Production roles

It is important for people to be allocated to specific roles as it allows people to focus solely on their roles, allowing for greater execution, if one person is responsible for two or three jobs then they will do them to a better quality compared to if they had more roles to do, also if something goes wrong there is one person designated to the job that can take the blame.

Producers - Alfie Harris

Director - Danny Wheeler

Actors - Amy Sowerby, Danny Wheeler and Alfie Harris

Director of photography - Danny Wheeler

Music producer - Amy Sowerby

Screenplay writer - Danny Wheeler

MES co-ordinator - Alfie Harris

Editor - Amy Sowerby

During a group meeting we discussed the roles each of us would take, the first role, the producer, was given to Alfie Harris, we believed that he would suit this role extremely well due to his great organisation of equipment, good knowledge of the area of filming and due to his previous involvement in GCSE media, all of theses combined made us decide that he could fulfil the role of the producer, due to me and Amy being new to the media course. Alfie has to make sure that all equipment is ready for filming during agreed times on our filming schedule, he also has to decide on the setting we shall use, this is important as it takes a big part of filming off of me and Amy and allows one designated person to decide this with some input from the other group members if needed, he filled this role very well, his brilliant organisation of equipment, etc helped him partake in this role and his knowledge of the area was a big asset as well.

I was chosen to be director due to it being convenient, firstly I had a vision in my head of what I wanted and how I wanted it done, due to me being the director of photography as well it was easier for me to do this as I could place all the actors where I wanted them and help create conventions of the thriller in the scenes we wanted, also I knew where to position characters where the audience would focus on them, all of this made filming a lot more efficient as we did not have to keep retaking shots due to it being a poor shot, I feel I completed this role successfully as our scenes were successful in what we wanted to create and the narrative was followed correctly.

Me, Alfie Harris and Amy Sowerby were all actors in the thriller sequence, we have all created our own characters to fit into the sequence, this allows us to know our characters inside and out, therefore we can act out our characters extremely well and due to all of us being actors we do not rely on one person being available to shoot scenes, if one actor is busy then the others can still proceed with filming, also it creates, suspense, surprise, shock and enigma due to having more characters and variety, we all fulfilled our roles successfully and created these conventions where needed.

I was the director of photography, this was linked with my other roles, also I have previous experience with the camera so it was decided I was best for the job, also my character rarely features in the sequence so we decided that I should be the director of photography, I filled this role well and used the camera successfully, creating different angles, shots and movements effectively, I got used to the camera quickly and created suspense, surprise, shock and enigma well.

Amy was given the role of music producer, she had a clear idea of what sounds she wanted along with the scenes we were creating, this allowed us to quickly get sound editing done as we knew exactly what we wanted, me and Alfie put in input if we felt another sound would be more suited or effective for the scene but this was rare, Amy also took music GCSE so was experienced in this aspect, she knew exactly what to do and how to download sound/where to download it from, she was successful in her role and I have no complaints, she used sound very effectively and knew the exact points that would cause suspense, shock, surprise and enigma, engaging the audience successfully.

The group decided I should be screenplay writer, this was because of my clear idea of what I wanted the sequence to look like, I had the idea set out in my head, I knew when I wanted to create suspense, shock, surprise and enigma, I also knew the characters if everyone well, this allowed me to demonstrate each characters characteristics well in the shots and help the audience build a relationship with them, by doing this we can engage the audience into watching the sequence, I feel I fulfilled this role well, I knew what I wanted from the narrative and got it.

Alfie was the MES co-ordinator we decided to give him this role due to his superb organisation and his knowledge of the area we were filming in, it was his idea to film where we filmed the sequence and it was a great setting to film in and had everything we needed fir our filming, this allowed for a better quality of filming as it became more realistic and engaging due to the setting being what the audience imagined it to be like, also our target audience claimed that a forest is the most desirable place to film a thriller and the forest we filmed at matched the description, Alfie done this role extremely well and  helped improve the quality of filming massively by sorting out all of the mise en scene.

The final role of editing was given to Amy, she knows how to edit far better than me and Alfie, although we are capable of editing during her absense, she is the main editor and knows what effects to use in which shots to make it as effective on the audience as possible, me and Alfie have an input on this as well and have mostly agreed with Amys decisions, although some we have decided to use a different editing style as it creates a different effect that we think is needed, also some of the effects are used to create a relationship between the audience and the character as well as suspense, shock, surprise and enigma, I feel she has fulfilled this role successfully and knows what she is doing, she has created effects within the audience successfully in scenes we wanted to do this.

I feel I was successful with my roles of director, director of photography and screenplay writer, I positioned the others well, this was easy for me as I was behind the camera so could see where the best positioning for the actors to be was, I also done well with the role of director of photography, due to my experience with cameras I was the best man for the job and carried it out well, creating some great shots and angles, I feel like my role as an actor was not as good as the other roles, I was not sure what to do and due to being behind the camera the majority of the time, was unsure where to stand.

Amy also fulfilled her role as actor, music producer and editor successfully, she completed these roles exceptionally well during filming, as an actor she done well, due to the camera constantly being on her it was hard but she acted well and created the effects needed, she done well as music producer as she knew exactly what she wanted and where to find it, she also knew what was needed to create certain effects on the audience which was important, finally as an editor she knew exactly what was needed for each shot and where it was and how it created the desired effect on the audience, she was much better at editing than me and alfie so it made sense for her to take this role.

Alfie was very good in his roles of producer, MES coordinator and actor, alfie was a great producer and MES coordinator, he knew the area we were filming well so knew the best places for each scene, also he knew exactly what costumes everyone needed and where to find them, he was also a very good actor, when on screen he done what was asked and created shock, surprise, suspense and enigma well.

Overall our filming was extremely successful, we finished our sequence and edited it, it did not turn out fully as planned as all of us had different schedules it was difficult to film, we managed to finish it just in time but could not get everything done, for example we struggled to get a soundtrack to use throughout the sequence, also we did not have a mask during the time we filmed so the enigma was much more difficult to create, we created a lot of shock, surprise and suspense in our sequence and engaged the audience, I feel like I should not be an actor for the real thing as it is slightly confusing for the audience as it is unclear how my character links in.