Assisted with a production

Assisted with a production

Today I was involved in the production of a student advertisement, my intentions being to assist with operating the video camera or helping with capturing the audio. The concept for the project was excellent, however the director was very disorganized, thus when the time came to record the material, we lacked a complete cast, proper equipment or sufficient time. Simply put, the production commenced and operated at a third of its potential proficiency. Three or four actors were absent on the day of production, a replacement actor was implemented to ill effect. The director didn’t realize that half of the cast had other commitments to attend to, consequently filming was rushed.

The problems were largely avoidable, had the director had better organizational skills. Proper equipment has to be organized in advance, for my project I will try to gain access to the higher quality camera in the video production lab. The issues the director had with the actors further confirm my desire to operate with a small cast. We had a break from production, once the actors with other commitments had rushed through their scene. We resumed the lengthy production with the remaining actors, not realizing that the outdoor lighting had undergone a significant change. This means when the material is on screen weather conditions in the background will suddenly change half way through the advertisement for no apparent reason. I am appreciative that I leant of this outdoor filming problem because I can now take steps to avoid it in my production.