On-Set Organisation

Planning and research are all well and good before a filming takes place, but you can't put what you've learnt into practise unless you're organised during the actual filming. 

When watching film or television, it's easy to forget the amount of work that goes in to producing a single scene, or a single shot, even! Obviously, seeing as Tom and I don't have the money (or, frankly, the authority) to be able to command a team of experts in fields of makeup, costume, set-design, lighting, cinematography, continuity, etc, we have to organise these things ourselves, to whatever extent in manageable. 

Here is a link to a post Tom has helpfully compiled about the different roles allocated by filmmakers. (Not all of these people are always needed on-set, but they all help in the overall organisation of a day's filming)

Here is Tom's post showing our 'call-sheet', which he drew up for use as a way of keeping track of dates and the exact tasks we were going to be carrying out.

My role in the organisation for filming has been to maintain the tripod and the camera, the latter involving:

• Ensuring batteries are charged, and that spares are ready.
• Freeing-up space on the memory card, so that we do not run out of storage whilst filming.

Also, for each day of filming, I have written lists of each shot we need, for the same reason as I did for my AS Media production: so that we are never wasting time wondering about which shot to capture next during filming. They are not laid out perfectly, and they are not presented neatly and tidily, but they do serve their purpose as a simple way of reminding and keeping track. Tom and I could have spent time and effort writing a pristine screenplay, and we did consider it, but the pay-off would never have been worth it; we are not selling a screenplay, we are making the film, so all we need is something practical, efficient and convenient that serves the purpose of a script. These shot-lists are shown below, some used, some yet to-be-used.