Major Project: Production Meeting & Research

Production meetings are an important part of the preparation for production and shouldn't be overlooked. They enable everyone to be sure on their roles, and listen to any ideas anyone may have - as well as letting the crew know more about the story so they can have an idea of the tone and style. 
Vic and I wanted to get together with our crew to make sure everyone know what they was doing so we arranged a meeting at our house. Prior to this, I wanted to do a little research to see if there was anything extra we should be discussing with the crew. I found http://www.masteringfilm.com/how-to-run-an-efficient-feature-film-production-meeting/ which had a full list of helpful advice which I have written below.

• Schedule regular production meetings and stick to them. Don’t rely on ad hoc gatherings to keep everyone informed. Events happen too fast and plans change too often for everyone to be kept abreast via casual chats. Keep in constant touch with the key creative staff. Learn to work in a nonlinear fashion. It is a juggling game. The production team needs to work on many things at the same time.

We had been emailing back and forth production schedules, however Mastering Film mentioned that you should be keeping everything formal, therefore this is another reason why we should have meetings, so no one can miss and email or forget to reply to anything. 

• Production meetings are opportunities to brainstorm ideas and to solve problems. The key to running an effective production meeting is to be organized and to stick to the agenda. Maximize the time you spend with the crew. Respect all points of view, but don’t linger too long on one issue with the whole crew present. Deal with a particularly thorny issue later with only the appropriate crew members. You might have to set up smaller meetings with individual department heads—art, camera, sound, wardrobe, props, hair, and makeup—to deal with specific issues in their respective areas.

Here are some additional suggestions:

• Hold the production meeting at the same time and place each week.
• Have refreshments available.
• Before the meeting, make sure everyone has a copy of the script.
• Set a time limit for the meeting.
• Publish and hand out a written agenda if possible.
• Moderate the meeting, keeping everyone focused on one topic at a time.
• Deal with one department at a time.
• At the end of the meeting, summarize the points of agreement.
• Assign tasks to appropriate crew members.
• Set an agenda for the next meeting.
• Distribute follow-up notes of decisions made (via email).

Throughout the meeting there was Vic and I, Chris, Patricia and Lawrence. Vic and I made sure to have production schedules printed so the crew knew the initial dates (whilst I was working on call sheets) and we had a few copies of the script printed ready for the crew. 

We made sure to follow the suggestions that I researched such as going through each topic one at a time and not getting too confused in what we was talking about. We also went through each persons role along with what additional tasks they may need to do and how they would be working, ie. if the cameraman would be working on a tripod or not, and if the sound technician would be working from a boom all day or not. Patricia's role was also especially crucial to talk about. She would be Vic's assistant on the day, along with helping me out with anything I need. We have runners ready so she shouldn't have to help with too much however she will be doing the clapper board for Vic, along with saying what shot we are on (to enable us to sync the clip and sound together) and making sure everyone is quiet on set. Patricia will also be there to look after the extras on the day we have the ball scene and audience scene as the theatre is quite small and we need someone to be making sure they are quiet when needed, but also available when we need them. 

The meeting went really well, we first went through the entire story and let everyone ask questions and know what it was about. They all know the theme and tone and feel confident. Next, we went over everyones roles, everyone was pretty confident, however, Chris is our back up camera man as he is most confident doing camera rather than sound.

Finally, prior to the filming we asked everyone to bring along their schedules for the month we was filming, this would help us to decided if everyone was definitely available for filming. Everyone said they was available however we had a couple of maybes with Lawrence, which needs to be sorted soon! 

The next step for our team is to receive more paperwork (call sheets) and make sure everyone is up to date all the time and knows whats going on.