Our Roles on Set
For a smaller project like this opening sequence, we mainly require five key roles on set;
The Director, Camera Operator, Editor, Art Director, and Producer.
We decided to split these roles among our group so that everyone has their main job, but we will still share all responsibilities between us so that we are all involved, helping each other out, and all have our own input in all aspects of production.
The Director
The Director is the driving force behind the entire execution of a project, they hold a 'director's vision' of what they want the outcome to look like and instruct the cast and crew accordingly to achieve that goal, this allows for a consistent creative tone and style throughout as they are essentially responsible for the final product.
I will be mainly taking on this role as I am extremely passionate about directing and quite honestly find it very fun to (respectfully) boss people around on set, I also have the most experience in this particular job and am therefore comfortable in what my responsibilities are.
However, we have all inputted our own ideas into this project and it wouldn't be the same without any of us, so everyone will have the opportunity to direct any part they are particularly excited about.
The Camera Operator
The Camera Operator is the person (quite literally) behind the camera, they are in charge of actually filming the project and are therefore responsible for making decisions such as what camera lenses to use for a specific shot, what angle compliments the lighting best, what movement amplifies a scene's emotion more, etc...
Max will be the main camera operator - he is experienced with cameras as photography is one of his biggest hobbies and he is the most comfortable with adjusting specific settings or position to get the best shot possible. He is clearly very talented with handling a camera as seen whilst filming our test shoot, despite using my camera that I had been using for nearly two years, he immediately got the hang of its intricacies a lot quicker than I had and had a very stable hold on it.
Similarly with directing, we will all rotate in our turns holding the camera, only with Max taking on the majority of the scenes.
The Editor
The Editor is in charge of pulling together a completed project from hours of raw footage, they choose the best takes and cut them together to make a smoothly flowing sequence. Oddly enough, their job is actually to make their efforts somewhat invisible as good editing should pretty much go unnoticed by the viewer (unless cuts between shots are meant to be purposefully jarring of course), so maintaining a consistent and fluid pace is key.
We decided to split this role a bit more evenly among the group as it is essentially crafting the finished product and collective input is very important. So I will be the one doing the actual practical editing as I have edited a lot of previous projects and am more used to editing software, but will be working closely with Max and Joy as we all make the decisions on what I'm doing together.
Art Director
Whilst the Director is in charge of the overall 'feel' of a project, the Art Director is in charge of the purely visual aspects of that project. They are responsible for constructing a consistent aesthetic style for the sequence to follow and should therefore have a good understanding of what the director wants to achieve in order to match the visuals accordingly.
Joy will mainly take on this role as she is an exceptionally creative person and has a very good sense of visual storytelling, her talent is reflected in her very impressively drawn storyboards - she has a clear vision for this project's style that works perfectly with Max and I's ideas.
Since Max knows the most about what set and props we will be working with, he and Joy will work closely to bring her ideas to life with what will be available to us. I will also very gladly add my own contributions since we share very similar ideas already, and I like to consider myself a very visually oriented person as well.
(I mean - look at the emotion in those eyes!)
Producer
Generally speaking, the Producer is essentially responsible for making sure a project actually happens as they supervise all aspects of production; they have to manage financial decisions and hire the best fitting crew whose talents compliment each other as well as the overall film, all whilst working around a budget.
Finally, due to the collaborative nature of this project, our group has chosen to share this responsibility equally as we have each contributed our own purchases and efforts into its execution, so we will all remember to make sure everyone is organised and knows what they are doing, since only one person having this role would most likely prove to be overwhelming as we all already hold a lot of responsibilities and we are generally most comfortable with sharing this main job together.
