Recently in E-comm we have dedicated our time to a new project: the recreation of movie trailer (set in high school). We were assigned groups in which we would decide which trailer to recreate. My group, which consisted of Shaylee (director), Maddie (cinematographer), Alexis (Art Director), and I as the main editor, decided on The Breakfast Club as our trailer of choice. We dedicated time during school and after for our best attempt of recreation, although we fell short of completion.
The Process Behind The Tragedy
The Breakfast Club seemed like an easy task at first, but eventually as events turned out it proved to be otherwise. First we started by creating scripts and storyboards. I was tasked with the storyboards while our director helped create the scripts. Shortly after, our Art Director created costume lists, and our cinematographer created prop lists, resulting in our pre-production process being completed fast. But, during our production days our actors were unavailable, resulting in the constant change of actors, therefore leading to my group playing the part ourselves. Due to schedule conflicts within the group as well, we ended up with an unfinished trailer. Although we all mainly worked hard, we came close to completion.
Reflection Upon Semi Completion
Although the majority of my group put forth their best effort for completion, our group ran out of time resulting in our submission of a semi completed project. Schedule conflicts, actor changes, and unavailable equipment played a major role in our struggles towards completion. If I had tried to recreate this trailer again, I would be the director and worked with new people to create available time spans, as well as a specific schedule to follow.
As of late in video production, we've spent the past month working on a music video. My group consisted of Blake Gamber as the Main Editor, Addy Osborn as the Art Director, River as the secondary Art Director who primarily filled roles and completed extra tasks if needed, Blake Dane as Cinematographer, and myself as the Director for the video. We went for a story look for our music video, following the concepts of a guy who is lonely and lost, who eventually finds a love interest and becomes content. The story follows a storyline of 3 days that gradually become happier as the character progresses. Overall we had arranged several film dates and spent class time sorting out the specifics as a group, but our project was incomplete by the date of the deadline, resulting in a almost finished video.
The Process
Our group split up the work and attempted to divide and conquer, first by scouting main actors and extras, locations, and props. Addy, River, and I took care of scouting for extras and other necessities, although we did not use majority of them. Afterwards, River and I starting with school scenes on film dates we set. But, during these times we ran into problems such as a school gas leak, extras not showing up, or misunderstood availability of main actors. After school scenes we worked on house scenes at Blake Gamber's house. Addy and River accompanied Blake Gamber to film these scenes. Shortly after we prioritized park and car scenes, with Addy and River accompanying me on several occasions to film, yet none of extras turned up and our actors abruptly had schedule conflicts resulting the scrapping of the footage due to having to refill with different light. Overall we had arranged roughly 11 film dates, and out of those only 6 were able to be used. But, once all, was said and done for the most part we could begin to edit our film, with Blake Gamber's being the priority.
Collaboration
In my personal opinion, I believe the majority of my group worked together to get this project done with the intent of submitting it into a competition. But, there were definitely group conflicts that restricted our capabilities a bit. For example, when we were attempting to set dates for filming the collective group put down their availability for almost every day, except Blake Gamber who left his availability vague stating he is "free any day he is not working" although we had no way of knowing which days he was, which turned out to be everyday. Blake D did not show up to any film sessions and failed to help contribute to group ideas or plans, which made it difficult since someone else had to fill the role of cinematographer on set. Then of course as mentioned earlier, our actors had conflicts such as robotics which was not typically expressed until the date of filming. As a result, reliability was an issue, so setting up dates to film was difficult for the most part. Another issue we ran into was the argument of changing the script on set, which delayed filming. For example, if Addy disagreed with a segment in the script we had to struggle back and forth until we could come to a conclusion, using up time needed for filming. River although was extremely helpful and contributed in almost every way towards the project. She provided valuable insight and much needed help for setting up equipment. Due to these collaboration issues we inevitably ran out of time, yet our project looked rather appealing so the outcome is not that disappointing.
Personal Overview
In my opinion, I tried my hardest to keep the project afloat, showing up to every film session except the one hosted at Blake Gamber's house. I helped recruit extras, check out equipment, and schedule film dates. One flaw of mine during filming was my mistakes of continuity on two of the lunchroom scenes, which I had hoped to redo but we ran out of time. I believe that River, Addy and I contributed the most to this project, whereas our other group mates failed to accompany us to filming or help with ideas in class. If I could do this project again, I would choose more reliable group mates that would help contribute to lighten the workload, and I would focus more on availability and continuity.
