Scott Weavers
Media Production
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Production Roles In MEDIA Organisations
P1
Director: Film Directors take overall responbiity of the films look, sound and style. Their main job is to take the script and turn it into a film through their own artistic vision that will guide the film and the films crew to the end product. During the production process they have many other repsonbilites which include directing actors, managing shots, making key decisions about location and design, communicating with the Producer at certain stages and most importantly managing the film crew e.g. delegating the different tasks.
Cinematographer/DP: The Director of Photography assists the Director by establishing the visual look of the film. Their main job is to tell the story through artistic and technical decisions such as lights, film stock, shot selection and camera operation. The visual style of the film is down to the Cinematographer working with various members of the film crew to help create the style of the film and its individual scenes.
Location Manager: Location Managers main role is to indentify and find ideal loctions for the film shoot. They work closely with the Director and the Producer who tell the Location Manager exactly what location is needed; helping to understand the Directors creative vision for the project. The search for exactly the right location can take months of research and scouting. Once filming has started, Location Managers are in charge of managing all aspects of shooting in each location. They have to make sure that everyone in the cast and crew knows how to get to the filming location, which means clearly marking out the rout to the location.
Clapper Loader: A clapper loader or a second assistant are key members of the camera and are responsible for the smooth running of the entire camera department. They work closely with the 1 AC to position and move the camera. Before filming starts they prepare the camera by changing the batteries, the film and the lense. During filming they operate the clapperboard and manage the camera paperwork.
P2
Director: A director has the overall control on set and creative vision, they are often skilled in various departments. The skills needed for a diretcor is good communication, determination and the ability to make a whole casts and crew excited about an idea. Directors very rarely use equipment however they must have experience in using different equipment such a camera's, lights and the sound equipment. The directors use a monitor to look over the footage to check if there happy with it. In post production directors use the editing equipment to assist with the editing, making sure their film looks and sounds exactly how they want it to. Throughout the production the Director plays lots of key roles for example during the early stages of the production the director has to take the script and develop a vision for the film and work out how to achieve it. At all stages of the process the Diretcors are responsible for motivating the team to produce the bets possible result.
Clapper Loader: The skills you need as a clapper loader is be fast and agile when operating the clapper and changing the film from the camera, you must have a good knowledge of camera equipment, film stock and processing techniques A clapper loader also needs excellent organising skills as they have to understand all of the camera paperwork and administration. The main equipment used by a clapper loader is a clapper board and the camera. However they are in charge of looking after the equipment which involves cleaning the equipment after very shoot. Within the production team the clapper loader needs good team work and communication skills. For example when working with the camera they don't operate it instead they wait for instructions from either the 1st AD the DP who feel them when to change the lenses or the film magazines, this ensures that the production of the films flows fluently.
Obviously a Director has a bigger impact on the overall outcome of the film, as they have the ability to make big creative decisions on the film where as a Clapper Loader doesn't have that type of influence on the film. A Clapper Loader is there to make the whole production run smoothly by carrying out their role within the team effectively, as well as to make the Directors job a whole lot easier.
P3
During the production of the film there were many roles that needed to be carried out in order for the film to be completed, one of the roles was Location manager. This role required a lot of communication whether that was via email, phone calls or a face to face conversation. Before you started getting in contact with people you had to carry out thorough research into the appropriate locations within the area, for example when trying to find a place to film the bank scenes we came across Regus which is a place where they offer office spaces to rent. Researching required a lot of determination and reliance. Once we had found a Location the next step was to get in contact with the company, we achieved this mainly through emails and phone calls. This involved a lot of persistence with a few of the companies not getting back in touch quickly or either we needed to negotiate a price that would work for both parties. On one occasion we had to go to the location to negotiate a price which was at Big Yellow. We had arranged a meeting with them which invloved them showing us around the place which meant we could choose the right size storage container for our scene, this required good verbal communication skills and for us to conduct ourselves in a professional manner. A big part of being Location Manager is to let the actors know where the filming location is, I achieved this by creating a group chat and sending the postcode of the location the day before filming. My practical production skills were assessing any problems that might occur and how to deal with them. For example it was my responsibility to make sure that everyone was safe on location and that certain safety measures were put in place. My creative skills as Location Manager was trying to make the best use out of the Locations that I found, for example when using the storage container to was a really tight space for everyone to fit into therefore we decided to only use one camera to allow a bit more movement for us within the set. We also kept all the actors bags and lights case inside the container and used them as part of the set. One improvement that could be made was through writing emails. The emails needed to sound professional and polite which was difficult as I needed to be very carful with the words that I used as we had to try and avoid word everyday words such as me/I, hi/hey as very as negative words like no and but. In order to address this gap I looked up a few youtube videos on how to sound professional in an email.https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+write+a+professional+email. One of the videos I watched gave me some great tips and advice such as keeping the message focused and structured. You achieve this by starting with an introductory line follweded by shot paragraphs or numbered points to ensure that all is read; and only use capital letters when required.
P4
For the Film "A Way Out" I worked with another colleague on the project. Throughout the production we took turns to carry out certain roles for example when I was cameraman he would be the director and vice versa.
This was a shot of when I was the cameraman. My intention for this shot was to have the two actors square up to each other, with both actors having an intimidating look about them. This scene is very intense as both the actors start arguing with each other creating an edgy atmosphere inside the box. I felt a medium close up was perfect for the scene because it shows the two faces next to each other so that the audience can feel like there watching the argument inside the box. As there was a height difference between the two actors I made sure that both their faces were in shot by slighting tilting the camera upwards creating distorted effect. The shadow in the background of the shot worked really nicely with the tone of the scene, as I purposely framed the shadow in the middle of the shot making it feel as if there is a third person in the scene. When filming inside the box there wasn't a lot of room for the six us plus equipment. What we decided to do was put all the bags and left over boxes in one corner and have that as part of the set, which we didn't move throughout filming. We only took one camera when filming and did the same scenes three or four times from different angles, allowing us to have a bit more movement within the set.
For the scene on your right-hand side I was the director. Before the scene started I spoke to my actor and went through the scene with him, describing he emotions he felt through that scene. For that particular shot I asked him to look surprised, panicked and scared which worked well as the actor performed that shot with puffed out cheeks and a shocked expression to match it; this was exactly what I was looking for. When directing you have to give clear instructions to your actors on how you want them to look and feel in the scene. Sometimes it helps when you give the actors specific words to focus on such as panicked. The shot shows the actor walking to his friends just having been shot, this is followed by silence as the audience attention focus on the actors reaction to what just happened. The audience will hopefully have the same reaction to this as the actor, making him connect with the audience by being easily relatable in his reaction. The location we used was an abandoned building which meant that the floor was full of dangerous objects. To avoid the actors during themselves when lying on the floor I got a tar-pool to cover the floor so that when they fall they have a softer surfaced to land on.
For this project me my colleague split up the work between us, so we both made big contributions towards this film. My contribution included directing, set and costume design, location hunting, operating the camera and casting the actors. These jobs all had their own impact on the film for example the set and costume design impatced on the look of the film.