Julia Quintana - Personal evaluation

During this film, my work was divided into pre-production, filming on the day and post-production. I worked with three other students on this film. We did not have a designated role as we all did a bit of everything. However, I did work on pre-production, I did camera operating on the filming days and I worked on post-production regarding the edit.

During pre-production, we all contributed to the idea and the story that we wanted to portray. We had group meetings in which we discussed how we wanted the story to evolve and shared ideas that we came up with. We all attended meetings with our tutor and discussed our ideas with them. Furthermore, I also searched for dancers that could act for our film. I asked a couple people that I knew from the Leeds Contemporary Dance School if they wanted to participate but unfortunately they were not available for the dates that we wanted to film as they were on tour. I also messaged many dancing/acting schools and institutes in Yorkshire and asked if anyone was available and willing to act in our filming. Unfortunately, it was really hard to find actors but we managed to find Fred through an acting website and Georgia which was a friend of one of our crew members. Additionally, we all met up to go over the shot list and the schedule for the three days of filming. We planned to film for three days. We met up and did the call sheets, shot list and schedule for each of the days. We planned to film outside on the first day and film in the studio for the two remaining days. We set up a gofundme website and each of us donated a bit of money and shared it with our family and friends. Moreover, I though it would be a good idea to have each of the actors dressed in all red and all violet so they stood out from the rest of the people in the street. Additionally, me and Andrea went location scouting and did a health and safety check of the places that we were going to be filming at. What is more, we also met up with Lee Robinson to discuss locations, health and safety and to book the Prime studio.

During filming, we all tried a bit of everything but I was mainly working on the camera department as a camera operator and cinematographer with Andrea. I filmed with my own camera a Sony a6300. Every time we filmed a scene, Andrea would film it from one angle and I filmed it from a different one so we had various options when it came to the edit. I also checked the schedule and shot list and checked that we were on time. During filming in the studio, all of us set up the lighting and dressed the set with the fairy lights to be ready for when the actors arrived on set. I also did camera operating on set.

During post-production, I noted down my favourite shots that we got during all the three filming days and then met up with the rest of the crew and discussed which ones we thought needed to be in the edit. Andrea was the main editor but we both worked together to come up with a good rough cut. Additionally, my brother did the music for the film so I explained what music ideas we had in mind and then worked on the music with him. Moreover, Andrea and I met up and continued to work on the edit. I also worked on the colour grading of the final cut and then met up with Andrea to make sure that everything was ready to be exported and submitted.  

Overall, I really enjoyed working on this experimental film with people that I had never worked before. We all understood and worked with each other very well. Everyone knew what was going on at all times and all crew members were really professional and organised. We think the final project has turned out really well and we are all very proud of the work that we have done together.