Monday 16 November 2009

Torture Shoot: My Overview




The first shoot is in the can so to speak. One very evidential problem that was reassured after the shoot, the issue of planning and the way it is approached. More specifically, i solemnly had the belief that the use of hand drawn storyboards, even storyboards from more photorealistic media formats were both a considerable waste of time to produce in consideration to what there intended use is on set. (Barring the use for shot composition). However, i have no real answerable reason to solidify my belief in this. Before the start of this projects pre production, i took it upon myself to investigate this unanswerable belief in the use of storyboards and aim to underline a legitimate reason to why they do not seem to work.

After spending time theorising on the most productive approach to distributing the storyboards, as previously mentioned in a previous post. The document i finally produced had a very easy to follow system using colour co-ordination and numeric structure to allow our additional crew to make sense of the productions process. These techniques can be understood by infants, so in theory should make it slightly easier to understand. Getting a universal understanding correct was a vital issue that had to be addressed on location. If the document could be understood by someone who has never previously read a storyboard or shot list document, then the careful planning into the creation of the document will have been a success.

After numerous meetings with the cast and crew. Delegating copies of storyboards, talking them through the story, and with the crew discussing the theory behind the shot list. It appeared that they got a "general overview" of the production. And this circles back round to my question of how does the storyboard help in these situations? My deliverables go as follows:

I first of all had a belief that a storyboard was an aid to quite literally tell the entire story to everyone involved in the production. Now i realise how utterly stupid of an idea that is. How can one persons visuals be put across for a second person to get the exact same understanding? its not going to happen due to personalised interpretation. The result will always appear different. In addition how can a series of E.G 30 still images represent thousands of moving frames, even with no cuts involved, never mind simple cuts, or even complexed transitions.

So in conclusion, There is no way i am using these documents in the same light again, yes for composition and rough cinematography, they are great for that. Any other process is now obsolete. I shall look for replacements to fill the gaps in the upcoming projects.

The production as an operation was a very enjoyable experience. Regardless of the fact that our pre production was not as strong as it could have been, what we did accomplish in those early stages enabled us to feel comfortable on set, with a stress free focus on what we were doing an when it was to be done in the schedule we had set.


Torture Shoot Photo's:

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