Inspirational People – COVID-19 Project Evaluation

This project has been a mixed bag for certain. Obviously, it being the first thing we have gotten to shoot all together was definitely a new experience. For the most part, Pre-Production went rather smoothly, we had to cancel our original idea we had due to the contributors we had asked for not responding to us, but we found other contributors very quickly who fitted perfectly into the centre of what the documentary was about, Inspiring artists persevering through the COVID-19 lockdown. The script came together quite quickly and easily, Storyboards and shot lists too and consent forms from the contributors were signed very quickly.

So, then it came to test shooting in our LED Lighting workshops, which definitely helped us work out some of the troubles we may face whilst shooting indoors, especially with lighting. We rehearsed the interviews from the script with someone taking on the role of the interviewee and the interviewer. We decided on using very bright white LED lights for indoor scenes as it helped make the interviewee stand out more in the overall look of the shot. We also realised in the second workshop we had that we would also have to limit the amount of natural light coming through the window as this would have overexposed the shot. We felt prepared for the indoor shoot.

However, we did not get the chance to do any test shoots for the outdoor segment with contributor Karl Fletcher. Our producer went to the location we would be filming at though and examined the area and made rough plans on how we could combat the outdoor conditions. Via not using any external lights and using natural light, directing Passers-by to go around the camera and not in front of it and equipping the interviewee with a clip-on microphone.

Overall, so far, we were persevering. Soon after though we experienced sudden cancellations for locations for our contributor Zoe Harisis. We were told that we wouldn’t be able to use her Dance studio to shoot in, so we started to look for other dance studio locations to shoot in but then suddenly the space became free again and we got permission to shoot there. We gained permission from the park we were to shoot Karl’s segment in quite smoothly due to our producer already knowing the owner of the park. A few hiccups but in the grand scheme of things, it turned out just fine.

 

Then it came down to shooting and all of a sudden, things changed. We (I, the director and the camera operator) were told by the producer that we were to do a zoom interview on the weekend of the first of May, I was fine with this, but I had told the producer I couldn’t do the Friday leading up to it due to a prior engagement. Suddenly though, the producer contacted us and said they had moved the shoot to the Friday in which I said I would be unavailable. I told them that this was very inconvenient for me and asked if it could maybe be moved to the following Friday as I am the director of the shoot and it is crucial that I am there, to which I didn’t get a response, so I proposed the idea of coming in via the location I was at to direct. Which was agreed upon.

However, the location I was at when it was time to do the shoot didn’t have a good wi-fi connection, so I informed the producer via text that one of them could do this shoot and receive a co-director credit. It was annoying but I was slightly happy that it wasn’t a in person shoot.

That weekend we shot our interview at the dance studio as planned, which for the most part went perfectly. The contributors understood what I the director wanted which was good, all filming went well, we got some very good b-roll and an interview that was overall interesting and engaging. We did sadly come into some problems with the audio device we used to record which seemed okay at the time but when it got to the editing stage, the interviewee’s voices were very quiet, and a loud fuzz could be heard over the top of it. Which I thought was a dampener on some really good footage.

Then the next week I was scheduled to have my second dose of my Vaccination for the coronavirus, it was set to be a few days before but annoyingly got delayed to the day before shooting. I told the rest of my team in advanced that I may feel some side effects and they may have to come up with a backup plan in case I couldn’t attend. Annoyingly, this ended up being the case and I went to tell my team but before I did, I also noticed that the producer had changed the time of shooting to one hour earlier on the day of shooting which I had said previously I couldn’t do. It was also inconvenient for the camera operator as they had also already expressed before. I obviously however wasn’t able to go regardless because of the state I was in. I told my team and said I could Phone into set like before.

 

Later, I received word from people on set that after I would call in to give my directions for the scene that the producer would make nasty and spiteful comments about me in front of our contributors and team. I personally found this very offensive and embarrassing as it wasn’t anything I could change due to it being medically related.

We had a group conversation the following week where I told the producer that I had been hurt and embarrassed by their words and the way they made a bad image of me at the shoot, to which I received a very backhanded apology where they tried to justify saying nasty and spiteful comments about me. We left it there as I knew this was a situation, I would not get a positive conclusion to.

The edit we got wasn’t the best but probably the best we could do with what we had. We tried to fix the audio for both shoots but weren’t able to change it as much as we would have liked. The final product also turned out completely different to the original intended vision I had as the director, due to me being constantly given alternative dates and facing personal medical complications. I think the segment with Zoe does have some essence of what was originally intended to be there as I was present for the shoot, but it is mostly lost in the edit.

Overall, I think we did have for the most part a strong Pre-production but a very messy and quite frankly disheartening production and post-production which left me feeling cast out of the project. All in all, this could have been a lot better.