Planning for Theoretical problems

Problems I may encounter when researching and How I plan to resolve these problems
planning

There are many possible problems that I could theoretically encounter whilst researching and
planning for my short film. Some of them include:

Not getting enough/the right responses from If I don’t get enough survey responses, I will
surveys. send it further afield to others still in my target
audience.

Trouble finding actors First, I must be realistic with my storyline –

and by that, I mean not having a character that
I know I won’t be able to find an actor for. If
after auditions, I still can’t find an actor- I will
resort to asking the Henley College Drama
Department.

Actors being unreliable is not a problem that I

Unreliable actors want to encounter during my FMP. To make
sure that this doesn’t happen- I will choose my
actors wisely, making sure I know when they
are free and when they aren’t. Furthermore, as
this is my Final Project, and I don’t want to
risk casting unreliable actors- I will stick to
familiar faces.

Locations can be a big issue in productions,

Locations not having permission, not right for the film
etc. Before filming, I will carefully select my
locations and ask for permission to film (If
needed) well in advanced. I will also create my
location recee’s to sort out any other possible
problems.

Weather We can’t control the weather; nor can we

predict the weather for the future- which
means I don’t know what the weather is going
to be like when I film. I will make sure to have
(spare) days free in case the weather ruins the
filming day plans- for example it starts heavily
raining.
 With Corona Virus (Covid-19) still present, I
Covid/illness/injuries need to be cautious how that could affect
myself, my actors and my overall production. I
will audition and cast ‘back up actors’ for if
my actor(s) fall ill and are unable to be in my
film. As for me, I must be wary over the
upcoming months, to make sure I don’t get
covid, and if I do- I need to make sure that
everything else is done to the best of my ability
whilst I am isolating.

Planning for practical and technical problems

Problems I may encounter when researching and How I plan to resolve these problems
planning

Before filming, I’ll need to make sure that my

Camera battery running out of charge camera battery is fully charged, and if I’m
filming all day- possibly borrowing a spare
battery would help too.

Just like the camera battery, I will make sure to

Memory card full come prepared with enough space on my
memory card to film the required footage.
Lights not working If the lights that I am using are being
temperamental, I’ll either have to make do
with natural light and use other sources of light
(lamps, phone torch etc.)- or reschedule to film
another day.

Mid project check-up (After research)

So far, everything is going rather smoothly. I haven’t encountered any of these problems just yet.
My idea has changed since I planned for these theoretical problems, so locations and actors have
changed but that’s all in my control. The only slight problem I faced was that it started to rain
whilst I was taking my location photos, but that wasn’t too much of a problem as I still got all the
photos I needed.

End project review

It’s coming to the end of my project, and there were far more minor problems than I encountered
than I thought. Most were salvageable but some weren’t. First was the weather. When filming the
‘playground’ scene with my neighbours and their friends, it heavily started hailing despite being
sunny all day! Unfortunately, that was the only day I could film with my neighbours’ friends,
which was annoying but it all worked out as I re filmed that scene with the main young children
 after the Easter holidays. The scene might have not turned out how I had originally intended but I
am still proud of how it turned out.

Next, was availability. One problem I faced was that two of my main actors went away to Thailand
with their family for 3 weeks around Easter Holidays. Luckily, I found out a few weeks before so I
could plan around them. The Easter Holidays was my main filming week, but as I knew they would
be away, I filmed their sections before, and after making sure that that scene was the only scene left
to film.

The main problem I encountered was audio. Luckily, due to owning a mic, audio wasn’t too much
of a problem at first. However, when filming in the corner shop, the mic picked up the fridge noises
which were so loud! Unfortunately, you couldn’t hear the dialogue very well, but I sorted it out by
re-recording the audio of that scene in the shop office (the week after, when I realised!), and synced
it up to the clips. Thankfully it didn’t look or sound too bad. Not until I exported it at least. In
premiere pro, the overlaid audio sounded too loud so I reduced the volume to what I thought was
the perfect level, however when exported the audio was much quieter than in premiere pro.

Lastly, another audio related problem I faced was the wind being too loud in one single scene.
Similarly, to the shop scene, the mic picked up a lot of the wind (it was a very windy day to be fair)
and the dialogue wasn’t heard. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t listen back to that scene after filming
as I was so relieved to have finished filming. I realised on deadline day, whilst at college so had to
compromise with voice message voice overs. They didn’t particularly match up very well, but I did
the best that I could in the situation I was in.