Overall, I believe the project went very well and it was productive, I can
say this due to the number of challenges, tough decisions, and hard work me and my time had to undergo to turn my vision into reality. I believe I was
successful in allowing my team members talents to shine through during the
production of the game show. I allowed my team members to take part in the
roles they enjoyed and this was to ensure that the moral of my group stayed
high and that they were able to enjoy the process of creating the show. This
meant that the work required to bring the show off the script didn’t feel like
a chore, rather a fun activity that everyone could take part in. As director my
role was to make sure that everything ran smoothly with no major inconveniences or difficulties. On the other hand, my group had to deal with many challenges that were out of my control. When we were assigned our groups, we were one person short which put us at a disadvantage from the very beginning. However, as we progressed further into the project we adjusted to managing with a smaller number of people, that was until my floor manager was released from the course due to reasons that were unexpected and strange. He left at a very crucial time where the group needed stability. Due to his absence, our group then struggled during the critical stages of the pre-production planning. Our project idea required outside talent and in the grand scheme of things, bringing in people from performing arts proved to be partly good and partly in effective in achieving what I originally ambitioned the show to look like.
As the director before doing anything further in the project I had to
appoint a member of my group to be floor manager to replace my last one. I had
to then arrange for performing arts students to come to me along with my new
floor manager and the rest of the team for an audition in order to see who was
the most suitable for the role. This however took a lot longer than expected as
the actors weren’t free during the time I planned. Looking back, I should have
called the actors in earlier just in case they couldn’t make it, that way I
would have time to arrange a later date that didn’t make my group lose valuable
rehearsal time. We had to audition the actors during the period all the other
groups were at their first rehearsal. Nevertheless, we watched both performing
arts students attempt the role of the host. After watching both actors my group
came to a mutual agreement that they were not the ones for the role as they struggled with articulating their words and didn’t have the charisma I was looking for. The actual auditions were an aspect of the pre-production planning that I believe went the worst as I sincerely believe my hopes were too high and I was expecting
something that couldn’t be achieved. Next time I will ensure that I make my
expectations based on what I’ve seen and not on my imagination. After deciding
that these actors were not the ones, we were expecting to audition two more
actors the next in high hopes they would pull something out of the bag however
they pulled out last minute leaving us no choice but to hire the actors we had
just auditioned. I decided that two performing arts students would fit as
contestants but not host because they lacked charisma and clear speech. So, I
decided to place a member of my group in as the host who i believed I could mould into the character I originally imagined. This was something i believe was successful as in the end Omar (the host) became more comfortable with himself and the role and delivered a solid performance.
The very rehearsals themselves I believe were very successful as my group
had their first rehearsal when the other groups were on their second. This at
the time seemed like a problem however the lost rehearsal time gave us more
time to organise exactly how everything will look and gave the talent more time
to familiarise themselves with the script. Meaning as soon as we got in the studio, we knew exactly what we needed to do. The host needed some strong criticism and I made sure he understood where he went wrong and where to improve. My floor manager who was working on all three cameras got to get comfortable with supervising the set and monitoring all cameras at once. the actors new there
lines however also needed harsh criticism to help them improve. The rehearsals
we had as a team I believe were extremely productive and very useful in terms
of everyone getting to grips with their roles.
For the gameshow me and my previous floor manager recorded some footage of
us going out into the public asking questions. And this was partly successful
as we asked half the questions, we wanted to ask however the other half were
left unanswered and this was because many people weren’t comfortable with us
recording them. Next time instead of asking random people I would get friends
of mine to act as the random public in order to ensure I get all my questions
answered to the quality I want. In order to tackle the issue of having half the
public aid I needed I recorded a video of me asking the questions to my vision
mixer/ graphic designer who did well.
Writing the script was the main aspect of making sure my gameshow came together. The script gave the actors understanding of the rules and humour that I wanted the show to have. I began writing my script after my original floor manager left, which was a big mistake as I should have started sooner to ask him for help and advice. Nevertheless I wrote it alone which meant it took double the time it should have. in my next project I will aim to be more of a team player in that aspect and not burden myself with unrealistic duties. Even though it was unrealistic, I still managed to complete the script but it was very late and this meant that the talent had to be very fast in learning their dialogue for the real filming date.
Some feedback we received was very useful in allowing me to see where I could have improved. An example of some criticism would be that the gameshow required more action. In future projects will be sure to focus more on the entertainment and humorous aspect of my project. As I believe I neglected this aspect of the gameshow due to the heavy weight of responsibilities I had on my shoulders. Although the audience had a positive and fun experience whilst watching my show, I believe I could have increased this by maybe asking more time to create more humour in the script and possibly adding more engaging visuals.
Positive feedback points my group received was that the public aid was the funniest part of the show. Agree with this entirely as that’s the reason I originally came up with the idea. I thought that it would be good to have some variation in what the audience were seeing so I decided to include the public aid. The transition from the studio to the gameshow was something the audience found engaging and eye catching. I believe I was right in doing the public aid as it kept the audience drawn into the project. In the future I plan to carry through this aspect of variation and possibly increase the variation in my projects to make sure I stand out.
One of the types of feedback points we received that I found to be the most important was that there was no buzzer sound. this small factor resulting in the quality of hr gameshow being lowered. the reason I couldn’t include buzzer sound effects because it was too hard to time with the contestants. Furthermore, buzzer sound effects took too long to find so I had to compromise and leave it out to keep my team above water. This has taught me a valuable lesson that in future projects the small details that seem insignificant should be the first thing addressed. For my next project I will not procrastinate, and I’ll do my best to analyse all the little pieces before worrying about the bigger picture.
Peer assessment
Yousef was very helpful throughout the whole production stage and also wrote the script which even made it easier to not include more team members to help. He was well planned thought the whole thong and I think he was a really good director.
This was my peer feedback from one of the actors in my group. I do agree that I was well organised as I did a lot of the difficult work that needed to be done. I showed determination punctuality and good leader qualities to ensure that my group listened to my ideas yet felt comfortable to express any suggestions they had. Although this feedback was positive I still do think their was a lot of room for improvement for me such as being more efficient with my time, having better time management and not having unrealistic expectations.
In conclusion I do believe that through the challenges me and my group faced I was still successful in directing a well thought out gameshow with amazing graphics, good camera work and solid acting performances.
I confirm that the attached assessment is all my own work and does not include any work completed by anyone other than myself and sources have been appropriately referenced.