Self Assessment

For the Studio Shoot I felt that I worked quite poorly during the Pre Production, I managed my time poorly, and thus was moved to the position of Gaffer, from Camera Assistant. As gaffer, there wasn't a whole lot I could do before the shoot, aside from revising and occasionally reworking light positions. I had completed an equipment list, but it never made it to the producer, though I'm not really sure how, I was still able to get the necessary amount of lights, and we were always well supplied.

The first filming day was quite a quaint one, Victor, and Junaid worked to help me with positioning and fulfilling the vision of the director. On the first day, with the lights set up, we had decided to adjust one of the larger lights to create a cinematic shadow that the director had asked, and after playing around with filters, we managed to settle on a cold, dampened back light that came in nicely. Doing this had taught me a reliable way to quickly and easily change the filters on the bulb by placing them over and clipping them vertically to the top and bottle doors of the light, this allowed me to slip new filters in and see if they worked, without having the re-clip the filters entirely, and still held them stably. Overall this cut down the time spent fumbling with filters, and let us move on with other tasks.

It was an idea we had touched on with the lighting plans, but we decided it was a good idea to give the TV some false light, at first we did this by simply positioning a blue-filtered light above the TV, which worked for a while, but we eventually realized that it was creating a shadow below the front of the TV, and by raising the lamp and using a shield, we managed to neutralize the shadow and create a move believable TV light. This was a problem we faced again with the shallow light on the right on the set, but we fixed this by having me hold a shield up during the filming, as the angle we needed to block was too complex for a stand to hold the shield at, as the shield would eventually weight over and move very slightly. I feel like I could have done better with the shielding on the shallow light, as the light was rigged in a strange way, I had rigged it to come up and over the set wall, and to sit low, but I wish I had just rigged it on a low stand so that it had more versatility in the long run, as well as more stability, allowing it to be shielded more easily.

The second shoot day also bought a challenge I hadn't ever faced; one of the bulbs blew out next to my face. Gave me a scare. I hadn't encountered this before, even though I've used the Arri lights a fair few times. Luckily we were able to replace the bulb and move on. Junaid was super helpful in showing me how to disassemble the light and replace the bulb. I'm glad it happened, because it certainly made sure I'll never forget how to take those lights apart. Though, I should have revised this prior, so that I was more prepared, also made me buy a pair of pliers for future endeavours.

I think by far the biggest disruption was the rain. On an indoor shoot. I had no idea I would have to deal with this, but the ceiling in the studio started leaking right over a lamp, and I ended up holding an umbrella over it, while on a ladder, for a good hour or two. I can't really see another solve for this, but it did mean that I wasn't able to shift lights personally, I just had to give suggestions from above. (Though, the suggestion I did give was promptly and aggressively shut down by a class-mate, only for them to make said adjustment seconds later. Oh well.)

The huge fill light was another example of something I feel I could have improved on. It often felt like there were issues it could have solved, but I'd often just settle for using the spare, smaller lamp. I'd love to get some time in with it and to see if I can use it more dynamically, because in my head it was sort of just this "if I use it for one shot, I have to use it for all" thing in my head, when I feel it actually a case of; I could have used it to solve issues more simply.

I also wish I'd gotten a bit more time to work with the furnish lights (the lights that were part of the set) because the few times I did, we were able to create similar lights that were a bit more aesthetically valuable to the scene.

Overall, I think that my slow response to the project initially hurt my performance for the team, and while I agree with them moving me to gaffer, I wish I'd had a bit more heads up so I could revise some of the stuff I needed, but at the same time, my issues made me distant from the Group, so it's my fault for allowing myself to be distant as I was. During the shoot I think that I was certainly valuable, I was making sure people were fed, and doing my best to stay in the loop and be proactive with the lights, I certainly would have been bettered by a less slothful attitude during preproduction, and I wish I had prepared and had more energy for the long shoot days. But I feel I worked to the capacity of my ability on both of the shoot days, and I feel I kept an okay attitude throughout them, my work was nothing stellar, but at its worst, it was enough to make sure my role wasn't non essential.