First online lectures

 Okay, so today was a long day and I will admit I found it much harder to concentrate over zoom rather than being physically in class. The first session of the day was with Gareth and focused entirely on introducing us to the job roles on a film set. I've decided to try and create a PowerPoint which will sum up all of the jobs on set (there are a lot more than I knew about), this will hopefully clear up the difference between executive producers, producers and line producers etc. 

We also were given a task of trying to organise a standard shoot day. Which I was okay at. Here was my order; 

Locations arrive

1st AD arrives

Art dept to set

Director and script supervisor arrive on set

Camera, lighting and sound arrive.

Set is cleared for lighting team to work.

Extras, then main cast arrive.

Director blocks the cast.

Rehearsal.

Last looks for hair and makeup.

Last tweaks.

1st AD calls “Turnover”

Shoot starts:

Focus Puller calls “Camera Speed, mark it”

Sound Mixer calls “Sound Speed”

Loader marks board and calls “1, Take 1”

1st AD calls “Action”

Performance starts.

Director says “Cut”

Looking back at that, it is clear where mistakes were made. Here is the actual order. 

Locations arrive.

1st AD arrives.

3rd AD arrives, with runners.

Art dept to set.

Director and script supervisor arrive on set.

Camera, lighting and sound arrive.

Extras, then the main cast arrive.

Cast & extras go costume and makeup (depends on timings)

Director blocks the cast.

Set is cleared for the lighting team to work.

Rehearse.

Last tweaks.

Last looks for hair and makeup.

Shoot starts:

1st AD calls “Turnover”

Sound Mixer calls “Sound Speed”

Focus Puller calls “Camera Speed, mark it”

Loader marks board and calls “1, Take 1”

1st AD calls “Action”

Performance starts.

Director says “Cut”

The decision is made to move on / going again.

Gareth also added a few items which were in or initial selection.

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The second lecture of the day focused on audio recording. I will admit I found myself struggling to engage fully with this lecture. Sound design has never really captured my full interest, however, I tried my best to stay focused. It was mentioned that there are 5 elements of the soundtrack of a film;

Dialogue, Music, Sound FX, Foley, Atmospherics 

Many of the problems of sound recording that were discussed are things that I have first-hand experience of. Fairly recently, I was filming a showreel scene for two friends and there was lots of background noise from nearby construction works, however, the directional microphone actually was quite effective and we didn't pick up a massive amount of noise. But there were a few really good takes that would have otherwise been usable but were ruined by the sound. 

I enjoyed the part of the lecture that discussed how sound travels through the air. The vibration of the sound causes the air molecules in front of it to oscillate which in turn cause the particles in front them to oscillate so on and so forth until it reaches the eardrums of a being. 

We were given a research task to familiarise ourselves with the rode nt1 and Zoom h4.