I think it’s fair to say that our pilot did not exactly go according to plan. We finished an episode, it was okay, but for now, that was about the extent of it.

Starting off, we began with pre-production. This is the point we probably should have cared more. Many of us are ammeter film makers, being first year media students. We aren’t dumb, we do understand how absolutely crucial the pre-production phase is, however, we either overestimated our own abilities, or we underestimated how much work needed to go into even just a four minute video. To begin with, we decided the best thing to would be to assign roles. We decided to create a poll on our facebook page, that allowed everyone to vote for the role they wanted to take on. This ended up working well, as almost to a tee, all the roles were filled, and nobody was left disappointed with the role they were given. The problem that came along with this, was that we all picked roles we wanted to do, but the not necessarily the roles that we felt we were the strongest in. The problem with this, I will be able to explain more when I go over the production phase. In reality, this is technically where our pre-production stopped. Location scouting, was done on the day of shooting. Regarding a shot list, we created a very basic one, but like our production roles, it was pretty much disregarded during filming as the day went on. I think that as a group, we understood what was required of us for the pre-production phase, but we just slacked off when it came to following through with tasks. This is already something we’re taking much more seriously as we are planning for future episodes. Our organisation skills have improved, which has in term really helped our group dynamic. 

Now, it is the production phase. Unfortunately I was out of the country for the first day of shooting, so my reflection is going to be purely based on the second day, so it may vary to other members of my group. The production phase, at the time didn’t feel as hectic as it may have been in reality, however I did hear that the first day went far less smoothly than the second. All the negative encounters that we had to deal with on day two, really stemmed from our lack of organisation in the pre-production phase. Day two was over the semester break, so all of us were lacking motivation, especially after how I heard day one went. As a team, we were working up to speed, but we were all over the place. Camera operators were assisting with sound, sound directors were directing actors, and so forth. For us, stupidly, we didn’t really see the problem in this. In the end, we came to the unspoken mutual agreement that we just wanted to get everything done, and for some reason we thought that having everyone doing everything was the best way to go about it. It definitely was not. Having everyone everywhere, and no set roles anymore, we were getting it done, just at a very poor standard. Going into the production phase of future episodes, I’m hoping that we can have a much stronger, and more detailed plan. When it comes to the person taking on the role of the director, we need them to be the authoritarian. Yes, we would all love to have a go with everything on the day (because holding the boom and pressing record definitely gets boring after take 17), but we need to keep in mind, that if this was a real set, the clapper guy would not be directing actors of where to stand, or telling the lighting director where to point the lights. As I said before, it comes back to organisation, and I am fairly confident we will achieve more in the following weeks.

Last but not least, it was post-production. To keep it short and sweet, I highly overestimated by ability to use adobe premiere quickly. Really, nothing actually went horribly wrong. We had our mediocre footage, and our subpar sound, it was just a matter of editing it all together. Again, keeping on trend with everything in this piece, our organisation was not up to scratch. Josie and I left it to the last day to edit, thinking it would only take a few hours. We probably could have done it in this time, however we didn’t bargain for issues we would come across. Problems included corrupted files, and missing sound clips. Both of these were problems that could have been resolved had we given ourselves breathing room, but we did leave it to the very last minute to edit. As we continue creating more episodes, I think it’s important we set deadlines, and even start dates for when we want to begin editing, or sifting through the footage and sound clips, just to make the process easier in the long run.

All and all, it was our organisation that let us down hugely. We managed to produce an episode that we wouldn’t be opposed to sharing, but it is not something that I can personally, or truthfully say that I am proud of. As a group, we know where we went wrong, and we can only get better from here, and more confident with time, so hopefully that shows in the work we produce as the semester continues.

Unfortunately, we had a great production plan put in place, and we did not follow through with it. Prior to the production of our pilot episode, obviously, we had a a brief period of pre-production planning. At the time, it felt like we really had done enough to complete an episode that was to our standard. I won’t go into too much detail regarding the experience, as I will go through it in my reflection post.

In particular, just for this post, i’ll talk about how we handled production roles. Before going onto set, we assigned each of our crew members a role. It was very clear who was doing what, and everyone was quite obviously on the same page with everything. This was until it came to actually being on the set. When it came to finally shooting, I think all of us were quite overwhelmed with what we needed to do, that we all ended up just trying to help each other in our different roles. As of now, we have learnt that that was NOT the way to go.

To put it in a very simplified way, all of us tried to do everything, and essentially ended up doing nothing. Nothing is probably a bit of an exaggeration, but we didn’t achieve nearly as much during filming, or achieve anything of our own personal standards. We aren’t being too hard on ourselves however, it was our first attempt, and if anything, we’ve learnt exactly what not to do as we continue this project.

Here’s to better organisation, and here’s to moving forward!

After our presentation on Friday, the feedback that really stood out to me from the panel was regarding our set design, and more specifically, our lack of design. Before we begin creating our second, third, etc episodes, I wanted to draw inspiration from online film creators that I follow.

The first, and main creator, is a YouTuber called PJ (KickThePJ). PJ has a super quirky sense of humour in the scripts that he writes, and it really translates in the look of his films. The most notable element is the use of such bright colours, and costumes. In our pilot, we didn’t give a second thought to our set, and just went with whatever was in the location when we arrived. Bad idea. Beth, who played Arabella really stood out, which was good, however, it made us realise what we could have achieve in terms of visual effects, had we put more effort into the background.

As ‘homework’, before planning the look of future episodes, I want to re-watch PJ’s most successful web series, Oscars Hotel. The show was released on Vimeo in 2015 and was hugely popular. I think it’s popularity was majorly due to the originality and artistic integrity of the episodes. The colours were bright and made the script even more outstanding than it already was. I think by focussing on this, an element we pretty much put in the backseat, we will be able to give more emotion to our film.

I’d suggest watching a couple of PJ’s videos, so that you can see what we are drawing inspiration from. Hopefully, if it goes well, you will be able to see that in some of our final work.

Unlike other ideas we’ve all been coming up with since initiating the project, one thing that we have yet to explore, is taking a more artistic approach to the series. With online video, or web series’, there is not stock standard structure that we need to follow. In our pilot, we included comedic elements that would be less likely to be seen on television, however it’s possible for us to take it even further. The first episode, as a whole, was very classic, in a sense that it followed a basic structure, and used very regular production techniques.

As we develop a stronger understanding of web series’, and what the Intel, I think we will be able to become more experimental with each episode, as the weeks go forward. I’ve never done experimental film before, so at the moment, the limit for me is really the idea of giving it a go. As I’ve mentioned a fair few times in previous posts, I would love to work closer with the creative writing students, and help mesh the ideas that we all have.

Most of us being first year, and second year students, we haven’t gotten the chance to work with experimental film as of yet. At this stage, I don’t know if that’s what is best for our series however. If we do manage to get organised, and give ourselves plenty of time to get filming done, I’m hoping we are able to experiment with new production techniques, and storytelling techniques as we move forward with the production process.

Yes, here I am using the excuse yet again. It was just the pilot. Because of this, we decided with such limited time, that we would use our crew members, as actors for the pilot episode. Dreadful idea? Not quite. At the time, we did not think we would have enough time to organise a cast, however now looking back on it, we probably could have achieved it, we just overestimated how long it would take. Our only option really was to play the roles ourselves.

The positives of this, were that we could spend the majority of our time planning other elements of the shoot, such as lighting, camera, crew roles, location, and all of that super fun stuff! Not having to worry about a crew, meant there was absolutely no stress on ensuring actors understood their roles, the story, or that everyone would be turning up on time. Thankfully for us, our crew members/cast members took on the roles amazingly, and we received extremely positive feedback on the acting in our pilot.

But now… The cons! Surprisingly, as a whole there were not as many cons as you probably would expect. The only main one being, was that essentially we were down 1-3 crew members each take. It was important to keep the actors in their roles, so we didn’t want them running around adjusting lighting or playing with the cameras between the shorter, more specific takes. On the day that we were short a few crew members, this made things more difficult.

Going into future episodes, we’ve (obviously) chosen not to use our own crew as part of the acting cast, unless they are background characters. We have already sent out a casting call, and we will be holding the auditions on Thursday and Friday of this week. The day we sent out the casting, we received 38 responses, so I am certain that we will be able to form a strong cast for further shooting.

However this is technically something that would be discussed on the writers part, I’ve been thinking of some ideas on how we can make our series, more defiantly a web series. For me, web series’ are supposed to feel intimate, and in a sense ‘real’, maybe better explained as something that the audiences can find themselves relating their own lives, and experiences to. That, we have achieved through the very simple conversational nature between the characters. However, I think we can do more.

One way, which us as media students have discussed from the start, would be the use of interviews, as a way to break the story up, and create a more personal depth to the show. After filming the pilot with Anthony’s script (which we all loved), in my opinion it didn’t feel personal enough. Of course it was just the pilot, and the characters will most definitely grow as the show progresses, but right now, for me at least, it’s lacking that something more. Hopefully prior to the creative writers, writing the rest of the series, we can discuss these ideas we have with them. Obviously everything is really on their part to decide, however, the style of the series is a huge role for us, and i’d love to experiment with something that is out of my comfort zone, and for the record, I think would really suit the premise of the series.

I think what we can do as the media students, is work as closely as possible with the writers, just at the beginning, in order to be on the same page. Even if the writers dont want to set anything in stone, an idea would be to possibly do some improvising whilst on set, like a real interview. We can ask the actors we cast a series of questions for them to answer in the role of their characters, and see where that leads us. If it doesn’t work, we know for next time not to take that approach, but if it does, we may have turned our serial from four stars, to five.

Liz is an interesting character, one that I think we were all extremely happy to keep around. From what we know, she begins very mundane, very human, very much like you and I. Despite viewing the story of so many characters, however it is not fully implied, essentially it feels as though we are watching everything unfold from Liz’s point of view. She’s confused for the most part, something she shares closely with the audience. Whether it’s in a written look she gives to the camera, or a rhetorical question towards the other characters, Liz represents all of us in a sense.

I can’t speak on behalf of everyone who has read the scripts, but when learning about all the other characters, I easily felt as though my raw reactions, mimicked that of Liz’s reactions to the characters. Although this doesn’t align exactly with what a narrator technically is, it does give us a sense that Liz is learning about where she is, and who she is with, at the very same pace that we are as an audience.

The pace of how I believe the scripts are going to be written, makes it easier for Liz to share her experiences with the audience. As of yet, we aren’t jumping forward days at a time, or even hours. We are given a raw, and fairly uncut view of Liz’s life at the office. For an online audience, the sense of real time makes in more personal. The forum, of the show being made for the web would in a sense create a community, in which Liz would likely become a part of if she was a real person. Like a blog, Liz’s experiences are documented for others to find relation and comfort in.

As someone who engages in online communities when I watch movies or tv series, I think that having a character that is on the same playing field as the audience, makes for a much more intimate viewing experience.

Hearing our thoughts and ideas come to life was probably the most exciting thing thus far on our journey towards making our web series. The writers came into class and presented us with eight different versions of the story everyone came up with. I think it was interesting, a little strange even to hear how many different scripts could be produced, despite following the same basic storyline.

Of course their were scripts we liked more than others, and scripts that we absolutely loved, but knew would be just too difficult to create in such a short timeframe. For us now, as media students, it was more than just picking a script we liked, it was a matter of taking everything into consideration. We had to note whether we would be able to find a location, find the appropriate actors, even the specifics such as how we would be lighting the scenes.

I’ve always loved the preproduction stage of film, so i’m really looking forward to working with the writers more closely. From what we discussed today with them, other than just their scripts, it seems like they have a lot of really good ideas, that could help us out a lot.

For the rest of the class, we tried to at least begin coming up with a basic production schedule, just we weren’t completely in the dark, and neither were the writers. With semester break coming up, we are very time limited. As well for me, I will be away for the first main day of filming. To make up for this, at this point in time, I will be more involved with pre-production and post-production to make up for my absence. Lucky for us, we have very strong communication with our team members, via our Facebook page, so I am not worried about being left behind during the process.