Assignment 1: Report

Project #1

Introduction to Narrative Film Production

Project #1: Portrait of a Location

The main objective of our first assignment was to portray a location. As a group we decided on Limerick Animal Welfare. Limerick Animal Welfare is a rescue and rehoming facility for all types of animals including:

• Dogs
• Cats
• Rabbits
• Horses

The sanctuary works with a 'no-kill policy'. All animals at the sanctuary are cared for until they are found a suitable home.

Once we decided on our location, we planned what would be involved in

• Pre-production
• Production  
• Post-production

Pre-Production
Pre-production is the work carried out before full production begins. In this area of production each group member was assigned a role. Roles included:

• Director (Lorraine)
• Producer (Shannon)
• Camera operator (Clodagh)
• Sound director (Joana)

Once a role was assigned to each group member we carried out research on our chosen location. We used online sources to do this. With the use of the Limerick Animal Welfare's website and social media, we were able to have a better understanding of the area before we arrived on-site. Before we visited the location, Director Lorraine, rang Limerick Animal Welfare to confirm we could use their location and film.

After research, we decided on the project concept. The project concept was to raise awareness of the location so more people would become familiar with the area and maybe able to volunteer in the sanctuary or adopt an animal. We also discussed what type of shots we learned about and which would be more suitable to use on the day.

For this assignment, I was assigned the role of producer. With my role as producer it was my duty to ensure that all equipment was up to standards, charged and taken out from the college's help desk before production began.

The equipment need for this assignment was:

• Camera
• Tripod
• Battery
• Lenses 
• Charger
• iPhone for scouting purposes

As Clodagh owns the majority of this equipment, all that was borrowed from the help-desk was a tripod. To use the college equipment I had to sign out the tripod using my Knumber and course name and was given a date for its return. 

Production

Production is known as 'the action of processing shots to create a video or film'. On Wednesday, 28th of September, Clodagh, Lorraine and I went to visit the location. Unfortunately, Joana could not make it that day due to family reasons.

On arrival, we met the manger of the sanctuary, Maire. Maire allowed us to scope the location out before we began production of the video. During scouting we visited the dog, cat and horse areas. We viewed: 

• The kennels in which the animals are kept
• Their facilities
• Food areas
• Vet area 
• Washing area

Upon scoping these areas we met a volunteer member of Limerick Animal Welfare named Winnie. Winnie offered us a tour of the location and provided us with lots of information of the sanctuary. During this tour, it provided us with an excellent opportunity to scope every aspect of the location and allowed me as producer to capture images I thought would make excellent shots to portray the locations. 

When the tour was over, Camera Operator began to capture shots of outside area. The outside shots enclosed: 

• The location Entrance
• Limerick Animal Welfares logo
• Outside Kennels
• Various other outside areas

While we moved to the inside areas of the location, Clodagh offered us all the opportunity for each of to use the camera and capture shots. She explained to us how to:

• Use the camera
• Moving the camera using the tripod
• Panning
• Tilting
• Beginning and stopping a shot.

We spent approximately 4 hours capturing shots at Limerick Animal Welfare. Upon capturing our last shot the battery in the camera died. We were just able to capture our final shot.

Post-Production

Post-production is known as the 'making of motion pictures'. During the week of October 3rd, the group met up to discus the production phase. As Joana was unable to attend the production phase we offered her an overview of the day. We then sat down as a group and examined our shots. As director, Lorraine picked what shots she thought would be more beneficial to portray our project concept.  

On the 4th and 5th of October we began putting the shots together. To do this, we used Premiere Pro. As producer it was my responsibly to put the shots together. Each group member discussed the shot sequence and transitions. As I was not completely familiar with Premiere Pro, Clodagh offered her help as she has experience using the software. Each member of the group had the opportunity to test out the software.

Once the shots were put together with transitions, Music Director Joana chose various songs that she deemed suitable for the video. We listened to each song together and as a group voted which song enabled us to capture our location concept. Once editing was complete, we exported the file and uploaded the video to Vimeo. Overall the post-production stage took us approximately 3-4 days. 

Conclusion

During each stage of this project, I found the whole concept of the digital video module extremely interesting because I have never done anything like this before I found the idea creative in comparison to technical issue's that I am more familiar with. 

Out of the three stages I found the post-production stage my favourite as I was given the opportunity to try out new software and learn how it works. Despite each member of the team was ill during production, we managed to capture all the shots during our time limit and really enjoyed our day capturing the shots and gaining information about the location.