THINKING AHEAD – WHAT COULD GO WRONG ON THE SHOOT

Key headings:

 Organisation
 Communication
 Technical
 Group dynamics

Organisation
Not having permission to film in location
Forgetting to pick up equipment
Leaving equipment behind on shoot
Returning equipment late\incomplete
Not knowing what you’re doing on the shoot or why
Coming back to school with hardly any footage
Actors/ team members not turning up or being late
Absence from school
Not turning up to the planning meetings
Time wasting on the shoot
Everything taking too long
Not pre-empting the weather
Not leaving enough time for transport problems

Communication
Not explaining yourself properly
Not speaking out and saying how you feel
Losing your patience with other people
Actors/ team members not answering phones, or responding to
group requests
Arguments in group
Last minute changes to the plan without full group agreement
Actors getting bored/ annoyed/ cold/ hungry
Teachers left in the dark about changes to plans
Not recording notes/ minutes/ agreements on the blog
Absence from school, absentees not communicating with group to
find out what’s going on
Technical
Batteries not charged
Don’t know how to use equipment
Not checking camera settings
Poor lighting
Poor sound
Shaky camera
Poor framing
Limited variety of shot distances, angles, movement
Poor consideration of continuity issues
No understanding of technical H+S issues
Forcing tapes or batteries and breaking the camera

Group dynamics
One person doing everything and not delegating
Some people being lazy
Factions/ divides in the group
‘Spur of the moment’ meetings without everyone there
Not sharing the ‘boring’ jobs
Not sticking to the rule of everyone doing equal amounts of
shooting/editing/lighting/directing etc
Not listening
Not compromising
Getting stroppy
Not working as a team/ being supportive of each other
Making it ‘personal’
Making excuses rather than getting the job done
Not tackling issues in the group as they arise
Being rude to another group member and upsetting them
Being too sensitive
Allowing personal problems to dominate proceedings