Auroras Peak - Evaluation

I always find it hard to evaluate things, but I’ll try my best.

At the start, there was a real lack of communication between everyone and it was quite frustrating for me, as I’d want to be involved in things but because at the time my role was only ‘costume designer’ I was irrelevant to any decisions made. This is why getting another main role, as camera operator was crucial for me. Not only because I needed a role, but also in nearly every other project I’ve worked on, I’ve always been put down as cinematographer. I don’t mind this, but after a while I’m going to struggle to get out of that category. I wanted to try something new but still relate it to the field I’m interested in. Cinemographer was offered to me but I turned it down to stick to my guns and do something more out of my comfort zone. I also didn’t feel that connected to the storyline so I felt that for this project that role would have been wrong for me.

Throughout the project, there have been many ups and downs and I defiantly feel we have all learnt a lot from this shoot. It has been a real eye opener of how to work with others on a tight schedule and I think we will all take away new skills and develop on those skills for our future projects. Apart from the lack of communication and job roles crossing over, I feel that this shoot has been successful.

Approaching Andre to work on his project as ‘costume designer’, something I’d never attempted or done before was a little daunting for me, but everyone involved in the project was really welcoming and excited to get started.

After further discussion with my group, I was also moved to Camera Operator alongside Klara. After having a meeting with Rosie, she wasn’t too keen on this, but I feel this was a really good arrangement for us both as the shoots were quite stressful and some under extreme weather conditions. We allowed each other to swap and capture shots in our own individual styles and it was nice to work closely with some different for a change.

I have learnt a lot from this unit. I’ve always been very uneasy of starting new projects, and with along with going through a lot of stress lately, I help but feel this affected me greatly with this unit.
I really lack the confidence I used too and because of that, I don’t feel able to fully engage to the best of my ability anymore which I really want to change.

At the beginning of this unit, I had no group and I didn’t really know anyone ‘that’ well to be able to form a group of my own. Throughout the course so far, I have tended to work with the same people because I felt comfortable and we had a set routine. Now those people aren’t here anymore, I’ve had to break out of that comfort zone and throw myself into a completely alien work environment, which was super hard for me to do.

Auroras Peak - Shoot 5 - My House (Part 2)

For the second day, we had to make sure we were on point with our timing. This meant keeping a strict watch on our schedule and the time, Phoebe was really reliable and kept us on track throughout the day.

We got any extra shots needed and I transferred all the files over to Lawrence to start the end.

We had a lot to clear up from the day before, as the equipment was still muddy from the Crooksbury Common shoot but we all worked together and managed to get everything done quickly.

So after all this, we managed to wrap up in good time and left the shoot in high spirits from all the hard work!

Auroras Peak - Shoot 4 - My House

For this shoot, it was an early start for me. I had to be up super early and make sure my house was all ready and set up for the shoot.
The crew started arriving at 10:00am sharp and we started setting up straight away.

We were using my bedroom and my bathroom for the dancers home location. I had to make sure anything personal or related to me (apart from my dance stuff) was removed from both areas.

Kiruna arrived at 11:00am and we got shooting straight away. The trouble is, shots take a while to set up and we didn’t really take that into account. There was a lot of trouble with lighting the scene correctly and people were taking too long doing their individual roles.

We ended up running over our shoot time as Kiruna had to leave for work. This meant we had to bring her in again the day after to finish the shots we needed.

Even though this was costly to our budget, it was worth it because we managed to finish what we started.

Apart from that, the shoot went well and I’m really happy with how the footage turned out.

I used a hammer and curtains to black out the windows.

As my camera was around water, I had to be extra careful and make sure the strap was around my neck at all times.

Auroras Peak - Shoot 3 - Student Union

As this was a shoot that was very important in the film, we needed to be extra attentive to the set up. We first encountered a problem with the amount of light being let into the SU. I came up with the idea of using a large curtain or ‘black out’ material that could cover the entrance to the SU. We managed to get some black plastic material from a lady who works at the SU. We all worked together but it took us quite a while to put it up but after a lot of duct tape and hard work, it finally managed to stay up.

Around 2 hours late into the shoot, we had to get started asap. We unluckily ran into more problems that were out of our control. We had to pay Owen operate the lights, but after a while we realized he didn’t actually know how to operate them properly. This caused us problems because to set up the shots, we had to base everything around the lighting and if this was constantly changing, it was almost impossible to set up.

After a lot of trail and error, we finally found a lighting set up that we were happy with and wasn’t too complicated for Owen to do and the rest of the shoot went really well!

Along with being one of the main shoots, this was also really important for me because this was the scene where my costume I'd made was used. I was really worried that the sequins and the seams would fall apart during the dance.
Lucky, I brought all my sewing appliances with me (minus the sewing machine) and was on guard for any wardrobe issues throughout the shoot.
I'm really happy with how it turned out, considering I'd never made anything like this before!