Having applied early on in the week for a position on the filming team for ‘A Day in the Life of a Consultant’ I attended a meeting with Carla Mahoney. Carla had selected her team to create the short film for the British Medical Association documenting the jobs carried out by consultants over a day.
The team selected by Carla consisted of Jordan Declaire, Rebecca Konig, Rachel Davies, Arianne Kenworthy, Matt Holmes, Ben Thomas and of course myself. As a group we met with Carla for the first time today to discuss the film and what she is looking for and what we could bring to the project.
As a group we decided straight away that there should be multiple cameras being used in order to capture all of the necessary elements. With the numbers within the team it is also possible to carry this out without too much trouble.
The roles of each member of the team was also decided upon, we ensured that everyone was happy with the positions and were capable of carrying them out. The potions of the team are:
Camera/Sound = Matt Holmes, Arianne Kenworthy & Ben Thomas
Editing = Jordan Declaire & Myself
Producer= Rebecca Konig
Assistant Producer = Rachel Davies
I was very happy to be chosen as an editor as I have found the process fascinating and enjoyable. The idea of taking raw footage and placing it in to the timeline in order to create the final product is something I think of as a satisfying element of working on a project. Also it allows me to enhance my skills on final cut pro or adobe premier pro depending on which software we decide to use.
I also feel comfortable with Jordan as my partner in the editing process as we have previously worked on projects together, more specifically editing. We find that we can communicate and work well together ensuring that the work is consistent and that our ideas are similar. This cancels out any issues we may have over different ideas. Having worked with Rebecca and Rachel before also helps as I know when it comes to the editing process they will give us clear instructions of what their looking for as well as taking our suggestions in to account.
Having decided on the roles we then moved on to discussing the elements needed within it to highlight every element of the consultants day. Also it needs to be linked to the previous film created called ‘The Day in the Life of a GP’.
It was decided that there definitely had to be an interview with the consultant in order to add personality and character to the title of the consultant. For this we were looking at a two camera set up. Moving on from this we would have a camera collecting GV’s of the hospital and the patients involved in it.
We then discussed how we should following him from the moment he leaves his house to arriving at the hospital. The main elements we know we need to connect the film all together are shots of the consultant talking to patients, in theatre performing surgeries and talking to other members of staff.
The idea of voxpop’s were also discussed and mentioned as we all felt it would give the piece a personal element to the piece. It would allow both the public and patient’s would be able to give their opinions on the consultants and what they carry out. It would highlight the job people think consultants carry out and what they actually do within their jobs.
Before filming we all believed that visiting the hospital and picking out the rooms which would be suitable for the filming process. It would also allow us to meet with the consultant before hand and discuss the interviews and what he would like shown in the piece.
With everyone happy and comfortable with the ideas and roles the meeting ended with the knowledge that Carla would contact us once a hospital and consultant had agreed to filming.
I feel with this project we are on course and can complete it within a reasonable time period leaving us ready to take on other projects.
Mirella Burgess 