately had little relation to what we intended originally. As good as it was it wasn't the piece we originally set out to create. However, we did manage to provide Foley based sounds that could be altered and fit into the scene that the avid team could incorporate into their cuts of the video. Adding to this we also faced complications with exporting sound from the foley room to the point where some of the sounds itself wouldn't work.
Overall the experience was an eyeopener to what may be expected from us in year three and the future in particular where id see myself working. I know this is only the taster of what to expect in the film industry but to me, it gives me the indication of where I want to be and perhaps where I want to start out. Personally, I don't feel this was too much for me due to good organisation and quick response (which I understand a large part of the ease is down to preparation.) it was relatively easy and I'm quite pleased as a whole that Luca and I worked really well with ease through it, which definitely benefited our work.
