TRANSITION UNIT: Project Evaluation

Pre Production

From the early stages of the project, we knew we wanted to do a comedy as a group with Alex as the writer / director, myself as the director of photography and Melissa as the editor.

We quickly settled on the idea of doing a mockumentary as Alex was keen to write this and myself and Melissa had no objections. Initially, we were aiming to do the mockumentary in the style of Cunk on Britain, however, this was too difficult to write without completely imitating the original source material. Following this, we then decided to take The Supervet as inspiration and turn this into a mockumentary rather than a serious documentary.

I looked into The Supervet in order to familiarise myself with the source material and see how this was shot. My research into The Supervet mainly focused on how the camera, lighting, colours and mise en scene are used to establish the medical / clinical theme of the documentary. I found they did this through using cool colour tones and harsh lighting - I used this for inspiration into how to dress the set, light the scene and colour the scene. I decided against using the filming style of The Supervet as this felt too serious (as it does fall into the documentary genre). I also felt that using this filming style would cause the viewer to miss some of the key comical bits in our script, therefore I decided to shoot Vet-Man in a similar style to Come Fly With Me.

Come Fly With Me is filmed in a very similar way to the drama genre yet it is classed as a mockumentary. As the mockumentary heavily features interviews / characters taking to the camera, it makes more sense to shoot the entire programme through these lower angled shots (instead of filming the scenes through high angle, fly on the wall style shots). Come Fly With Me imitates the typical sequences and actuality seen in documentaries as characters are seen walking through the airport / performing their job roles as well as being interviewed. Using lower angled shots allows the audience to see the facial expressions and the reactions of the characters which is where a lot of the comedy within Come Fly With Me lies - as the script for Vet-Man also displayed that a lot of the comedy was to be shown through the expressions and reactions of the characters, I opted to film Vet-Man in a similar manner.

As well as researching programmes in the documentary / mockumentary genre, I also looked into my role as director of photography, camera settings, light movement and colour theory. This research gave me a lot to think about with the test shoot.

I used the test shoot to experiment with the camera settings in order to find out which kit and which settings gave the best look. I found that DSLRs worked best if we were going to go for handheld shots as they were easy to move in steady motions. I experimented with lighting for the interview sections and surgery section as well in order to work out the visuals for these scenes. The test shoot was very useful as I found that in the footage filmed, I used a too high ISO which meant the footage was grainy and poor quality. This meant I could prevent this being an issue in the actual shoot. This lead me to create a standard set of camera settings to use in the shoot: ISO200, shutter speed 1/30 and aperture f/5.0 - I then manipulated the settings from here to slightly adjust the look of the shot, however, most of the footage was kept to these settings. I also discovered the best way to light the interviews was with two soft box lights as this created an even light across the interview subject's face. I also discovered that the best way to light the surgery scene was to use a small LED light from above on a high setting and a small LED light from below on a low setting to create a harsh light to emulate that of the lights used in an operating theatre.

As well as working out the camera and lighting settings, following this test shoot I was able to make a shot list as I was able to figure out what sort of shots would be needed to convey the narrative.

As well as preparing my work as director of photography, I had to do my part as producer (as we all decided to share the role). As director of photography, it made most sense for me to find the locations as these would be vital to the visual look of the film. I performed location recces which enabled me to see what sort of lighting I would need and also helped to inform Alex's order of the shoot day as we needed to film certain scenes when the sun was in certain places. We also worked together to find the cast and props for the shoot.


Production

Once all the pre production material was ready and the test shoots had been performed, we could shoot the piece.

Due to testing the equipment and settings in the test shoot, I knew exactly how I wanted to shoot the mockumentary which made the shoot run quite smoothly. However, towards the end of the day, we did begin to run out of time meaning that some of the shots we had planned to film were more rushed than we intended and some vital shots were missed (e.g. the blood splatter in the surgery scene).

As director of photography, I was in charge of the visual look of the shoot - I controlled the camera settings and the lighting and helped the director to dress the set to help the visual identity of the project.

Post Production

As well as being in charge of the visual look whilst shooting the footage, it was also my role to aid the colour correction / colour grading process. I sat with Melissa and told her how to alter the colours in order to give the project the desired medical / clinical look.

Strengths

- Performing research into the documentary / mockumentary genre meant that I knew exactly what I wanted to test in the test shoots - I tested the framing for the interviews using the style of framing seen in The Supervet and Come Fly With Me. Looking into existing programmes highlighted what shots are generally used within this genre of filmmaking and how I could use these in our project. Interview subjects are generally sat to one side of the frame facing the opposite side (as per the rule of thirds) - I made sure to do this in our project. The research into these programmes also helped to display that colour often reflects the subject matter of the documentary, therefore I emulated this in our project.

- Doing the test shoot meant that I found the best piece of kit for the project and was able to figure out the best settings to use and how I wanted to set up the lights prior to the shoot. Through doing the test shoot I found that DSLRs worked best as they enabled easier and steadier movement for scenes such as "Sheila" and Coco playing in the park. I also found the best settings to use were a low ISO, slow shutter speed and wide aperture. The test shoot turned out grainy and poor quality as I used an ISO that was too high - I was able to rectify this in time for our shoot so that our actual footage was not grainy. Testing the dramatic lighting for the surgery scene was also a strength of the project as I feel this scene turned out very well because of it. We were beginning to run out of time in the location, but as I knew exactly how I wanted to set up the lights I was still able to get the desired visual look for this scene.

- As well as good lighting for this scene, I think the colour grading turned out well (as well as being turning out well throughout the project). I worked with Melissa to manipulate the colour of this scene to be cooler in tone in order to reflect the medical / clinical theme of the surgery scene. To enhance the lighting in the scene, I also increased the exposure so that the lighting looked even more clinical. This works well in contrast to the warm toned scenes outside of the consultation room / surgery. The colour grading through the rest of the project helps to give it a naturally lit look which is common in the documentary genre as cinematographers in this genre are primarily concerned with capturing reality and therefore the colours of the footage should match this.

- One of the biggest worries for us was to find a believable location - somewhere that looked believable as a vet's consultation room and operating theatre. Fortunately, we were able to find quite a plain location which we were able to dress in order to transform it into the desired set - the props (such as the posters) really helped allude to the idea that this location was a veterinarian practice.

Weaknesses

- As it is a very common convention of the documentary genre (and is seen in one of our inspirations; The Supervet) it would have been good to get a few fly on the wall style shots. These would have been good in the waiting room scenes as it would have seemed more like the actuality footage seen in the documentary genre and would therefore have looked more like reality.

- As I decided to go on the tripod instead of handheld for the surgery scene, I missed the blood splatter on the vet's face. This was an important shot which we ended up having to cut around and use other shots to compensate for this. In future, I will have confidence in my abilities and go hand held to ensure the important action is not missed.

- Part of the reason that I missed the blood splatter was that we were running out of time and needed to pick up the pace. Rushing meant that I made the poor decision of leaving the camera on the tripod for this scene and therefore missed the blood splatter. Other shots also felt rushed meaning that the quality of the shots was not as high as I had originally intended. In future, we need to better schedule our time and stick to it to ensure we don't have to rush scenes.

- Whilst DSLRs seemed to be the best option in terms of filming moving shots steadily and easily, they did not provide the best quality images. In future, I would like to use the Panasonic cameras in order to improve the visual quality of the product. In future shoots I will test out equipment that will help to film steady handheld footage with the Panasonic so that we can use this kit - instead of opting for a piece of kit which is easy to use for handheld but doesn't provide the best quality images.

What did I learn?

- Colour is important for emotion / theme - it can change the mood of the shot completely. The surgery scene before colour grading look dull and boring and it was not clear that the vet was in an operating theatre. By brightening the shot and adding a cool blue hue, the medical theme was established.

- Exposure important for quality - the test shoot footage was poor quality and grainy due to using a too high ISO. The footage in our shoot was better as I rectified this by using a lower ISO and then compensated for the low exposure by using a slower shutter speed (1/30) and a wider aperture (f/5.0)

- Lighting is important for both the quality of the shot and the mood created. I used soft box lights to create even lighting in order to create a clear, bright image in the consultation room - this shows how light can be used for the quality of an image. I then used two smaller LED panels to light the surgery scene in a dramatic way to establish the clinical theme - this shows how light can be used to create mood.

- Working with animals can be difficult but went a lot more smoothly than anticipated. Regular breaks need to be taken to ensure the animal doesn't become stressed. The animal should also be trained (and ideally their trainer be present) so that they follow commands so that the shoot runs smoothly.

- Sound is also important to the overall quality - we should have used different sound equipment in order to improve the sound quality instead of the rode microphones as this lead to a lot of background noise.

What could I develop?

- I could develop my time management skills as this would prevent scenes becoming rushed and making poor choices which results in vital shots being missed. In future I should make a stringent schedule which should be determined by how long shots took to film in the test shoot. In the test shoot I focused on the equipment / settings I would be using in order to create the visual look of the project, however, I didn't note how long everything took to test which would have been a good idea.

- In future I should experiment further with kit choices so that we end up with the best equipment to capture the best quality footage. I would like to use the Panasonics in future so that the image quality is the best it can be - I will need to test accompanying equipment / accessories to make the panasonic easier to use for handheld shots if we opt to do a similar project for our final major project.