Today I took part in a skill-set group for my two positions that I will have as part of my pre-production and major project units. This skill-set groups involved everyone in that class that was also working in the same positions as me, and I found that it was incredibly useful to see where other people were at in there projects, as it gave me an idea about whether or not I was at a comfortable stage in my project, or if I needed to begin getting a move on with what I am doing.
I was happy to find that everyone in both groups I attended seem to be at the same stage I am at, and as such I realize that I am on the right track time-wise.
Below are some of my contributions and what I learned in both skill-set groups.
Producer's Skillset Group:
In this group I learnt that being a producer is quite possibly one of the most difficult positions in a production crew, as it is exceedingly hard to keep a track of the projects budget, perform cast and location searches as well as keep track of shooting schedules and make time to see potential cast members and locations etc.
I noticed that a lot of the other producers have already begun to look for their locations and cast, and have begun outlining a rough budget for their films, and so I believe this is something I should strongly consider beginning soon.
We noted that not a lot of the producers in my group were struggling creatively, and the main problems stemmed from the logistic side of being a producer, including being able to transport cast members from location to location at a reasonable price, as well as the sheer number of cast members. Some of us have scenes which require a lot of extras, and picking actors from up and down the country to play these roles simply would not be cost efficient for us.
Some advice I tried to offer was based on my own experiences of working as an actor in small productions was to entice actors to apply for positions on casting calls by offering them small perks. If a paid position isn't available due to a lack of funding, other benefits such as paid travel, named credits, or an invite to the showing of the finished product at the end of year showing could all be used to tempt potential applicants.
This could also work with potential filming locations. For example, the prospect of advertisement in a film's credits, or by having the location name prominent in a certain scene's background could be enough to persuade whoever owns a location to offer the use of their premises in exchange for this service.
Screenwriter's Skill-set Group:
In the screenwriter's group, I learnt a massive amount about what the other members of the class were working on, including their creative approaches, and how they differ to mine. I tried to offer some advice in terms of writing creatively, based on my experiences working with screenwriters in the past, and some general conversations I have had with them.
I feel that this skill-set group was very much a confidence-booster, as it made me feel that I was on track creatively, and that a lot of the difficulties I had been having were also affecting the other people in the group. This made me feel that I wasn't doing anything particularly wrong in my approach to script-writing, and it felt good to share my creative ideas with everyone else, and in return listen to theirs and offer any advice I had.
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