Crew Roles

My group consisted of myself and another two A2 media students, although our teach chose our groups for us we was all happy to be working together as we each have our strong points within media studies and could take control of our specialized areas to produce our best possible final piece.
As a group we did all take turns in all areas of pre and post production, however for the bulk of it we stuck to our individual roles.

Josh Featherstone: Editor...Camera...Set designer
Ana Rita: Producer...Music control...Set designer
Emily Stansfield (myself): Cinematographer..Camera...Set designer

Description of my role: As cinematographer my main role was to make sure everything on-screen was exactly how we wanted it; this varied from lighting positions, crew and band positions and camera angles (we used three cameras and done three takes with all of them in different positions, ultimatly leaving us with nine takes). I also had to make sure the band was up-to-scratch in performance (although they didn't need much encouragement) and to ensure we have all our desired shots before wrapping up. I enjoyed taking on this role because when I have an image in my head, I will try my hardest to make sure it becomes reality to the best possible standard. During the editing stage, when group member Josh went through our various shots I helped choose what footage is usable and works well.
I also worked behind the cameras during filming, for this I had to ensure we had as many interesting shots as possible. I used zoom ins and outs, tracking and panning in various positions of the room to make sure we cover all areas of the band, I was aware that some moments of my filming was wobboly or just a general bad angle but I knew we had and would get many more shots - although I would still correct my areas to ensure all shots we did get was of a high standard.

Description of Joshuas role: Josh felt the most comfortable when it came to editing, and he really was brilliant at it. For this he used final cut pro on the mac computers and was knowledgable when it came to this software. After we all looked through every take from all cameras and chose which ones we prefferd and what would work best, Josh began to cut takes and put together a rough sequence. I think the hardest bit was trying to make the music and the footage in sync, and after many trials and errors he managed to do this well. Finding the best footage from nine different takes to go in the right space took a fairly long time, but once we was all happy with the rough edit - Josh then began to polish the edit by making cuts sharper and more in tune with the music.

Josh also controled some of the cameras whilst filming to make sure he got shots he was happy with and also helped ensure we were happy with the set.

Description of Ritas role: Rita took on the role as a producer, she helped ensure the rough edit turned into the final edit and that we were all happy with the final production. She also came up with the idea of a montage of couples kissing and went out to get some shots of this from her family. Rita was good during the research stage as she enjoys this genre of music more than the rest of us, so when discussing target audiences and audience profile, her knowledge helped. She also knew the general feel simular music has to offer - so we tryed to portray this throughout our own production. Rita also helped during the filming by working one of the cameras, but what she done more of was the music control - making sure the band knew exactly when to start playing at the right point of the start of the music.

(Group work by Emily Stansfield)