Production Roles - Miss Miller

When filming our opening scene, people need to be allocated specific roles in order to get everything done and completed efficiently. By doing this everyone is secured with their own jobs to get on with and can contribute their small part to the making of the film. The possible roles within creating a film is the director, producer, the actors, directors of photography (cameramen), sound technicians, screenplay writer, MES co-coordinators and the editors.

When planning our opening credits our group had to make up some names so that there wasn't the same names being repeated throughout, this would make the film opening appear unprofessional. However, we still had to divide the names between the three people in our group, me Deanna and Lilian in allocated roles.

During the planning of our narrative for our opening scene, we decided to include 3 characters, a little sister, an older sister and the killer. We decided on me playing the role of the older sister as the little girl playing my younger sister is my actual little sister so we thought this would be appropriate in looking more realistic and truthful. An actors/actresses role within the film is to be prepared to follow the directors instructions to ensure their carrying out their role appropriately with the right emotions, they also need to learn the lines of the character they are playing if dialogue is included. In our opening scene there is no dialogue as we discovered that silence is conventional to the thriller genre in creating a more tense atmosphere. Our filming is made up out of two days that the actors would have acted out in each frame of our group storyboard, the first footage filmed in the forest, and the second in a swimming pool for the underwater scene, where the actors are required to have a reasonable amount of patience and also swimming ability.

I was designated the role of the producer and also the Mise-en-scene coordinator. We decided on this because I decided on the location of the filming in the forest. Also, me and my sister were the actors so it was easiest for me to figure out the costs etc. I was also able to plan the costumes due to us being the actors, as i could decide on what would be most suitable for our narrative whilst at home for the both of us. My role as producer included working alongside Lilian, the director to assist Deanna with deciding on shots we may be unsure of whilst filming. I felt that I carried out my role at a good standard as my chosen location of the forest looked good and fitted well with our clip, also my idea to use the school swimming pool worked out well as once the underwater scene was edited you could not tell the little girl was not in a river. I found it easy choosing costumes as I only had to dress myself and Yasmin in clothes we already owned. I also provided the iconography which we also had possession of, this meant that our group did not have to pay for anything apart from the underwater camera which we did not have to begin with.

The role of the director, who ensures everything is going to plan and running smoothly by ensuring that all the roles have been allocated and completed by people to good standard before the deadline was to be taken on by Lilian. We came to this decision as for one Lilian wanted to do this, following by the fact I was already acting in the opening scene so would be unable to control everything and make sure things are completed. Me and Deanna also played various other roles so by giving Lilian the role of director she would be equalled out with her contribution as this is a big and important role to play and would have plenty to be getting on with. Unfortunately, Lilian was absent during the filming of both the underwater scene and in the forest, therefore leaving me and Deanna to split the role of director. This did not cause too much disruption as we compromised and made sure everything was running as planned between the both of us. Despite me and Deanna having had several other roles to be completing I felt we were able to carry out role as director sufficiently which helped us with production as we guided one another and Yasmin through their allocated roles and what we/they should be doing.

Deanna was the director of photography. We decided for her to have this role as it was the most suitable role for her due to Lilian directing and me acting she was left to operate the camera and decide on the various shots included. The role and jobs of the director of photography included looking at both our filming schedule and group storyboard to assist her in what specific shots to film and carry out, this also guides the actors in making them aware of what they need to be doing and portraying in the certain shots. Deanna will be in charge of the filming taking place in the forest and also the filming underwater in the swimming pool, this means she must decide on what shots will look best and suit our narrative most appropriately. I felt that Deanna completed this role perfectly by providing us with all the footage we needed at all the right angles and shots. She was able to operate the camera with no issues and was also patient with the actors when having to repeat shots that had gone wrong. When filming the underwater scene Deanna was able to film great shots at hard angles to capture with an underwater camera she was unfamiliar with. By Deanna carrying out this role it helped us with production massively as we got masses of good footage for us to work, edit, and perfect on.

It was also decided on that Deanna would be carrying out the role of the main editor. This leaves her in charge of all of our footage, with the assistance of me and Lilian. We thought this was suitable as Deanna has the basic understanding of the final cut c pro editing software being used as she edited and put together our preliminary task. We therefore thought Deanna would be able to familiarise herself with the software faster than me and Lilian could, leaving us to complete our opening scene by the deadline given. However, when it came down to editing I ended up taking on the role as main editor as I very quickly familiarized myself with the software with few complications. This therefore meant that we were able to edit everything at a faster pace then expected and whilst doing so Deanna and Lilian gave me their opinions on what they thought looked good and what they didn't like meaning we all contributed in this specific role which was helpful in producing our final piece.

Overall, the allocation of roles to each of us in the group helped speed up the process of both the filming and the editing and guided us in what to do without any confusion. I felt that we all worked hard on the roles given to us in making sure our opening scene turned out as planned and expected. The only thing I wish we would have done differently was make sure all our group were present during the filming as this would have equalled out our roles as some of us had too much to do at some points. Excluding that all roles were completed how we wanted them to be and turned out to be a success in our eyes.