INDUCTION TASK
INDUCTION FILM PROJECT REVIEW BY MICHAEL C. BUNGAY
As part of our induction into the Level 2 Diploma in Creative Media Production at Oaklands College, we had to create a film up to 2 minutes in length as a Group project. We were given a scenario in which a man walks along, feeling as happy as can be when he spots some money on the ground and picks it up. He suddenly hears a cry for help before darting around a corner and suddenly stopping. It was up to us to decide what happens next.
My group consisted of me, Ollie Kent-Ledger, James Gorman and Leoni Isaacs and we had the whole afternoon of our first induction day, Thursday 3rd September to discuss and plan how the plot of our film would pan out. We all agreed on one thing, the plot should involve a murder. We decided that I should be the happy person but we also decided that I should be the murder victim. There was not enough time or resources to make my on-screen murder look like a stabbing or a beating so we decided that Ollie and Leoni should come up behind me and pretend to strangle me instead. The film would end with a point of view shot from my perspective as I pretend to die. We helped each other to set up the camera and tripod and James and Ollie took it in turns to operate the camera and do the filming.
Considering this was supposed to be a team effort, I think Leoni and I could have made more contributions to the shot-list and made sure Ollie and James stayed on task because they got distracted easily with discussing the plot. Ollie and James also did most of the talking so it was hard for Leoni and I to contribute. We could have done with being more focussed as Diane had to remind us all too often that we did not have a lot of time to plan our film and we spend a lot of time discussing even when we were actually filming. There was also a severe lack of communication when it came to arranging to do our belated editing as we twice made arrangements to meet at lunchtime and failed each time as not all of us arrived.
Since I have previous experience of filming and Media Production using a tripod-mounted camera during my previous College Education in the North-East, I volunteered to set up the camera and tripod which I managed with no problems. I also handled getting into and staying in character with no problems.
One thing that certainly went badly was the continuity of our film. I mentioned that I was good at noticing Continuity Errors in Films and Television Series so the rest of the group decided that I should be responsible for ensuring continuity in our film. As soon as we were about to start filming, Diane and I noticed that the rest of the group had just left their bags lying around at the top of the stairs outside G Block where we had decided to film the outside scenes. I attempted to move the bags out of shot so I placed them next to a parked car. In hindsight, I should have placed them towards the front of the parked car as when we managed to import our footage into Adobe Premier Pro, it turned out that the bags were still clearly visible to the left of the screen in longshot.
We learned how to use Adobe Premier Pro and import our recorded camera footage onto it. I already know how to competently set up a tripod and camera and how to operate the video function of the camera, having previously learnt these skills in the North-East but these skills were new to my peers.
We used a camera and tripod supplied by the Media section of Oaklands College and one of the computers in Ollie Samuel’s room, F308. We did not encounter any problems as such until we imported our film as the computer then went unresponsive and delayed us further. As a result, we were unable to properly edit our film in time for the screening on Friday 4th September as only Ollie had a hard drive at the time and we lost further time when Ollie turned up half an hour late to the afternoon session. Ollie successfully imported our film into Adobe Premier Pro. We had no choice but to delay the screening of our film so that we had more time to edit it. We arranged to meet up at Lunchtime first on Monday 7th and again on Thursday 10th but in the first instance, only James and I turned up and in the 2nd, only I turned up and in each case, neither we nor Ollie Samuel could contact each other so we missed the deadline a 2nd time.
I need to learn to make more of an effort to ensure that anything that should not be on shot, are removed and placed where they will be out of shot at all times. We need to learn to communicate better as there was too much talking between certain members of the group to the point of excluding the other members. We also need to improve our time-keeping and focus and spend less time talking and discussing and more time focussing on filming.
Next time, we will all have a hard drive so we will be able to share the responsibility of editing. I have also personally spoken to Ollie Samuel and arranged for the Media tutors to personally remind the rest of my group to arrange to meet up at Lunchtime on Friday 11th and stick to it because we cannot work reliably as a group if we keep making arrangements and not turn up for them. We cannot keep letting each other down like this and we now have one more opportunity to get our editing done and there will be no more.