Week 2, Tayjib

Producing

As soon as our group was formed, we jumped into our ideas for the very first short film in week 2 (week 1 was just introduction). This week’s short film was a No Dialogue Exercise with three themes to choose from: 1. The Chase, 2. Pickpocket, and 3. Late Again! As we got to know each other, everyone quickly threw in their ideas and we debated which one would be the best, the communication was quite good from the beginning.

Eventually we decided on Late Again! with the premise of a person attending a job interview and as he waits, he feels the urge to go to the bathroom. The interviewee has diarrhoea in the bathroom as the interviewer walks in and starts to snort cocaine. Both notice each other’s embarrassing activities while only being able to see each other’s shoes under the door separating them. As the interviewee arrives late, they realize who is standing in front of them.

When it came to distributing the roles, everyone gravitated to the ones in which they already had experience from our short films in the first semester, in order to feel more comfortable for our first shoot. Thus, I chose to be the producer, to once again put my organisational skills to the test. One of my most important tasks was the risk assessment. It is absolutely essential for every film production and assures that the cast and crew stay safe during the production and that no equipment gets damaged. It is very important to think ahead for everything that could factor into something going wrong during the production and to take precautions, so that even if something goes wrong everyone stays safe and the shoot can still be successful.

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The risk assessment in itself is not very challenging, but it is time consuming since there is a lot to consider. It is important to prepare it as good as you can. Though with every production you learn new things and get a better sense of the different risk factors and what control measures are most effective.

Another one of my tasks was the production schedule. Due to previous experience as a producer I was already familiar with the different challenges that come from the time managing aspect of a shooting schedule. However, because we only had 2 hours to film everything it was still important to carefully plan the shooting order and the time frames. We only shot in 3 locations that were within the same building, so luckily, we didn’t lose much time on the way to the next location. In the end, even though some shots took longer than expected, we still finished in time.

This week was mostly about testing the waters and learning how everyone operates. In that regard I think it was very successful, everyone was enthusiastic about the project and excited for the coming weeks. The result of our short film Black & White was also quite satisfying for our first attempt at making a film in such a short production time span. However, there is still a lot we can improve on like planning camera set-ups for the shoots more carefully and especially keeping an eye on the consistency. Getting new experience as a producer is always helpful for me and allows me to do a better and more precise job next time around. I’m looking forward to learning more about filmmaking and the different roles in the coming weeks.