Arts Leadership Feedback

I gathered feedback about the outcome of my Arts Leadership Project from the audience and speakers at the Borderlines Film Festival and from discussing it with the BFI Film Academy group. 

Positive Feedback about 'Disconnected'                                                   

- The theme of technology was very relevant for our age group                                     

- The use of music and sound effects was effective in building tension
- The ending was good, the audience didn't see it coming

- The focus was sharp throughout

Negative Feedback about 'Disconnected'

- The plot needed more substance

- It became tedious after a short amount of time due to repeated shots and lack of variation

I agree with all of these comments and am especially pleased that the audience did not guess the twist of the film, as this was what we were most worried about. To address the negative feedback, I agree that we did not have a very strong storyline and that the film would have been more interesting with a greater variation of shots. I think that this could have been improved if we had had longer to plan.

Disconnected

Project Review

What happened on the project?
I produced a short film as part of the BFI Film Academy within a group of other young film-makers, in which I had the leadership role of cinematographer. We produced our short film in the space of around 3 months, completing all of the necessary stages in order to create a short film. This include brainstorming ideas, auditioning actors, planning practical issues, creating shotlists, finding equipment and locations, shooting the film and finally editing. We arranged many meetings as a group in order to discuss and plan our short film, and a few of these were conducted online as Google Hangouts. Our completed film was screened at the Borderlines Film Festival last week along with the two other films from other groups participating in the BFI Film Academy. 

What was the end result?
The end result of this project was 'Disconnected', a very short film of approx 2 minutes in length, which focused on the theme of technology/communication. Our short film can be found here. 

What parts of your original plan worked well/less well?
One thing that worked well was our timescale; we managed to get everything completed to a high standard within the allocated amount of time and the film was finished ready to be screened on the 5th March. However, we used a lot more time for brainstorming ideas than we had hoped, as we had planned to have a concept for our film by mid-January, when in fact we did not have a concrete idea until one week before we began the shoot. At points I think we actually had too much time, which meant that we were occasionally too relaxed and lacked focus. I was also pleased with the resources that we were able to use, as in my original plan I was expecting that we would have to use our own equipment. However, we managed to acquire the Black Magic camera, which I enjoyed using as it made our film look more professional, and a number of different lights, as well as the track which allowed us to create our final shot.

What did you enjoy most on the project?
I enjoyed auditioning the actors for our short film, as I had never organised my own auditions for a short film before, and it was encouraging that so many actors auditioned and that we were able to choose between them. This way, we could really see who fitted the roles. I also enjoyed working as part of a team, and it was great to work with a group of people who were all passionate about film but were interested in different areas. This meant that I was able to learn from everyone else, and that we could share our ideas collectively to have more of a creative input. I also liked the experience of being in a leadership role, as I was able to be more independent and make my own decisions whilst having an influence over the final product. The shooting day was definitely my favourite throughout the whole process, because it was amazing to see all of our work come together and be able to really experiment with my role as cinematographer, trying out different shots and angles. I also enjoyed working with the actors who were very patient and cooperative whilst I was filming. 

What worked well on the project?
Our communication was very effective and we were able to regularly keep in touch by using a number of different ways of discussing our ideas outside of the scheduled BFI Academy meetings. We used Facebook, text and organised Google Hangouts on a regular basis. The most useful method of communication was Facebook as we could attach various files such as scripts, sound effects and the audition tape so that we were all aware of what everyone else was doing. In this way we could make sure that all our decisions were made collectively. I really liked the collective approach we took to the project, as although we all had our own individual leadership roles, it meant we were all included in all aspects of the project at every stage, so that the final film felt like it belonged to all of us. The screening of our film at the Borderlines Film Festival also worked well as a way to showcase our work and gather feedback from audience members, such as our friends and family. 

What was challenging about the project?
One of the most challenging stages of the project was coming up with an idea for our film. We spent a long time brainstorming initially but our idea changed drastically at almost every meeting, and we eventually had to completely abandon our idea and develop a contingency plan due to the weather and the lack of a finished script less than a week before we were due to start shooting. This meant that all of our planning time had been wasted. I think the problem was that we were so desperate for an idea in the first stages, that we used one of the first ones that we discussed without properly taking the time to consider important details such as locations, characters and weather, which meant that the idea we were working on was far too complicated and implausible within the time. When we realised that this idea was not going to work, we then had to rush to create a script and shot lists for this new idea, so we went into filming without a clear plan of what we were doing. I was not happy with the way we did this, as it felt like, in the end, we settled for an idea that we were not 100% invested in. Therefore, lack of organisation was a major challenge. There were also some moments where we did not get on very well as a team, or struggled to focus, when the process became overwhelming or we felt under pressure. However, I think that the project was a valuable lesson in team work. 

What have you learnt from the project?
I have improved my leadership skills and have learnt what it takes to be a good leader; it is important to be assertive and make decisions quickly, whilst listening to everyone else's input. You must always try to be enthusiastic and optimistic even when the process is challenging. For example, I found it difficult to be positive when I was not entirely happy with our final concept, although I realised that I needed to put in just as much effort in order to make it work, and in the end it paid off. I have also learnt a lot about the planning process and especially how essential it is to plan when working on a film, as we made the mistake of going on to the shoot without knowing exactly what we needed to do and when. You should have a clear shotlist and storyboard even if you do not stick to them religiously. Luckily, we worked efficiently and managed to get all of the footage we needed on the day, but we would have felt more comfortable if we had planned more comprehensively. I have also improved my knowledge of the film industry, specifically about the role of a cinematographer, and all of the stages necessary to complete when producing a film. 

What would you do differently next time? 
If I was to complete this project again, I would like to spend more time at the very start of the project developing a good concrete idea which was plausible to create within the limited time frame and constraints, whilst still having a strong theme and story. This would mean that we would not waste time or become stressed later on in the process. I would also like to try out some different leadership roles within film, such as directing or editing, areas which I am interested in but have not had much experience of. 

My Role as Cinematographer

The role of a cinematographer is to provide a film with its own visual identity, or 'look'. As cinematographer, my input was necessary throughout the whole process of creating our short film, from the initial brainstorming process to editing. I kept in mind the words of Tony Lawson from our masterclass, who said that there are in fact three separate films; the film you write, the film you shoot, and the film you edit, and therefore the cinematographer is important in all of these stages.

During the planning stages, I worked with all members of my group in order to create one shared vision of how we wanted the film to look. As our idea changed so drastically, so did our plan for how we wanted the film to be shot. For example in our very first idea, the silent film, we were going to use colour to portray the feelings of the protagonist, whereas in the second idea, there would be more wide shots to show the girl as she went about her day. In our final idea, we had to work out a way of manipulating the shots so that the audience would not be able to tell that the three characters were in the same room, as this would give away the twist. Therefore, when creating shot lists, I decided that the majority of the shots should be medium and close ups, with the shots becoming more and more close to the faces of the characters as the film progressed, to show how they were being consumed by technology. Their faces could even become partially obscured by the devices in order to stress this. The only wide shot would be the final shot when the whole room was revealed. I wanted this ending to be quite comic, and thought that a tracking shot would work well here.

On the day of the shoot, I was very excited to finally see our plan for the short film come to life, and also to use the Black Magic camera. As cinematographer, I first set up the room so that there were three distinct locations for our three characters; the sofa, a chair and a space next to the window. As visuals are so important, I decided that the characters should be wearing a variety of colours in order to add visual interest, so we tried out a couple of outfits until we were happy. When we started shooting, I worked mainly with the director in order to frame the shots and wanted to make sure to get the maximum possible number of shots from different angles so that there would definitely be enough footage. As our film relies heavily on facial expressions, I managed to get a few in one take by holding the shot on the face of the actor while the director called out various emotions. This saved us time and also many that we had plenty to choose from later in the edit. At times it was very difficult to achieve certain angles without giving away the location of the characters, so for example, we could only use close ups with no establishing shot for the introduction of our third character. My favourite two shots to film were the tilt and pull focus of the boy eating the skittles, which required some practice and concentration, and the final 'reveal' shot, where we used a slow track for a comic effect. Overall, I was really pleased with my role as cinematographer whilst shooting our short film and I learnt a lot about the use of different lenses and filters which I hadn't had much knowledge of before. 

During the beginning of the editing process, my input as cinematographer was still important in order to make sure that the overall 'look' of the film was kept. I helped to select the best shots and takes from our shoot and to roughly put these together before our editor took over to complete it. I also paid particular attention to the cuts and continuity between shots to make sure that any mistakes did not detract from the storyline. 

'Disconnected' Production Photos

Arts Challenge Review

Having completed my Arts Challenge, I am going to complete a short review in order to establish what went well, what didn't go so well and what I would do differently if I were to complete the challenge again. 

Were you able to meet your Arts Challenge? 

Yes, I managed to complete my challenge and created two short films with the same storyline but in different genres, Horror and Romance, manipulating my footage using a variety of different techniques, after conducting research into the conventions of genre. I used shot choice, colour, sound effects, music and other editing techniques in order to change the genre. I was able to complete my challenge in a short amount of time with my own equipment, using a friend to act, and therefore with no expenditure as I had planned.

Did you change your action plan in any way? 

I made a few slight changes to my plan, for example I changed the story from simply reading a letter to include more of a build up, giving me more time to experiment with shots and editing. In my Action Plan my story idea was 'a woman/man walks into a room, sees a letter and reads it'  whereas in my final film the story line changed to: 'a girl is sat reading a book, a letter is posted through the door and she reads it'. I was also unable to keep both films to the same length, as I had more shots for the Horror. Although I had hoped to keep both under 1 minute in length, my Romance ended up being 0:59 whereas my Horror was 1:11. However, this was because I found that there were more shots I could include for the Horror, and this didn't end up being a problem at all. Another change I made to my action plan was that I ended up spending different amounts of time on each area than I had planned - it only took me around 2 hours to film, but I ended up spending more time editing, as I had not thought about the time it would take me to find music and sound effects.

What went well? What didn't go well?

I am overall very pleased with the outcome of my Arts Challenge, and believe that the final films show that I have understood the concepts of the different genres. Although they are quite clichéd and over-stylised, this hopefully makes the genres quite obvious which is what I was aiming for. I was happy with how quickly I was able to film the footage, although I found that there were a lot more specific shot types that I could use for the Horror genre (such as dutch tilt, hand held, point of view) whereas it was difficult to do this for the Romance, so I think this may have looked a bit dull with only wides, mediums and close ups. I was also really pleased with my use of sound effects in the Horror, which I had little experience with, and I worked on layering a lot of different sounds on top of each other in order to create a dramatic effect and increase the tension, which I think worked well. 

What have you learnt from your Arts Challenge?
I have learnt a lot about the concept of genre and about how different genres are created using a variety of techniques. I believe that I learnt a lot more through creating my own short films than if I had simply done research. I also improved my organisation by working to a plan, creating storyboards/shot lists and sticking to a time scale. I am now more confident in my editing skills, using colour, music and sound effects.

What would you do differently?
If I was to complete this Arts Challenge again, I would choose another genre other than Romance to experiment with, such as a Thriller or Action, where I could use more specific shot types and editing techniques. I would also create more detailed plans for both short films, as I drew a storyboard for the Horror and a vague shot list, but mainly improvised during the filming. I would also like to invest in a different editing software (such as Final Cut Pro) as mine is very basic and limited, and possibly improve my use of lighting as I believe that there was some inconsistency in lighting and colour between my shots. 

'The Letter' - Horror and Romance

I shared my two short films with Ed at the BFI Film Academy meeting where he peer reviewed them.