Creative Critical Reflection #3 - Production Skills

   Before starting this film project, I had a decent amount of experience with editing. My friend and I have been making videos based around playing videogames. He would record his gameplay and I would do a significant amount of the editing.  This helped designate me as the editor for this project. Besides editing, I didn’t have much experience in the film making process and was relying on my group to work together to form a decent film, which they did.

   During the project, I had learned a lot of new techniques for camera work. I personally don’t like being in front camera, so naturally, I opted into being the cameraman for most of the shots. When starting I didn’t realize that lighting is a pain in the neck! The filming process was weird because there were some shots that we wanted to get, but because we filmed on location, we couldn’t get the proper lighting needed for the shot. Some of these issues were backlighting that caused silhouettes, inconsistency with sunlight between scenes, and timeframe for filming. Because of these lighting issues, we had to work on two important parts of creating a film: Scheduling and positioning. We scheduled our filming times for 12PM-3PM and reshoots were normally from 12PM-2PM. These time frames allowed us to get the footage we needed, while also giving me time to edit that day. Positioning was harder to work on because we were filming in nature. This meant that I would have to be within bushes and be following Dan to get the shots we needed. Altogether, camera work was the skill that I increased the most because I had very little experience when starting and now, I feel comfortable with using a camera and how to create a better shot using these techniques.

   Other skills that I had developed during the project, but I felt like we're more of second hand or learning from my group, were directing actors and production design. For the most part, Gabe was the director in the traditional definition as he would tell us a general idea of what we needed. Of course, Dan, Shea, and I would step in and give advice based on acting, camera work, and human ability, but for the most part, Gabe taught me a lot about how to portray storytelling. Dan helped with the production design of the film. He was the one that found our film location at Redbug Slough Preserve and the trails that we used to film on. We didn’t alter the location much as we wanted to portray an “overgrown” look. Altogether, I didn’t use these skills as much but have developed them as Gabe and Dan took part in building both of these skills.

   Ultimately, I learned a lot about the production processes of a film from this project. My skills continuously increased as we shot and edited new parts or reshoots of the scene. My greatest skill would be editing, but the camera work is my most improved. The skills I learned about, although not doing much of, are production design and directing through my group.