List the things that you learnt from this experience – this could be things that went well or not so well.
Check out my group’s Lenny here.
We weren’t given much time to shoot the Lenny, but I reckon it was a good exercise that helped us with time management. Knowing how to work the equipment is possibly the most basic and important aspect; like Paul said, something will always go wrong and it’s vital that every crew member (including the director and producer) has some technical knowledge with regards to equipment.
Pre-production is also crucial. This is where all the planning takes place and like they say: if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. We came armed with a marked up script, a detailed shot list and a well-illustrated storyboard that made shooting Lenny relatively smooth.
As the DOP, I got to experiment with various shots and angles, familiarised myself with the camera’s functions, i.e. adjusting white balance, temperature, focus, etc. Because of this Lenny exercise, I was able to sort through the shots and angles that worked and those that sucked. According to Paul, we had great lighting on the day of our shoot—cloudy and overcast—and we were able to avoid overexposure. It might have been good to have had the opportunity to shoot in extreme sunlight, just so we could learn how to troubleshoot that situation.