Producer for Project 2: A Summary

Producing for this narrative project was a very involved job, but I had a blast doing it. I organized our preliminary meeting which went well, helped the Director of Photography make the shot list and created the budget, checked out equipment, kept on top of all the required paperwork, helped facilitate good communication amongst crew members, ran errands, had charge of the slate and pitched in during the filming process, and more. We spent two weekends filming, determined, like our director, to make the best film we could. Overall, this was a rewarding experience for me, though a stressful one. Organization has never been a primary strength of mine so I was a bit frazzled trying to keep track of everything but ultimately, I feel I did a very good job. I pleasantly proved to myself that I am a bit more capable even in this particular line of work than I had feared I would be.

Revisualization for Project 2

Our second project in this class required a number of previsualization assignments including overhead camera diagrams, storyboards, a budget, script and shot list among other things. I, as producer, dealt primarily with the bookkeeping/budget and, with Rory the DP’s aid, I helped craft the shot list. The bookkeeping/budget was a very simple excel document. I listed various items, but didn’t have much to do in the way of accounting. Our group’s director, Blake, had the fortuitous happenstance of being quite acquainted with a local theater troupe who agreed to provide us with our costumes and actors quite free of charge. Needless to say, we all appreciated this immensely and I found my job of budgeting and bookkeeping an easy assignment. Rory and I then made the shot list based on Blake’s storyboards and Rory’s marked shooting script. It too, was a fairly straightforward task, and the experience left me distinctly impressed with Rory’s flair for excel spreadsheets. We then filmed over the ensuing weekend. The previsualization materials were extremely useful in planning our time efficiently and effectively. We filmed everything we needed over the course of a single afternoon. I doubt we would have been so proficient without the preparation the previsualization assignments afforded us. Overall, I’d say the hardest part of previsualization as director was coordinating to make sure every member of the crew knew exactly what to do, when to have it done by, and what may need to be adjusted before filming. Organization has never been a strength of mine, so I find this role to be an invigorating challenge.

My Role for the Master Shot in Our Second Project

In our second assignment for Production 201, we are doing a narrative film following a set script. Our director for this project has decided to set the script to the science fiction scenario of a test that distinguishes cyborgs from true humans, as in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982). We will have two separate settings. One of the interviewee and interviewer at a table in a large low-key lit sparsely furnished room. The other will have one or two clinical individuals in a small dark room watching the interaction over a monitor. This time around, I have been assigned the role of producer. This means my contribution to setting up our Master Shot is less artistic and more organizational. I will likely work with the director to work out the shot list, I will book a room, coordinate our actors, set up our scheduling and timetables, bookkeep, manage our budget, check out equipment and be on call and as present as possible. I will check in with other team members to make sure they are all proceeding on schedule with their individual responsibilities and roles and I will communicate with the director on a regular basis. It’s not all hands-off-the-art for me though. In group meetings (which I help coordinate) I contribute my artistic ideas as we brainstorm and I have offered to illustrate a few panels of the storyboard according to the director’s vision, as proves necessary. Luckily for me, our director has numerous connections with a local theater group, so our film should have no lack of actors, props, lighting gels, or costumes.