Zachariah Hassler

What went well? Overall, this project has gone well from a personal perspective. Right from the start, the group aspect went well. We were each set clear roles, for which I was able to prepare. I was able to communicate my thoughts and ideas to the director and he always took my feedback into consideration which helped build my confidence and kept me feel a member of the project team. I feel I was able to develop my research skills in this project. I found it especially interesting to research similar tv shows/ films and this helped me choose an aesthetic style to replicate for our own film.  I spend quite a lot of time looking into how different shot types are achieved, what specialist shot types there are and what equipment is used. This helped me put together a plan for the shooting day.  I was well prepared for all group meetings and did better with meeting timescales. I was prepared to bring relevant products to meetings at the right time. While there were a few incidents...

For the preproduction phase, I was responsible for creating the biographies and casting posters:  Here is a casting call I created. This is a screenshot from one page of our shotlist. This is the casting call for our shoot day. This is a page from our storyboard.

I enjoyed this phase of the project more. I find the research and writing most challenging so focus on the production and creative side suits me best. I also enjoyed exchanging ideas with the rest of the group even when it pushes me out of my comfort zone at times. For my aesthetic research, I focussed on similar TV shows and films which shared a similar aesthetic and style to our own vision for the film. I took a number of screenshots, visited local pubs and restaurants in Maidstone and in London to identify the type of location that best caters to the look and feel of our film.  I really liked the natural sound in the Groundhog day scenes and researched sound to better understand how sound is recorded for dialogue scenes and which equipment would work best to achieve the sound. I have not done much work with sound before other than recording interviews so this is something new for me.  For our group presentation, I put together a slide showing the visuals and standstills I f...

Following from my initial research, I have focussed on my deeper case study this week. I have been researching TV dramas as well as films. For my case study I have chosen Groundhog Day because it is one of the films we have considering as the basis for our project.  Groundhog Day is one of my all-time favourite films so watching it again was a pleasure. This 1993 classic 1993 stars Bill Murray as Phil Connors, a cynical weatherman who finds himself trapped in a time loop, reliving the same day over and over again in the small town of Punxsutawney. As Phil grapples with his situation, he undergoes a transformation from an arrogant, self-centred man to someone who appreciates the people and world around him. While we watch the same day on repeat and time stands still, Phil changes with every replay.  The cinematography of the film supports the main premise of the film that reliving a day over and over again creates an opportunity to make good for mistakes and even changes your l...

I have struggled with time management, length of my written work and teamwork in previous units so my starting point for this project was to reflect on what I can do to improve this time. I intend to use these blogs to record some of my progress and ongoing challenges.  I have now begun my research for our new group project. Reading is not my strong point, so I recognise I have to do my research in small chunks and use voice notes wherever possible to ensure I don’t forget what I research. In this blog I want to reflect on my research so far and my understanding of my role in the project overall.  I started off my research by researching my role by looking into the role of a cinematographer, which was really interesting.  The role of a cinematographer is key in the industry brining the director’s vision to life and also advising the scenes lighting conditions. The relationship of the cinematographer with the director and other crew is inherently important in creating the ...