Job Roles

Within our group we have separated ourselves into four separate job roles, each of us choosing the role most relevant to our interests. These four roles included:

1. Direction
2. Camera
3. Production Designer
4. Lighting & Sound

Once being assigned as the director of our project, I decided to research into my job role on http://www.skillset.org.uk/;

Director's responsibilities:
-Write the script

-Develop a vision for the finished film with most practical route to achieving it

-Selecting the right cast, crew and locations

-Directing rehearsals and performances of the actors

-Managing technical aspects of filming - including camera, sound, lighting, design and special effects

-Work closely with editors through post-production

-Keeping the team motivated to produce the best possible results

Director's skills:
-An artistic vision and creative skills

-Committed and passionate about filmmaking

-Strong and confident leader

-Able to make decisions but also able to collaborate with others

-Excellent communication and interpersonal skills

-Able to remain calm and think clearly under pressure

-Understanding of the filmmaking process

Tips for directors:

http://actioncutprint.com/film-directing-tips/#10 - Advice on making short films/Communicating to the crew/Dealing with actors who change dialogue:

-Know your own script: structure/characters/space/plots

-Know the message you want to speak with your film

-Know methods and approaches to presenting your message: Attention to every little detail

-Understand the camera functions/acting techniques/costume and make-up designs to communicate better with your team in their terms

-If an actor wants to improvise the dialogue, you need to make sure that they understand fully the emotion and the detail of the scene

Personal input to our production:

Narrative: Our short film has a linear basis, which we decided to use to keep the story simple and flowing. I felt that if it was made non-linear, in the time we have, it would be too complex and not make any sense.

We have also followed conventions of short films, such as 'About a Girl', with our characters. In About a Girl the film focuses on the life of one singular character and how her life is affected. We decided use this convention in our film with our character Lily, as the breakdown and dysfunction focuses on the affects on her life - moving from a student working hard to a child with her mind, lost and elsewhere.

Creative style: With being the director of the film, there were many creative aspects that I had to take into consideration. These have included, giving my characters a clear enough idea of what sort of emotion we need to present the message, giving an input on designing lighting and costume: For example, what colour gels we would need for particular shots - Shots with Leon including a gradual darker and darker blue gel. Creative styles that we decided upon in our film, using camera work and editing, included our jump cuts. We planned on using jump cuts to add emphasis to certain shots - For example when Leon is picking up his knife.

Genre: Our short film would be classed in the genre of Drama, which includes realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Again, I would compare our film genre to About a Girl, this is because it plays on the dysfunction of families, similarly to our film. Dyfunctional families is a contemporary issue, which many teenagers may find themselves self-relating to: suggesting that the characters are realistic and that it is a hard-hitting emotional theme.