List of things I did
- Made significant contributions to writing and rewriting the script.
- Designed a set of characters for consideration.
- Filmed all the casting call/auditions
- Storyboarded the entire piece with Jared
- Designed the website
- Directed photography for commercial
- Filmed the entire commercial
- 100% of shot clean up for commercial, camera stabilization
- 100% color correction and color grading for the commercial
- Designed a set of stylized graphics to be considered for posters/media
- Helped in table-reading/practice-reads with cast members
- Did several lighting and look development studies for the interstitials
- Filmed entire interstitial animatic (proof of concept)
- Filmed entire interstitials - handled camera, directed lights, came up with solutions to problems on set, actively contributed to staging of the actors and their movements
- Directed photography for the entire piece - made lighting plots and came up with moods for each scene
- 20% of Post production work - did shot clean ups, fog VFX, lightning VFX, lens flares, stabilized camera & added fake camera motions
- Did 100% of the color correction & color grading for the entire piece
- Did 100% Cinemascope bars for the entire piece
- Assisted in exhibition setup on one of the days
- Brought snacks for the exhibition break room
Three things that worked well
- Interstitials - in terms of visual quality, story-telling and continuity, this year's interstitials were on a league of its own. It has definitely pushed the boundaries in every way. Everyone in the interstitial committee was dedicated and worked with the attitude to create the best, which is the kind of attitude that must be encouraged.
- Exhibition - The lighting and mood of the space was quite successful, also the number of attendees and management was noteworthy. I hope next year we can find a better location for the exhibition.
- Scheduling - this was probably the first time in VizaGoGo history that all the production activities happened on schedule, and there was very little rush/crunch towards the end of the production. Everything went on extremely smoothly.
Three things that can be done better
- Publicity & Website - I was very disappointed with how the design for the website and publicity material was actually implemented. The website and publicity material was functional, but it failed to make any impact in my opinion. I feel like both these committees didn't really try to push the boundaries, they just worked with the attitude of "getting things done". From a producer's point of view this attitude is acceptable, but honestly this attitude dosen't really take anything to new levels. Next year it might be better to merge the publicity and website committees, and they need to be encouraged to try new things rather than just sticking to "let's just do what we did last year".
- Creative decisions - I felt that most of our in-class discussions latched on trivial topics that did not focus on the large picture. For instance, we would spend hours deciding where to put the text on a poster and everyone had a useless opinion. I feel that making such trivial creative decisions should be just left to 1-3 creative persons who have a strong creative incline and a background, rather than everyone. In class we must just focus on getting everyone on the same page, and keeping things on schedule, rather than asking for everyone's opinion on everything.
- Organization & Hierarchy - I feel like there should be a single Director for the whole event, who has the final say on the creative decisions. The producer takes care of scheduling and finance, while a strong directorial candidate will make final call on all creative decisions. This approach is more akin to the real world, and having lesser cooks in the creative decision kitchen will improve the quality and make sure that everything goes in one single direction. This is something that every VizaGoGo has lacked so far in my opinion. The whole event lacks direction, and every committee tries to take it in their own unique direction, this results in the whole event just looking like a hotchpotch of random things strung together. Having just one director with a strong vision would ensure that there is consistent quality across all committees and that the theme and style is coherent and obvious throughout the event. Although I was assigned the Art Director post this year, I think it was a completely vestigial role, for two reasons - I already had too many things on my hands and I couldn't focus on meeting with every committee consistently, secondly, my role wasn't clearly defined.
Class Organization Suggestions
I feel that the class can be organized in the following way.