I will be looking at the personality, qualities and skills possessed by a Film Director comprehensively, specifically their physical contribution to the production and the variety of communication between this individual and the production team they run.
Written Communication
The materials employed by the Director primarily during pre-production include Treatments, storyboards and scripting. Communicative skills are obviously vital, translating their initial ideas onto paper which is later made into it's physical form. Throughout the Digital Media course I undertook at UTC Sheffield, I have had plenty of experience creating industry standard planning materials and primarily during Unit 46; creating a short film trailer, myself along with 3 others created the pre-production documents that formed a key phase of the film's production. Acting as the Film's Director, I managed this communication by holding concepting sessions in which pre-production were created and delegated for future creation. I checked that the plans gave a strong representation of the initial concepts of 'In Static', the name of our project. This implies that for this role, the ability to give criticism and feedback on these materials is required to ensure the concept of the film is displayed effectively.
Verbal Communication
Co-operation, between all members on set during a shoot is of the utmost importance; and the director is the individual that ultimately co-ordinates all the elements of the production team.
In my experiences, throughout recording sessions for our Short Film; I have been able to present my verbal communication effectively, addressing each individual on their duties before filming can begin. The presence of a Director requires the respect of their production team and the quality of leadership. While I was in the Air Training Corps, I was promoted to Senior Corporal; which must have meant they saw that I had the communicative and leadership talents in order to fulfil a position of authority.
Practical Production
The extended responsibility of Directors is to contribute to all phases of production in order to ensure that their 'vision' is maintained; this includes everything from camera positioning to ordering of clips during editing. As part of a smaller production team, my roles as Director also meant I had to act as cameraman, assistant editor and sound mixer. This means I had to have and improve my technological knowledge of how to operate the Canon 650D DSLRs' used to record our film and Adobe Premiere, the software used to edit the footage.
Creativity
Directors inherit a 'vision' for their project which emerges through their contributions and delegations within the film. I believe that I could present my flair and communicate my own ideas for this project by undertaking extra roles and providing my own creative input.
Written Communication
The materials employed by the Director primarily during pre-production include Treatments, storyboards and scripting. Communicative skills are obviously vital, translating their initial ideas onto paper which is later made into it's physical form. Throughout the Digital Media course I undertook at UTC Sheffield, I have had plenty of experience creating industry standard planning materials and primarily during Unit 46; creating a short film trailer, myself along with 3 others created the pre-production documents that formed a key phase of the film's production. Acting as the Film's Director, I managed this communication by holding concepting sessions in which pre-production were created and delegated for future creation. I checked that the plans gave a strong representation of the initial concepts of 'In Static', the name of our project. This implies that for this role, the ability to give criticism and feedback on these materials is required to ensure the concept of the film is displayed effectively.
Verbal Communication
Co-operation, between all members on set during a shoot is of the utmost importance; and the director is the individual that ultimately co-ordinates all the elements of the production team.
In my experiences, throughout recording sessions for our Short Film; I have been able to present my verbal communication effectively, addressing each individual on their duties before filming can begin. The presence of a Director requires the respect of their production team and the quality of leadership. While I was in the Air Training Corps, I was promoted to Senior Corporal; which must have meant they saw that I had the communicative and leadership talents in order to fulfil a position of authority.
Practical Production
The extended responsibility of Directors is to contribute to all phases of production in order to ensure that their 'vision' is maintained; this includes everything from camera positioning to ordering of clips during editing. As part of a smaller production team, my roles as Director also meant I had to act as cameraman, assistant editor and sound mixer. This means I had to have and improve my technological knowledge of how to operate the Canon 650D DSLRs' used to record our film and Adobe Premiere, the software used to edit the footage.
Creativity
Directors inherit a 'vision' for their project which emerges through their contributions and delegations within the film. I believe that I could present my flair and communicate my own ideas for this project by undertaking extra roles and providing my own creative input.
Areas for further Development - Skill Gaps and Action Plan
Reviewing my performance as a Director, I can identify aspects that I could improve in order to increase the efficiency of completing my duties next time I take on this role. In evaluation, I think that I could do better by preparing in greater extent during the pre-production phase. There was always some element of improvisation at every film shoot due to lack of story-boarding for every scene; it has to be said that occasionally even I didn't know what we should be doing, let alone the rest of my team. One of our main setbacks as a whole throughout this project were group disagreements; primarily about who should be doing what and what choice of music we should have. However, based on my views of the final product, I believe the whole team did an amazing job in creating a very professional looking trailer. In order to improve upon these skills, I will be undertaking an additional project in film making as part of the Media Course in which the team for 'In Static' will continue to improve upon their experiences by taking the feedback and evaluation made for our previous film and utilising it to improve upon our weaknesses and ensure that the new film's process runs more smoothly and with less problems. The best way to gain experience in filmmaking is to actually do it; practice makes perfect and just using the camera and adapting to a preferred style and improving your technical skills. I think have particular gaps in my knowledge of full camera operation; throughout filming in Static, we just used DSLR's and I had little experience using the professional Sony CE1000 Film Camera while fulfilling additional responsibilities other than Directing. Specifically, understanding and applying the entire camera hardware in order to create intended filming effects. I think also that their are aspects of my communication that needs working on such as confidence and pro-activity; a director ultimately has 'reign' over a production team and needs to be able to be in contact with every aspect of production and be confident while communicating with the people involved. I felt that on occassions I lacked the confidence to get across my ideas to the actors and contacting for permission of use of locations. I need to work on improving my 'presence' on set as well as behind the scenes, organising of pre-production meetings and negotiations between external parties for when I hopefully join a production team for a real film (actors, location managers, catering companies, producers etc)
In order to gain a greater understanding of camera operation, professional editing and talent in directing; my action plan is as follows:
In order to gain a greater understanding of camera operation, professional editing and talent in directing; my action plan is as follows:
- Participate in the 2Weeks2MakeIt project associated with the SYFN (South Yorkshire Filmmaker Network) throughout March 2015. This most importantly unlocks networking opportunities between film makers who I hope to stay in contact with. It will provide valuable experience of all phases of film production within a very limited time period.
- Study a BA degree in Film and Media Production at the University of Sheffield following my media course at UTC Sheffield - Starts September 2015. The experience of film and TV production at college in Units' 43, 46 and 41 has inspired me to continue onto higher education. The networking opportunities provided while studying at UTC Sheffield has put me in contact with Sheffield based film making institutions; such as WARP Films, Steel City Media and the SYFN.
- Once I have completed a 3 year degree in film production and potentially throughout my studies, from 2015 to 2018 I plan to move onto introducing myself into the industry by securing an apprenticeship or volunteering for work with the aforementioned companies.
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