Covid Issues
Covid is unfortunately playing a large part in our Year 2 FMPs this year. It has affected our projects in many ways, and we need to be mindful of it in all our parts of our projects.
Since we have not been in College for much of the Spring term, and thus unable to film using College Equipment, when we were able to go back to College, we had a lot of practical work that needed to be completed in order to be allowed to progress to our FMPs. This was particularly the case for our first week back, when we had to complete the filming and editing for our TV/News Show, and then practise for our session actually producing the show in the TV Studio and TV Gallery. This took all our first week back. This was necessary, but it all set the start date of our FMPs back, which has had a knock-on effect on our FMPs.
Covid Lockdown has also affected my opportunity to get as familiar with the Panasonic Lumix S1H 4K camera. Due to my research into this camera, I have decided that I wish to use it for my project, with the intention of filming in 4K and exporting in 1080p, so that when I am trying to line up shots for having the same actor appearing twice, I have the ability to edit the size and position of the shots. Had we been in college more, I know our tutors wanted us to have hands on experience of all the wonderful equipment that we have. We were fortunate enough to have a significant amount of new equipment at the start of this academic year but have not had as much time to try it all out. So, this means that I have had to factor test filming time into my project to be sure I will be comfortable using the Panasonic Lumix S1H 4K camera, which I would probably not have had to do without Covid. I would still have wanted to do test filming of certain shots, but I would have needed less time dedicated to familiarising myself with this camera.
However, on the other hand, it has given me practise for in the Industry, when you may find you have to familiarise yourself quickly with new filming equipment. Generally, I have found that I am able to pick up how to use new equipment pretty quickly, I am regarded as being pretty “techie” but in an ideal world I would have liked the chance to do a lot more test filming using the Panasonic Lumix S1H 4K camera to really get the best out of it.
Covid is also currently affecting the number of people who we can have as cast and crew. Because, as students, we are not part of a professional filming crew, the rules around this current Covid Lockdown apply to us. For instance, outside of College we need to stick to 6 people or less. This means that I have to choose my cast and crew carefully. I have several friends who, before all this Covid Lockdown, had offered to act in my story. Ordinarily I would have welcomed this, and I know a lot of the acting students who I could have asked too. However, under the current Covid Restrictions, I have had to think carefully about this. Meeting with friends from different schools and colleges increases the chances of catching Covid. Although the current Covid figures are coming down significantly, it is still relatively unknown what effect opening schools and colleges will have on Covid cases. I feel that I need a plan that will still work even if the Covid Restrictions don’t get relaxed or have to go backwards.