Assignment 2 Reflection

The other day, my partner for our second assignment for my video class, Lisa and I shot our narrative. The catch with this project was that we had to attempt each shot once on our tape. This turned to be incredibly difficult and time-consuming as we had to make each shot perfect, therefore, we had to plan each and everything before. This was part of pre-production.

I never realized how difficult it was to do the pre-production part of film making. We created a storyboard yes, but by the end of it, we had to get much of the lighting correct and in developing our skills, we had to make sure everything was on purpose, which was a lot to consider. I have found online a pre-production checklist that I wish I found before that would've helped me with this and would be helpful to anyone else: here. The list is as follows:

1. Make a Production Schedule: making notes on when to shoot and taking notes on the way and planning carefully on when to edit and such
   
2. Crew up: make sure you have all the crew members you need for this
3. Visualize your project's "look": the mood, tone and colours of your piece
4. Find and secure locations: make sure you have access to the location you want to use, especially on the day of your shooting
5. Casting: age-appropriate and decent actors (as I learned during our first project) makes your grade go up
6. Production Design: theme, props, set, etc. that have to be taken into consideration
7. Prepare costumes, props and set
8. Developing/shooting the script: the POV, what you want to establish, your "super-objective"
9. Floor plan/lighting plot for each location: this was IDEAL for our shoot. Franci mentioned in class that we should make a floor plan and she is very much right about it! It was so important for us to know exactly where the lights were placed and conscious of what can be moved and what cannot.
10. Make a storyboard: I can't go into a shoot without having one!
11. Make a Shooting Schedule: similar to the Production Schedule, but the actual shoot!

Having a list like this was vital and I will be making use of such in the future. Especially when you have such a short deadline, this is very helpful. Time is of the essence and in order for me to do my best, I need to organize my time and plan out each of the things on that checklist in order to be successful.