Technical Skills Development

1.1 Describe areas for development in your current knowledge, understanding and skills

I am intrigued by the visual side of filmmaking. Cinematography, special effects, make up, designs and even storyboarding. I like the creative flare a movie can produce, thousands of people getting involved in one big project and combing artistic interpretations and ideas and using teamwork to effectively complete the product.

Writing is also something that sparks a moment inside of me, and the freedom a writer has to produce an entirely new world with characters and creatures inspires me of what the future of the industry holds.

The potential is unlimited.

I hope to gain valuable skills from this course by undertaking these masterclasses and getting engaged in the work we have to do as groups.

I would like to broaden my knowledge of cinematography (as I admit I am not very technical in), and I would be thrilled by the chance of completing any storyboards or sheets that involve this.

1.2 Take a role in the production of a short film

My production role in my team is the producer, my job is to organise everything about our short film from start to finish. After consulting with the team we have planned our main story outline and during our pre-production phase we are gathering together the script for our film.

My role of being the producer means I am involved in this project from start to finish, and I am prominent in all stages of the work. From initial ideas and proposals, to writing, completing all shot and call lists, filming, directing the voice acting and recording sessions for our suggested voiceovers and editing.

I am more specifically inspired by the cinematography in film as well as the role of what a producer does. I admire the responsibility that a producer will undertake in order to make their idea come into existence. And some of this experience is what I hope to earn during my time in the BFI Film Academy.

We would need to have great coordination skills in order to successful put together the entire project with more ease, as well as keeping a combined effort. I will need to acquire good team management skills and knowledge of all areas such as general camerawork and scriptwriting, directional and computer skills and familiarity in video editing software, I will be present in all production stages. I will need to organise actors and location alongside our team’s director and I will need to acquire the necessary props.

We are trying to work with the South Yorkshire Network to find suitable local actors for our short film.

1.3 Gain feedback on how you performed your role

On the day of our shoot, our supervisor congratulated us on our film, which we ended up finishing early with, even being able to shoot spare shots afterwards.

He told me that as a producer I got involved with everything, since the director and scriptwriter were on set acting, I did try and help out. I feel like even though our team wasn’t fully available to be together sometimes, we all still prevailed and managed to successfully create our short film together, especially on the dating day when we all worked as one to create the credits and the overall product.

What did I do well in?

Our team’s editor, Michael Wheeler also gave me some feedback on how I performed in my role, shown below.

“One thing you did well is that you were good at generating ideas. for example, at the start of the academy when we were deciding what to do, you got us going in the comedy direction by recommending a story with Henry VIII going to Greggs”

“Secondly you were also very organised. this is because, despite the amount of paperwork that the producer had to do, you always managed to be on top of it and get it finished. this really benefited us as a group, as it meant we were never kept behind.”

What were the challenges and how were they dealt with?

“One challenge we had was on the shoot day, as since we didn’t manage to get any external actors, we were quite short for people behind the camera. this was quite a challenge as the director was one of the actors, which made it hard to direct and act at the same time. however, on the day you did quite a lot of directing for the group, which helped us by giving instructions we could easily follow, and keeping us streamlined.”

How did I work within my team?

“Within the team you were very collaborative. for example, when we were stuck on a problem, or didn’t know how to do something, you would normally give suggestions, which would either answer what we were struggling with, or would get us thinking in the right direction.”

“You were also a very organised team member. this is because you always managed to complete the tasks you had to do as a producer, such as the risk assessment. this helped us a team as you would share these with us so we could add them to our blogs, therefore improving them.”

Do you have any advice or areas for development?

“One piece of advice that I would give you, would to be more confident in yourself. this is because a lot of the time you would give good answers or contributions to the discussion, however after saying them you sometimes said ‘ I don’t know ‘ or ‘ I’m not sure ‘ . I think you should be more confident in giving your ideas to show you believe in them.”