Studio work pt.2: Production workflow. Problem solving.
I had a chance to tell a little bit of a story before, so I will link it here: click.
At the very start Tilly, Preston and I started feeling that we will have problems with communication within the group. The reason behind this was pretty simple: Umor, Colin and Dan were not easy to talk to. We tried to give them certain tasks, but we have never had any responses, even though the guys were clearly doing something. Because of these communication issues, our stress level skyrocketed straight after the script and treatment were done.
Also, to relieve the stress, we had to adjust roles. But I already mentioned that in my previous post. After those adjustments we felt slightly more secured.
However two weeks prior the shooting Preston, Tilly and I had a meeting with Umor and Colin specifically. We asked them to communicate with us, make sure that we see and know that they are ready and they are prepared for the shooting days, because before we were lost. We literally thought, that every single shooting day we will be behind the schedule only because Umor has no idea how the lights work or Colin forgets what equipment to use. After that meeting, we saw the progress and it was easier to communicate. Although we still had Dan...
First stage. Preproduction.
In the very beginning I myself wasn't in a good place, missed one meeting and couldn't really do a lot of tasks. So I ended up missing on the very first days of preproduction sessions, but as soon as I felt better, I caught up quickly.At the very start Tilly, Preston and I started feeling that we will have problems with communication within the group. The reason behind this was pretty simple: Umor, Colin and Dan were not easy to talk to. We tried to give them certain tasks, but we have never had any responses, even though the guys were clearly doing something. Because of these communication issues, our stress level skyrocketed straight after the script and treatment were done.
Also, to relieve the stress, we had to adjust roles. But I already mentioned that in my previous post. After those adjustments we felt slightly more secured.
However two weeks prior the shooting Preston, Tilly and I had a meeting with Umor and Colin specifically. We asked them to communicate with us, make sure that we see and know that they are ready and they are prepared for the shooting days, because before we were lost. We literally thought, that every single shooting day we will be behind the schedule only because Umor has no idea how the lights work or Colin forgets what equipment to use. After that meeting, we saw the progress and it was easier to communicate. Although we still had Dan...
Second stage. Set building.
That's where Dan became a real problem. We all remember that issue with the paint. Jay and Dan secured green colour behind the scenes. My team have never heard about that decision, when Jay came back to Katherine and said that we are definitely going for green. Dan had multiple opportunities to let us know that we are not allowed to use any colour bur green. Unfortunately, I saw that coming. From the very beginning of the set building process I saw red flags. The main one was that the scheme of the set was created by Tilly on paper and then by Arturs in the 3D modelling app on his laptop. Dan had never made big decisions on set. He had never had any ideas on set. At least I have never heard/seen them.
He was the one to show up in the studio late and first to go. More than 80% of the set was built by us. If Dan started something, he had never finished it properly and we had to fix it in the end.
Third stage. Filming.
Before going straight on discussing the process of filming, I should mention auditions. We put casting calls everywhere we possibly could, even on professional websites. We found our actors pretty easily, but (there is always but) actress dropped out last minute. Even though we announced dates of filming prior to audition, she than found out that she can't make it. So we were looking for a new actress till very very las minute. But luckily, everything happens for a reason, the couple that we ended up with had such a strong chemistry, that we were actually thinking that the will kiss on set at some point, even though that wasn't scripted.
There we go. All paperwork done, call sheets are ready, actors on set, team on set. That was when I felt even more stressed out. This was the point, where producer just makes sure that the workflow goes well and doesn't stress out that much. From the experiences that I mentioned in the previous post, I saw different types of producers. There was one, that had never had any idea about what the actual hell is going on on set. And I couldn't let myself to be that producer. So I tried to look after all the issues.
Obviously we had them. As on all big productions we fell 1 hr behind the schedule straight away. But we tried to hurry everybody up, even though we had 2 additional hour secured. But even then the first couple of shot something was going wrong.
- No one actually listened to Preston's notes about time.
- Camera unit tried to go into director's job.
- Director never knew what DoP wants to see in the camera, so she tried to explain something to actors and then DoP would change the directions or choreography, so that was a chaos.
To solve this problem, I asked everybody to pay attention to Preston and timing. And while they were finishing the last shots, Preston and I planned a short briefing after lunch break.
I think I was the only one, who had experience of the actual professional film production sets. Remembering what was happening there, I explain after the break, that communication should be the key part of the process. Camera unit talking to director, AD talking to Camera unit and actors assistant, so that we know when it's time for actors to be on set etc. We have to talk to each other, otherwise everything will go wrong. That was the main issue resolved on the first day.
On the second day we had another issue coming up: my laptop played up and I physically could not finish changes in the call sheet, so I had to start it from scratch on the shooting day. I came in the library as early as possible and made the call sheet as fast as I possibly could. But there was an issue with the timing for lunch. I put relighting at the same time with the lunch break, because from what I saw on professional sets, people put lights roughly, preparing them for next scene, so that when they are back, they spend less time on setting up the lighting. But Preston couldn't really hear me and asked me to extend lunch time. Even though that wasn't really planned, we found the compromise.
All in all, our days went really well. Even though there was a lot of stress, I swear those were the best days of 2016 so far.
(Self evaluation's coming up next, so stay tuned)
Mary out ~
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