Professional Practice

Preparing for my role

I decided to take on the role as producer as this is a role that I was yet to try. I feel I am quite an organised person and wanted to put this into practice. Initially, I was quite nervous to take on the role of producer as I didn't know exactly what I needed to do. I had a brief understanding from lectures and seminars from our course but when it came down to actually starting the role, I felt a bit out-of-depth.  So in order to prepare for my role as producer, I researched into my responsibilities. When taking on the role, I knew that I would be responsible for looking after my team and organising anything we needed for our film, such as permission for location, risk assessments, etc... After researching further into my role, I became more confident and determined to make sure our film ran smoothly and was a success. As Creative Skillset states the producer "steer the film from beginning to completion," so instead of feeling insecure with this role I knew that researching and asking former producers would help me feel more positive. To make sure I knew all the information I could before starting the role, I also spoke to the producer of my former documentary group last term for some advice, in which she helped me by stating the paperwork that needed to be completed on the producers behalf. This particularly helped me to write the proposal for our film. Before I asked, I wasn't confident in writing one as I have never done this before. At first I found it hard as I was unsure what to include apart from the plot of our film, but after my former producers help and looking back at lectures/seminars from our Portfolio Production (CINE1079, 2017) and Introduction to TV Studio (CINE1049, 2017) course I was able to complete this with more confidence.




Production Paperwork 

To make sure everything was accessible for the whole group, such as my production paperwork and other group members work, I made a google drive so all work could be viewed by the group. This was the best way for our group to see when meetings were, the sound ideas, the shot list and various other important documents.

As producer of the group, it was my job to prepare most of the paperwork. One of the first things I did was write up our one page proposal. This included writing a description of our narrative, style and target audience. The purpose of writing a proposal is for potential investors of the film to see what we intend to make and to attract them to fund the project. It also ties all the creative elements together so it creates a visual representation of the film. Explaining our approach to editing and cinematographic style outlines our visual aim and look.

I made a schedule for the dates and topics of our weekly meetings so the whole group was aware and so they could let me know in advance if they couldn't make it. After we had a meeting, I added on notes about what we talked about and tasks set for the team to complete by the next meeting. On the schedule were the dates we filmed and editing, also when the project was due in. This schedule was subject to change at times, especially for the filming and editing days as we needed to see when our cast and crew would be available at the same time. I made sure to keep this schedule up to date and once we finalised the filming and editing days, added this to the schedule.



I also made a schedule for the filming day. This was to help the team out with timing of the day. It mapped out what should be happening when. It is important to have a schedule for the filming day as the schedule made allows for the allowance of the budget. Even though we have no funding for this project, as producer I have understood that if our film did have investors, we would have to stick tightly to the schedule as there would be no budget for running over. On the day of our shoot, I made sure we were on track with the schedule I had made to practice this.

I also made a list of delegated responsibilities and a crew contact list. This helped identify the role of each member and what their individual responsibilities were, and how to get in contact with each other.

Before filming at the location, I prepared a Health and Safety Risk Assessment. As producer, it was my job to assess the risks we could come across whilst filming. This helps the cast and crew to remember to be safe on set. I've learned from this course that having a risk assessment is very useful and important. It helps you become more aware of your surroundings as well as look out for others, especially as producer. I feel this is something I have carried with me whilst working on other projects.

On the day of filming, a call sheet, location agreement form and consent forms were signed. We already had verbal permission to film at our chosen location but I needed to get a location agreement signed for the production paperwork. We needed this written confirmation to prove they agreed to us filming there. The consent forms were signed by all of the cast to prove they gave permission to be filmed.