Andrea Paternuosto - Personal evaluation

Me, Freya and Georgia have worked together in year one, on a documentary project called ‘Legend’; our work came out pretty well, thus we decided to crew up again for the experimental this year. After having a few meetings in February, determining which direction we wanted to drive the story to, the Idea of Envisage came to life. Originally meant to be an entire reversed shoot, showing the diversity of a person with different habits and routines, our film was going to challenge us on experimenting, from doing some unusual shootings in crowded places, to achieving particularly ambitious lighting effects in the studio.

After we found a fourth member, Julia, we split the jobs in pre-production and started to work on the project without setting specific roles, being a very small crew. At this stage, I was mainly looking after castings and crowdfunding. Over 3 weeks, I’ve spoken with more than 20 actors, and luckily found one from Liverpool. Although the go-fund I set up had reached the goal of £300, we couldn’t afford to get our main actor in Leeds for rehearsals, so I had to set up his fictional character by text, going through shots list and schedules as well.

On the first day of shooting I had a reccie a couple of hours before with Julia, and as we went checking whether the selected locations were all accessible, we discovered an amazing arcade that would have been perfectly suitable for one of the scenes; unfortunately obtaining permission would have required quite some time, so I had to follow a B plan. Being able to practice only on the days of shooting, I went through some quick rehearsals and blocking with the actors. At the live production stage, I was operating the main camera for most of the time. Over the three days of shooting, I managed to achieve all the desired and planned shot, with the help of the rest of the crew.

I also managed the budget over the whole production, making cuts and selecting the right amount of money to dedicate for the essential expenses. I found a cheap hotel in a perfectly central location in Leeds, investing part of the budget to have our main actor from Liverpool in Leeds for the three shooting days, managing to cover all his expenses throughout this journey.

In the post-production phase, I was the Editor. Once I made a rough selection of clips, I picked the best parts with the rest of the crew. Thanks to the assistance and the editing skills of Julia, we managed to pull out a nice rough cut; subsequently to the feedback I received from some tutors, and people that were tested watching the project for the first time, I went through some more redefined cuts, selecting only the most essential segments of the story, making a provisional final cut ready to be sent out for our music producer.

Overall I’m quite satisfied with the whole work, and how it came out. During this production I was tested to act in many different roles, some not belonging to my specialisms. The experience has helped develop my ‘experimental skills’, pushing my imagination and artistic vision.