Pre-Production Group Meetings

Ideally I should be distancing myself from the pre and actual production of our film, Daniel's Kite, to allow myself to be as unbiased as possible when it comes to the edit and not choose one shot over another because of my input to it. However, as we are only in small production groups, I have tried to be as helpful and active as needed during this process to enable us to make the best possible film we can.

We met as a group frequently during pre-production to discuss every possible aspect of the film and how we could plan and prepare ourselves. We addressed the tutor's feedback from the pitching sessions last semester first.

Tutor's feedback from pitching session

Ellen, the producer, auditioned a number of child actors ranging from ages 6-10 so we could find an actor who gave a believable and engaging performance. I also researched potential effects and editing techniques for the more complicated scenes which I will go into more detail in another post.

My main involvement during this time was with the script which the director, Chris, had written over Christmas. I, along with the group, read through it and edited out un-necessary dialogue or exposition, changed the order or style of sequences and ultimately tried to improve and discuss all areas of it. I discussed the logistics of how to visualise specific scenes and sequences through the editing with Chris, so we could both understand how they would be created and what we would need achieve this. For example, how we would get Daniel from one location to another through his imagination in the beach scenes, 3 and 15. We went through potential effects, transitions and camera angles until we settled on a feasible and effective method which we reported to the rest of the group to get their feedback and to make sure everyone understood our visualisation of the film.

We also debated the visual style that our film should have and how we would go about achieving it. We agreed on a very stylised grade that I would complete in post-production, which would give a very warm and surreal theme to the film to mimic Daniel's imagination. The use of high and low angles was also heavily contemplated during this time to once again allow the audience to see the film through the eyes of Daniel so they could engage with him more.

Finally, and most importantly, the group meetings always concluded with the group voicing any concerns or potential problems they had with the film so we could solve them in an effective and collaborative manner so we were all happy and on the same page when it came to filming.