Final Evaluation
Overall, I have found this a very challenging unit adapting to different ways of working as well as listening to multiple different opinions regarding the same piece of work. I believe we worked well as a team and helped each other to overcome any doubts and uncertainties together which allowed us to create a piece of work that we can all be proud of.
I really enjoyed shooting the footage for the piece as not only was it amazing to be able to hold a vulture, it was also incredibly interesting to listen to the interviewees on how passionate they are about what they do and how they are changing the lives of the birds across the globe. I have learnt from this shoot that "you can never have too much footage" as when we came to edit we found that we had used most of our shots in previous parts of the documentary. On the first day of filming I think we learnt from our mistakes and by taking 4 cameras with us (2 of those being our own) we were able to get so much more coverage allowing us several more edit opportunities.
This unit has been my first time working with an actor from Casting Call Pro as in the past I have had actors that I already knew from outside of uni that volunteered themselves to be in previous films. My experience of working with Darren has been a good one, he has been very professional when working with us and seemed to enjoy the experience we gave to him equally as much as we have. He experienced his first time in a recording booth alongside us so it was a nice relaxed environment as we were able to learn together how the system works and what Darren has to do to help us ensure that we got the perfect commentary sound, with the help of Fergus. I will definitely be using Casting Call Pro again in future films.
The preparation stage was relatively stressful in terms of keeping in contact with Jo as they are so busy at the Hawking Centre it was difficult to arrange appropriate times to come down and shoot. We were limited to how much time we could spend at the gardens as we often had to wait until after 2pm before they would be free. This wasn't to much of an issue however if we were able to go in the mornings we could have gotten a lot more footage.
Editing the film together has been rather difficult because the narrative isn't set in stone until you decide what pictures you want where. We found ourselves using our transcripts more as the scripted guidelines so that we had some way of knowing what direction the documentary was heading. The script we originally had changed so drastically on the day of the first shoot it wasn't worth using as a guideline because so little of it was used due to changes made by the owner of the Hawking Centre. I have enjoyed editing the film together however I think to learn next time is to just be prepared for absolutely anything when you're on the shoot and to instantly be thinking "how will this cut together" while filming.
As a team I think we have worked well together. No one had a set particular role, we all shared and helped out where and when we could. I took the main bulk of the pre production as I was the one in contact with the location and the presenter but we all shared out the paperwork such as the risk assessments and shot lists etc. I have found that my communication skills have improved as I was originally not strong enough to give a definitive decision to someone however now, I feel I am more confident and am able to be assertive and prepared to answer any questions an outsider may have regarding what we are doing.
I think that the location workshop to Faversham has helped a lot with my confidence because lots of people would come up to us to ask us what it is that we are doing and why and I was able to give them a professional and polite answer as to why we were filming there.
We had some major issues with sound on our shoot which unfortunately cannot be fixed in post like we had originally hoped. We had to film inside of the Hawking Centre due to heavy rainfall and hail storms which meant that the birds were noisier than usual as they were frightened of the thunder that echoed through the old war time tin bomb shelter which is what the Hawking Centre is made from. Baring this in mind, it created an echo in the atmosphere making the bells on the birds louder along with the rain and the birds squarks. We did check the weather on the day that we went and it reported sun all day however you can never really predict the weather in Britain so unfortunately this was out of our hands.
Occasionally we found that the sound was peaking a little which has affected the sound of our piece making it slightly unforgiving when watching so for next time I will ensure that all the audio is positioned to the correct place and that the levels are adjusted often to maintain a high standard.
I have really enjoyed this unit and the challenges that have been thrown my way because I believe they have enabled me to learn more about what it takes to produce a film like this and how much dedication, time and effort it takes.
I really enjoyed shooting the footage for the piece as not only was it amazing to be able to hold a vulture, it was also incredibly interesting to listen to the interviewees on how passionate they are about what they do and how they are changing the lives of the birds across the globe. I have learnt from this shoot that "you can never have too much footage" as when we came to edit we found that we had used most of our shots in previous parts of the documentary. On the first day of filming I think we learnt from our mistakes and by taking 4 cameras with us (2 of those being our own) we were able to get so much more coverage allowing us several more edit opportunities. 
This unit has been my first time working with an actor from Casting Call Pro as in the past I have had actors that I already knew from outside of uni that volunteered themselves to be in previous films. My experience of working with Darren has been a good one, he has been very professional when working with us and seemed to enjoy the experience we gave to him equally as much as we have. He experienced his first time in a recording booth alongside us so it was a nice relaxed environment as we were able to learn together how the system works and what Darren has to do to help us ensure that we got the perfect commentary sound, with the help of Fergus. I will definitely be using Casting Call Pro again in future films.The preparation stage was relatively stressful in terms of keeping in contact with Jo as they are so busy at the Hawking Centre it was difficult to arrange appropriate times to come down and shoot. We were limited to how much time we could spend at the gardens as we often had to wait until after 2pm before they would be free. This wasn't to much of an issue however if we were able to go in the mornings we could have gotten a lot more footage.
Editing the film together has been rather difficult because the narrative isn't set in stone until you decide what pictures you want where. We found ourselves using our transcripts more as the scripted guidelines so that we had some way of knowing what direction the documentary was heading. The script we originally had changed so drastically on the day of the first shoot it wasn't worth using as a guideline because so little of it was used due to changes made by the owner of the Hawking Centre. I have enjoyed editing the film together however I think to learn next time is to just be prepared for absolutely anything when you're on the shoot and to instantly be thinking "how will this cut together" while filming.
As a team I think we have worked well together. No one had a set particular role, we all shared and helped out where and when we could. I took the main bulk of the pre production as I was the one in contact with the location and the presenter but we all shared out the paperwork such as the risk assessments and shot lists etc. I have found that my communication skills have improved as I was originally not strong enough to give a definitive decision to someone however now, I feel I am more confident and am able to be assertive and prepared to answer any questions an outsider may have regarding what we are doing.
I think that the location workshop to Faversham has helped a lot with my confidence because lots of people would come up to us to ask us what it is that we are doing and why and I was able to give them a professional and polite answer as to why we were filming there.
We had some major issues with sound on our shoot which unfortunately cannot be fixed in post like we had originally hoped. We had to film inside of the Hawking Centre due to heavy rainfall and hail storms which meant that the birds were noisier than usual as they were frightened of the thunder that echoed through the old war time tin bomb shelter which is what the Hawking Centre is made from. Baring this in mind, it created an echo in the atmosphere making the bells on the birds louder along with the rain and the birds squarks. We did check the weather on the day that we went and it reported sun all day however you can never really predict the weather in Britain so unfortunately this was out of our hands. Occasionally we found that the sound was peaking a little which has affected the sound of our piece making it slightly unforgiving when watching so for next time I will ensure that all the audio is positioned to the correct place and that the levels are adjusted often to maintain a high standard.
I have really enjoyed this unit and the challenges that have been thrown my way because I believe they have enabled me to learn more about what it takes to produce a film like this and how much dedication, time and effort it takes.
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