Evaluation of Production Practise and Management Skills

Most Successful Aspect/Skill

Pre-Production: First of all in this stage, I had the opportunity to pick out my three preferred
topics and then decide which topic my strongest area is. To help me
choose which one to go for, I had to research all three topics thoroughly, in
order to find out which motif has the relevant information that I want to
proceed further.
Therefore, I decided to chose a topic that is very much part of my life ‘The
importance of Higher education. My passion for HE was an advantage as it
gave me confidence to investigate the topic thoroughly enough for a
documentary. The most successful aspect in Pre-Production was when I
was be able to find appropriate information for my project, in order to use it
conveniently enough for a Documentary. The motive for choosing this idea
is that, I myself want to go to University and want to explore more about the
idea of going to Higher education to the younger generation.
The sample of contributors was well represented as there was a mixed
gender, age, interest, ethnicity and religion. This enhanced my
documentary in a big way, as it made it much more appealing to a wider
target audience.

Production: The most profitable aspect in this process was that I could find different
suitable locations for my documentary without any hesitations. Despite the
fact that I had to ask for permission to film in different circumstances, I was
allowed with their consent, to film. This is one of the main problematic
stage, because if I didn’t had the permit to film where I wanted to do , then
it would have been a waste of my time, but in this case this did not happen
and therefore I was pleased with my production organisation. Once the
locations are sorted out, then the others.
The contributors also added to the informal and formal mode of address of
the documentary, an example of this would be Geoffrey Davies (formal)
and Sara James (informal).
Another particular strength of my documentary was that, I managed to
create a neutral approach to the subject, as I informed the audience on HE.

Post-Production In this accomplishment, I met the Deadline on time. I got everything

gathered together on time, even though I had to rush in some areas.
Evaluation of Production Practise and Management Skills
Time- Management
Pre-Production The time administration in pre-production has worked out quite well, considering the whole section of pre-
production was a time consuming process. I have always been good in Time management, so this has
helped me to progress well in this stage. Research is a whole bunch of work, more of a precise chore to do
in a project, because research has to be very accurate and have to be more careful at what I am picking out
from there. The topic I have chosen, is a very large topic, because it has all sorts of angles which can be
looked at.
On the other hand, as I mentioned above, the topic I have chosen is quite bulky, as it has all different
perspectives that can be looked at. Accordingly, it took me a while to choose the right angle, because I did
not want my project to be controversial. Overall, I spent quite a lot of time on picking out the relevant
information from Secondary sources, but I was patient, because at the end of the day I want to deliver the
right informations to the Audience.

Production Having accomplished the pre-production work, has helped me to move on to the next stage successfully.
Usually, keeping everything organised in production is quite burdensome, as this stage is one of the difficult
and crucial process, as there is a lot of things that has to be done. At the beginning of the production stage,
time management has worked well according to my scheme. When it came down to production process, I
made my self a target for every week, in order to keep the time management organised and well prepared.
According to my schedule, my plan was to prioritise all the filming that were far away from me. This is
because so that I can get the main stress out of the way, so I don’t need to worry about it in the last minute.
For instance, when I had to go to University of Westminster to film an interview with a lecturer, I had to make
sure I contacted him from an early stage, hence I can get the important interview out of the way.
Surprisingly, I had the reply back in few hours back and I I was very happy, as I thought I wont even have
the chance to get that interview done, as he’s the head of Media Department. That was the first success to
the start of the Production process.
However, the production stage was quite time consuming, where you have to get every single piece perfect
and correct. Towards the end, I was struggling to keep up with the time management. The reason why I was
struggling, was because I had to re-shoot some of the scenes, due to the following reasons: lightening, bad
setting, sound levels. Towards the end, I could not handle my production work and plus my other works.
Nevertheless, I somehow managed to re-shoot everything on time.

Post-Production In general, compared to Post-Production, all the other two stages, has worked averagely well in terms of
time management.
I personally think that, time-management skill did not work really well, because the amount of time I had was
very short. This is due to my Production stage, because when I uploaded the footages onto the Mac, I
discovered few pieces that I surely need to re-shoot it again. Regardless, I was supposed to move onto
Post-Production, I still had to re-film some of the scenes. Frankly, I think this effected my work on Post-
production, which gave me less time on this stage, whereas I managed to keep the time impartial in the
other two stages.

Positive Feedback Negative Feedback

 Actors and Crew

Pre-Production I had a range of people to choose from when thinking about possible contributors,
whether I knew them or not, as HE is such a broad topic with a range of different
people. Most of the contributors I chose, I knew they would reliable. For instance,
starting from camera operator, I had my fellow mate who could do that for me in
interviews and rest was me in charge. We helped each other, when it came to my
work, my assistant camera operator would film, while I’m doing the interviews,
and the same with her work, therefore we equally shared the chores together.
While organising filming dates with all of the contributors, I spent two- three
weeks chasing up my rest of the contributor such as the head of sixth form. This
was because, when I wanted to do an interview with her, the head teacher was
busy, as it was the UCAS application processes were happening in that period. I
was never able to get through to the Connexions office via the phone so I had to
make e-mail to discuss filming day, I was quite disappointed with that, so towards
the end I did not included any Connexion stuff on my Documentary.

Production My fellow mates kindly enough, agreed with my filming schedule. The first
interview, was Dilraj Hullen, who is a sixth form student and who wants to go to
University. This was successfully done, as I had to be the Interviewer and the
camera operator was Harpreet Bhupal, who is my assistant camera operator.
During the 2nd filming week, I had to cancel my plans, where I wanted to do some
Vox Pop’s, Cutaways and Sign on and off. However, it didn’t effect me a lot, but
instead of that I did some Vox pop’s questions inside the 6th form, so practically I
did not waste my day.

Post-Production In the post-production stage the only contributor I needed for voice-over, was
myself, as I was the Presenter for the documentary. To be frank, at the last
minute, I wanted add with me a male Voice over, in order to appeal to both
Gender. This idea came last minute, as I didn’t think about it before, but it seemed
too late for that as everyone on the set was busy doing their own thing. I could
have asked some one else from outside, but it was just too late, as I did my voice
over towards the end.
 Evaluation of Production Practise and Management Skills
Equipment & Booking
Pre- In terms of Equipment, the only Prop I used in Pre-Production was Computer, where I had to do Secondary Researches for my documentary.
Talking about Bookings, they have been very successful, because I had the replies back as soon as possible and I’m happy with the outcome of
Production Bookings. In this level, I had to book all the camera equipments before I went on to do some shooting. Thankfully, I did not have any problems with
booking the props.
However, that flopped, which was to have an Interview with the Connexions office. When I contacted the contributor (connexion office), I did not get any
reply back from them. Therefore, I contacted them again, but I still didn’t get any answer back to me.

Production As I mentioned previously, Booking and signing in & out equipment was relatively easy. I had no problems as I always got the equipment I needed when
I needed it. Talking about how I managed to use it well, I think I have utilised every prop to my very best. When II thought about equipment during the
planning stage was when I had to list the
equipment I would use in my Treatment.
Equipment that I wanted to use was:
Tripod
Tape
Dolly
Boom Microphone (maybe)
Charger
Batteries

However, there is one incident that has to be mentioned, which was an experience in this stage. I probably wouldn’t have referred this earlier, I went out
to Loughton, to meet people who run the organisation so-called ‘notgoingtouni’. When I went there to get an Interview, I wanted to use microphone,
carelessly, I did not turn the switch on. To make this not happen, I could have checked the footage again to make sure if everything was good. I only
noticed this when I put the footage on MAC, but I thought I’m not going back because this isn’t really necessary for my documentary, as my
Documentary concentrates on the positive side of University. The reason why I wanted include that interview with that organisation was because I
wanted to show alternative ways to get a good career. It’s not a big loss, but I was quite upset, as it wasted my time, where I could have done other
shootings, but I take that as an experience, because I learnt something that I always have to be careful. Also, in that interview, the chargers that I took
with me, it wasn’t fully charged enough to use it in that venue. Therefore I had to wait till it got charged, and kindly enough they did not mind that I was
taking it too long for them.

Post- During the post production stage, equipment wasn’t an issue. The only equipment I really needed was an iMac and a USB microphone. I was always
able to use the iMac when I needed it so I kept to my deadlines.
Production

Positive Feedback Negative Feedback

 Evaluation of Production Practise and Management Skills

Budget

Pre-Production I learned about budgeting during this production stage and I had a task to see whether I could pay for every expense of this
documentary (for instance. travelling costs and costs of equipment etc) without going over the budget. While doing this task I realised
how many different factors that has to be taking into consideration when planning out the financial side of a documentary. By having
my own Budget has helped me in making decisions throughout the entire process.

Production I did not spend as much as I thought I would in the production stage as I did not use as much equipment. I did not use as many crew
members as I originally thought I would, according to my contact list. I took on the majority of the roles (Director, Camera person and
voice-over) and Harpreet filmed when I needed to appear in an interview.

Post-Production Overall I personally think, I managed my budget very well as I hardly spent any of it. The majority of the locations I filmed at were
within walking distance and only one venue was 1 hour distance which was Harrow (University of Westminster) ; I had no crew to pay
and I met all of the contributors on their locations at times when they would have normally been there anyway. All I had to pay was
travelling and that’s it.
 Evaluation of Production Practise and Management Skills

Less successful aspect/skill

Pre-Production Talking about archive footage, I could not find any relevant footages to my topic on the Internet. The most popular ones were
about student loans and that is not what I wanted. Deciding if I was going to include another University expert interview in my
documentary ended up being one of the biggest dilemmas while planning this documentary, because I had already a student
interview. I also tried to plan how I would carry out this if I was to include it. Seeing as the duration of the interview was half
irrelevant, it made things even worse as I would have to wait till the post production stage in order to cut the bits that are
irrelevant. . As I did not have enough information to make this happen I decided to not include it.

Production The interview with Geoffrey Davies who is the head of Media department at University of Westminster, took me a while to do.
This was because I had to make sure the setting was good enough to appear on the documentary and first I had to discuss
the questions with before rolling the camera. When it came to film the interview with Dilraj Hullen, I ended up filming him at the
wrong side of the camera. I did not pay attention to the 180 degree rule properly and as a result of that, it didn’t look like
Barney was talking to me from the correct angle. Therefore, I had to re-shoot it again, which wasted my contributors time. Also
I found it is stressful filming my interviews, as I kept forgetting lines (questions) in order to ask the interviewee. This was
because I was trying too hard to make the questions as detailed as possible. I felt that I would be wasting the contributors time
would be impartial as they had other things to do.
The Sing on &off wasn’t catchy and it wasn’t done in a fast pace, in terms of talking.

Post-Production Editing my footages was the hardest and most stressful aspect of the assignment. This was because I was very stressed for
time and decided to rush the extra things that need to be added such as the voiceover. Referring back to my interview with
Geoffrey Davies (lecturer at University of Westminster), it was just too long, it took around 10 minutes. I had to go through the
footage of the interview and pick out what I thought would be the most relevant few keys points to quote. This took more time
to edit that using the footage for the interview would have taken to edit. Then I thought picking out the irrelevant information ,
wasn’t a good idea, because I thought it would not make any sense if I do so, but I didn’t had any chance, so I had to do it.
The problem was, there weren’t any unnecessary information that could be taken out, I think they all were important factors for
the documentary.
The sound quality of the Vox pop’s in school, was bad as I had chosen a location where it is not very good in terms of
ambience. Also, the choice of music wasn’t good, because I left it in the last minute and rushed to find any sort of music.