Reflective Journal
Week 9
Monday 16-11-2020 to Sunday 22-1-2020
Promo Video - our first "spanner in the works"
Today we found out that Adam has to self-isolate due to having been on the College bus when there was someone who later tested positive for Covid-19. I am confident that we will problem-solve and find a way round it, but it is still irritating to have an unexpected problem so early in the project.
I suppose you could actually call it the second “spanner in the works” if you include Harley already shielding, but we already knew about that and had built-in a solution to that by giving Harley the role of 2nd Unit to film some cats and also Editor. We will have to rethink our shooting schedule, but I’m sure we will find ways round this, we always do since problem solving is a strength of our team,
Promo Video planning in a freezing car
On the day of Nick’s lesson this week I had no electricity in my house, which meant no Wifi. It was planned by the Electricity Board and they did give us a couple of days’ notice that we would be without electricity for the day. Due to Covid-19 (again), I couldn’t just go round to a friend’s house to use their Wifi. So – my problem-solving swung into action again, since I didn’t want to miss the lessons and important planning sessions.
I agreed with my Uncle that I could use their Wifi, which is password protected. I suggested to my Mum that we park our car outside where my Uncle lives, on their drive, and do the days’ lessons from there. I hadn’t anticipated quite how cold it would be. I knew it would be cold, I had checked the weather forecast, and we took hot drinks. My Aunt very kindly brought out hot drinks for us when they ran out. But it was REALLY cold. My Mum and I had blankets in the car as always and had taken several layers, which we needed. But it worked though, and I didn’t miss any lessons or planning meetings, which is great.
I was particularly glad that I didn’t miss the day as we did some really good planning and had really good advice from Nick. For example, to really think about your audience. We are aiming it primarily at Londoners, so the challenge is to make is glossy and special. Think about your audience. Ellie made notes, Nick commented that she would make a great AD (Assistant Director). We finalised our allocated roles, for example Harley Editor as he can’t film in person with us, Charlie to find music. Next Wednesday we plan to do location scouting. We brainstormed the Risk Assessment and Kit List. We discussed Location Scouting days as various of us have days we can’t make. Weather doesn’t look great next Weds but we can have following Weds as back up. Harley will film the cat as “wild animals”.
We discussed with Nick how to handle any potential angry members of public. We should ensure that we all wear masks, and then politely explain, to anyone who asks, what we are doing. We should also take care to not get in anyone’s way and move out of the way immediately if we ARE getting in someone’s way rather than trying to finish the shot. We should have someone keeping an eye out at all times, to ensure we are not getting in the way of any members of the public.
When I was filming my GCSE project, we used Missenden Abbey Conference Centre as one of our locations. In that instance, we had someone allocated to explain to anyone who approached that we were filming for educational purposes. Usually, we asked anybody who approached if they would mind waiting a moment until we finished the shot if we were actually rolling. Most people were most happy to wait and were often interested in what we were doing. However, we weren’t outside in cold then, and we weren’t in the middle of a pandemic. We were aware that people might not want to wait in the cold, and also members of the public may be more “jumpy” because of Covid-19. This meant that we need to take it upon ourselves to be very aware of this and be careful and considerate. Again, this reflects life on a real Film set – you have to be aware of your location and also be aware when you are filming in Public that it is most helpful to your filming if you can keep members of the public on your side.
We set our Location Scouting Day as the following Wednesday, in our own time before the days’ lesson started. We would like Adam to be there, but he will still be self-isolating at that point. We considered delaying it, but we really want to get our real filming done the day after, and Adam will be out of self-isolation that day, assuming and hoping that he doesn’t actually go down with Covid-19. We are aware of it, and already thinking of ways round it, which is helped by having a team of 6. I would much rather that Adam is present, but we will find a solution to the problem if he can’t be.
The next day, Adam emailed our Risk Assessment to our tutors regarding our location scouting plans for the next week.