Debbie - Filming and building

Managing set build / filming days 

I have literally no idea where to begin with this post, i spent so much time doing the paper working and planning for this film, and then on set had to cover so many different roles at any one time that i cant even think where to start. 

From a producers point of view i felt like i did the best that i could to orginise the project. I had scheduled every little detail that could happen with the film down to a t. I had so many things to think about and concentrate on that the whole processes was so stressful and i needed like 7 other people to cover the roles i was doing. 

As far as managing the build i created a group chat with all crew members in and sent them call sheets, scheduals and asked them for food requirements. I planed out all the tasks that needed to be done, how long they would take and when we would do them. I dvided these tasks up into teams so we could get them done as fast as possible ... but like everything how i planned it was not exactly how it happened. Due to the  chris pinnock not being in G12 half of the time we needed him all of the building and plans got delayed meaning we had to try and do bits and bobs of what we could do while we waited for  him.  This then meant that the whole process from day 1 was messed up and behind meaning we all had to stay later than planned. How ever we all clubbed in as a team doing what we could do when we could do it to get it finished for filming. 

Whilst building the set i also had to orginise the props, contact actors, cook food, finish paper work, get equiptment ETC ETC so it was all a bit of a mad rush to me. HOWEVER as i went into so much detail and planning with the paperwork, despite being behind schedule due to something not our fault all of the set and design fell into place as planned looking exactly like the concept art. 

Managing the filming days again i planed and scheduled everthing including file transfer times and things like that.  Due to the complexity of the project the scedual was really hard to plan as James could only be here from monday - thursday, we could only have the waitress 1 day, kesia had to leave by 4 every day, we only had the green screen / VFX equipment from monday - thursday morning AND had to keep on track of the continuity of jarvis as at some point he gets a coffee poured over him. SO trying to find a ballence between all of these things whilst planning around the file transfer times of the bloody camera card was an actual night mare. 

Once we had all that down we then had to work out what order to do the shots, trying to film all angles in one long take but had to take into account how much file space that would take up. 

Despite this we some how had a finished scedual that fitted all these elements in, but it was very tight, very complex and would be a challenge to stick to. 

Filming 

This was the most stressfull thing i have ever witnessed.  Its one thing planning and trying to work out all the complexities of this shoot, but then executing them and trying to not mess up as there wasnt really room for error was so tiring.  Every day was tense as as soon as one thing slipped up the whole day went out of sync.  I was not only trying to keep on track of the pre production, 1Ad but also doing make up, looking after actors, sorting props, FEEDING PEOPLE AND FILMING BEHIND THE SCENES.  There for one person trying to manage all of these things in one go meant that at some where at some point no matter how much paper or how well you plan it something was going to go wrong. For the most part everything was fine there was the ocasional slip ups with props at the wrong time but i literally needed 7 hands to do everything, but we managed the best we could. Everyone on the set was working 400% and there was no one sat around not working. 

But... 

Because we all wanted to have fun on this project for the most part we tried to keep everything up beat. We had inside jokes with each other, some one was allways laughing some where, i made a hot pot, it was nice, we watched childrens films in the breaks and danced to music when we could. So allthought tense while filming and al though reallllly!!!!!! stressful it was a fun way to end our 3 years at university.