As a first year student coming from abroad I didn't know much regarding the industry and the requirements needed to produce a decent piece of work; on my first year at university my job roles were various, spanning from producing a documentary to vision mixing live shows, within and outside coursework.
With my first ever project being a documentary I didn't even know where to start, it was a difficult and quite a frustrating experience as we - as a group - had logistic and communication issues, in the end the product turned out to be barely satisfying but it made me understand how important team building is, together with trust. As a group we did not appear to be very driven by the project, therefore it made things difficult when filming, with crew members turning up late or not fulfilling their job roles, and me personally as the producer, I understood that I had to do something about it but I could not force somebody to be passionate about something they're not interested in: I stepped up my game and did a deep search on how to motivate the team and create a - if not friendship - professional type of relation between colleagues, this made the difference in all the other projects.
All throughout the year I had the pleasure and opportunity to work with some of my fellow course mates on the realization of a live series of a music centered program originally titled Student Studio, now called Stockwell Studios. I mainly covered the roles of production designer and vision mixer for the whole of the series; this experience taught me how to deal with stress and how to give a good performance even when under a lot of pressure. The process and dedication that is behind a live TV program, even for a couple of minutes; the amount of stress and responsibility that lies on your shoulders is insane and teamwork is the only way out, there's not much room for mistakes, luckily for me I managed to show my abilities and potential without arrogance, which is something that I personally learnt during pre-production and on set.
Emma Granger (me) during Student Studio rehearsals
Group picture from Student Studio
Another project I had the pleasure to be a part of is the short film Bear Necessities, in which, for the first time, I covered the roles of editor and 1st AD. In this film I experienced the beauty of working in films, creating a piece that spoke for me, that conveyed my emotions and evoked certain feelings in the audience. It was a demanding task since we had to work with a kid and a dog, editing the scenes was a major challenge because both of our subjects were constantly moving and finding cutaways was almost impossible. I am very proud of this piece for the work that we did behind it, as a group and also for what it helped me become as an individual.
During the summer I went home and decided to keep myself busy with a new creative project, I wrote and directed a 32 pages script in Italian, gathered some people and shot the whole thing in two weeks, the film is still in the post production process as I shot it with a DSLR and some VFX shots need to be added in order for it to be completed; it was such a fulfilling experience, getting something from mind to paper, then from paper to video in less than a month.
Bibliography
Brooks A. (directed by), Bear Necessities, University of Greenwich, Dobson S., 2018, https://youtu.be/bONB68qINQ0
Emery R. (directed by), Successful Teamwork In Filmmaking - From Hollywood's Best Directors, TMW MEDIA GROUP
Harris C. (directed by), The Student Studio, University of Greenwich, AV Media
Nisbet K., Pixar: A Case Study on the Importance of Teamwork in the Creative Industry, September 21 2015, https://filmanddigitalmedia.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/pixar-a-case-study-on-the-importance-of-teamwork-in-the-creative-industry/