My roles for multi-media production modules are lighting, sound and promotion, as two of these are not needed for this semester my main role was promotion. My main tasks where to come up with ways to promote our documentary and gain exposer. I worked closely with John Bird on this aspect as he is also very creative we have a similar view on how it should look, for example the t-shirt design shown in the pitch our group recently delivered was a collaboration of myself and John. We wanted to follow similar the superhero style when designing all the promotional material for documentary. When researching this we wanted to follow the technique of ambient marketing as we have seen this has been a successful technique with such films as Batman; The Dark Knight Rises. Another area of promotion I was heavily involved with the mobile website and the creation of the QR (Quick Response) code. I believe having a mobile site and QR codes to take people directly where we want them to go will reach our audience quickly and raise awareness for our documentary. Our mobile website will contain many things not available on our main website such as webisodes, competition updates and updates about the documentary. This will make people want to use both available websites and therefore create greater coverage of the media we are developing. My role within the group for the pitch was to discuss the professional practices we will be undertaking throughout the production of documentary. For example the safety of ourselves and our primary is key and therefore we must ensure all health an safety risks are checked and averted.
For the website one my technical breakdowns was a three point lighting breakdown and how it is used in an interview situation. I created an image using Photoshop to illustrate and give a visual understanding of a three point lighting setup. I added this to the website as I believe it will be essential, as our documentary will have many interviews when engaging with our subjects. I have been the lighting director for a lot of projects during this module and because of this I have gained a deeper understanding of how lighting should be used and what lighting to use for what affects and tones are needed to fit the style of the documentary. As mentioned earlier the roles of lighting and sound will not be put into practice as they are on set roles and this module was about research and preparation for the task ahead.
In terms of how our group worked together as unit I would say five out of six group members fulfilled their roles if not exceeded them and we came to decisions in a democratic fashion. One member Toby Shepard betrayed our trust in terms of how much work he had put into certain areas, for example the trailer he claimed to produce was none of his own work and neither was any of the music he claimed was his. This has created a massive trust issue as he claimed to have been doing a lot of work over recent weeks and it has turned out he actually hasn’t. Upon receiving this news myself, John Bird and Matt Fryer decided to take matters into our own hands and spent all night creating a new trailer. The level of complacency was unacceptable and not fair on other group members who have been working very hard and have shown a passion for what we are doing and want to do well as we are aiming very high with our documentary. Also when our group was working together at the university multi-media center only five of us would be working even though all group members are told when work is being done and where, Toby always stated he would work better at home and myself and the group believe that this is not the case. This created problems with communication and showing of work for example the trailer toby claimed to have “created” himself. In addition to all of this Toby had a main role of Producer and this was not fulfilled as john Bird had to step in to delegate work and general organization of the group. A group meeting will be held and all problems will be discussed and resolved in a mature and professional fashion. I have nothing but praise for everyone else in the group they have shown a great group dynamic and support for other group members when struggling. For example at points this term I found time management hard as I have had to be between Southampton and Winchester visiting and caring for my mother in hospital who has terminal cancer. My group have been very supportive throughout this time and have shown great understanding of my situation. In my personal opinion I am not using this an excuse though at times it has been a very difficult situation. Through this I have learnt just how important time management is why it is essential to such a large and important project. For example leaving enough time to fix a mistake or an error that occurs at short notice, as with enough time to fix a problem, the work will still come out to a high standard.
If there were anything I would change from next this semester it would have to be the picking of group members and keeping of up to date records of what has been done and if it that group members work is there own and up to a professional standard. Another thing I have learnt form this module is that preparation and time management are very important and can make or break a project. Also group communication is very important in terms of what work is getting done and what other work needs to be done. This is important as this allows to group to understand where the project is heading and what areas need more, when it comes to producing the documentary next semester if no communication is present within the group then it will surely fail. As long as myself and other group members work as professionally and efficiently as they have so far this semester then I am confident that our production will be of a very high quality. Myself and the group are very excited to get this project underway and create an amazing documentary for festival.
