Research into roles on set

It is important that all roles are used in the production of a film. A film cannot be run by only one person. It is a collaborative effort between hundreds sometimes thousands of people to make it. Some of these roles may include an editor, a director and a camera man, which are some of the roles that my group will be taking on for our shoot day.

A director is someone that leads a particular area of the company, in this case it will be the actor. Their role is important, as without the director, the actors won’t be instructed on what to do, and where to stand/ how to act. They are also important in making sure that the camera is rolling and that everyone is ready for example they say ‘standby,’ and ‘rolling.’ This is why directors are important.

The editor is the person that combines the footage together to make the film. This can be though cutting clips down, making the ending shorter, cutting a clip in half and putting another in between the cut, slowing down the time or speeding it up, modifying the audio and many more techniques. They are important as without an editor, the film wouldn’t be edited at all, and none of the clips will be put in the right order, and the sound won’t be edited. Essentially it will cause a lot of problems and there wouldn’t be a movie.

As the camera person, I am in charge of the camera angles, shots and motions. I am also in charge of the exposure of the shot, the white balance, making sure that our actors are in the frame and that I work with the director on what angles look best. I have to do these roles because it is really important that the shot looks professional.

I need to look at the shot list and the shooting schedule to familiarise myself with what I will be doing on the day, and I will also need to make sure I remember how to put the camera onto the tripod correctly, and remove it correctly, so that when we film, I don’t damage anything. This will just make sure that everything runs smoothly, and that we will save time if I know exactly what I am filming and when.

The most important material I will bring would be the storyboard, as this is a visual representation of our story. Therefore I will be able to set the shots up more accurately as I can see physically what they are supposed to look like, rather than just using a worded description to picture how the shot should looks.

My role is important, because without me the shot may not be focused properly, the exposure may be off, or the shot may not be framed correctly. It is also important for me to view what the scene looks like from behind the camera as well as the director seeing the shot from outside of the frame. This is because if I don’t do this, there could be the risk of the sequence not looking as good behind the camera as it does in real life.

I think that one thing that may be challenging on the day is to do with the space that we have to shoot the scene. The lift is not the biggest space in the world, and it may be challenging to fit the two actors and the camera, and me in the lift. I can prepare myself by practicing holding the camera without the tripod as the tripod is unlikely to fit in the lift too. By practicing handheld shots, I will most likely be able to use only hand held so then my group doesn’t have to worry about using a tripod as the shots will look just as good handheld.

The genre that we are doing is action thriller. Therefore, I will need to make the camera shots look tense and slow, but then I will also need to be able to shoot fast paced tracking shots, as action films and thriller both have these to make the scene seem more fast paced. I will also have to make sure that I get multiple angles throughout the fight sequence, as often in fight sequences the shot will cut to another angle when there is a punch or a kick to make the moves look more realistic.

I will target the audience by including lots of close ups of the action/ special effects make up, as people who watch action thrillers usually like the more violent themes. Seeing as our audience is more for adults than younger children, I can make the scene look more violent through tracking handheld shots, and close ups of faces, to make it seem like there is a greater threat, which is also what thriller fans likes, as they like tension and anticipation.