Through this Unit I have had many skills and strengths. While researching for this unit, I looked into the role of a DOP and what it can consist of so that I was aware of what sort of jobs I would need to take hold of. As well as this, I contacted current Cinematographers as research and looking into techniques that I could use, for this I was able to figure out my lighting more from Lee Thomas and his advice on creating moonlight. My preparation for this production was handled with great time management. During the planning I went through the script and having already looked into the original video, I found that the cinematography was done to set the time of day rather than the mood, from this I went through the script and used the emotions being given from the characters to give this scene more originality. As well as changing the lighting from street lights to moonlight as both a different approach on the script and also a challenge for myself as a DOP. I think I took on this challenge really well and also referred back to previous research that I had done in both University Projects and outside films as well which allowed me to figure out the best way to make moonlight on a budget. I did a lot of research into how I wanted the project to look and went out of my own way to get a different camera which would give me the look I wanted as well as work well with the lighting that I was aiming to achieve. While getting the Sony A7Rii, I was able to get the greyish look which helped the emotion that Jessica felt in the opening scenes of the script and then went for a simple lighting change rather than a complicated way by adding in a desk lamp, with a small room this helped change the lighting to something warmer which I wanted.
I feel my weakness for this Unit was my time management. Due to the stress of Studio Production and losing contributors not long after this Unit was briefed to us, my focus was 100% on the Studio Production as it was a very complex unit. I feel if my time management was better I could have done more research into this, prior to the shoot and could have allowed me to gain more knowledge as a DOP or even be a bit more experemental with the style and the tone of the production.
During the Production Stage of this project, I did lots of different tests to ensure I know exactly how I needed to set it up on the shoot day so that we wouldn't have to waste time rigging up and we could keep to the schedule. As well, I tested both the camera and the gimbal to ensure that we were getting the shots I had designed during the Pre-Production stage. However, I was very creative during this stage and thought on my feet with new shots, watching the blocking with the actors to see if there was a different way to get the shot, as I was told that I DOP is always looking through to find new ways to visually tell the story.
I worked really well alongside my Producer and Editor as as a team we came together and over came the issue we had of not having a Director. From this, we had a simple scene which didn't require a huge amount of Directing and from this, I was able to have more creative control on the look of the entire production. The mixture of camera techniques I used for the project really helped to get the feelings across in the shoot and allowed me to really experiment as a DOP.
I would say my weakness for this stage would be the schedule, I assumed we could get this entire project shot in only 1 day, which we did. However, I didn't allocate any time for Pick ups or reshoots. Although they weren't needed, it would have been wise to think ahead of this. If the worst had happened and we did require a reshoot we wouldn't have been able to achieve this. Thinking ahead of situations like this is what a DOP is meant to do and I failed on this part.
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