Juilian Wintle as a Producer of The Avengers - Essay Example

?Film Journal Shooting a film on 35mm color film stock that will be constructed by our unit in one of the professional studio outside our school willtake place in the fifth month. The shooting of the film is usually a more intensive and professional exercise that will require discipline at a high level, and an understanding of the craft, along with a teamwork that is well planned. During the film shooting that will take place in the fifth term, my role will be the producer. Production is vital in filmmaking. According to Juilian Wintle who is the producer of The Avengers, the success and failures of a film from the time of the script through all the stages to the final stage of production. The experience comes over a period, and it is born out of creative and the technical expertise, and above all the love for the job of film production with the ability to choose the right talent. For a film to be able to realize itself, the producer will have the responsibility of assessing the film to ensure it is to the expected level. He will tend to the film from the time of conception to the time it will be completed. The producer will serve as the organizer of the film, and he will provide a good environment so that the entire team that is involved in the production of the film can flourish for the good of the film. Most films made in Hollywood the producers are the decision makers during studio system. This is because they supervise a variety of films at the same time, controlling the stories, the budgets and the overall production taking care of each aspect of the production on a whole, thereby being responsible for the fate of the entire films. Producers are responsible for the development of ideas, and once they are attached to the idea, they put around the right team and go ahead to supervise the entire functioning. For instance, Irving Thalberg, who was once famously involved in over a hundred productions. David O. Selznick, the producer of ‘Rebecca’ was instrumental in bringing Alfred Hitchcock to Hollywood to direct the film because of Hitchcock’s expertise with thriller-suspense cinema. Hitchcock took charge of the film and was so good with his work that Selznick famously said that the only director he can ever trust a film with was Hitchcock. The producer, in some instances such as the one mentioned above, might have a situation that is fragmented. The producer, in such a situation, will have many associates with him so that they may help him with his tasks. In other instances, he may not be the sole producer of the film and instead have many producers with him, and each of them will be performing different roles for the production. One of the producers will be in charge of the business activities while the other can handle creative responsibilities in the production of the film. One of the producers, on the other hand, can be a major investor and, therefore, may not be directly involved in the production of the film. A co-producer may buy the script or the film’s star to the production, on the other hand. Martin Scorsese’s film of ‘The Aviator’ had four producers – Michael Mann, Graham King, Sandy Climan, and Charles Evans Jr. - sharing the responsibilities. A producer is, therefore, responsible for providing the final film to the audience. He, therefore, enjoys the entire responsibility of the film. In several occasions, a writer, star of a film, or a director will produce his own film for having a full artistic control of the film. The most spectacular and perilous example being of Francis Ford Coppola who was the co-writer, producer and director of his most famous film ‘Apocalypse now’. Producing children films have a different experience because the producer usually chooses to be attached to a specific project together with his team. Most of the children films have limited resources, and it is the responsibility of the producer to make the film possible. The producer will work together with his people, together with the director of the film and try to achieve the specific goal of the film by performing specific managerial functions such as budgeting, crewing, casting, locations among other managerial tasks. Therefore, even though the producer will work as a production manager, he will be allocated a small budget. Roger Corman who produced The Terror having a limited budget is one of the setbacks in film production that is big. That is when you end up with very bad work. From Cormans advice, I did the best I can to make a film that is achievable with the available resources. I did this by first understanding the script because as a producer, one of the most important aspects in filmmaking is to understand the script to have all the ingredients that have gone in the script along with the working scenario. This allowed me to put it to best possible use. The film is about a young girl named Tanya who is 16 years old. She faces difficulties and grief after the death of her father. Zoe, her mother, is also trying to deal with the broken relationship that she had with her husband before his death. She, therefore, pushes Tanya away making her get lost. Tanya goes and spends time in her father’s allotment shed because this is the only place where she feels close to her father amongst his things. The memories and music enable her to find a way of not of not only beginning to process what happened, but also how to reconnect with her mother, so she can start to do the same. This story was the preferred one for the exercise because it is realistic with lots of drama, and it requires two main actors. This film has very few locations such as the one council block. Being the film producer my main interest was on the development of the script. We, therefore, organized script conferences where script editors, the director and I attended. I became the mediator for both the directors and the script editors. Being a mediator, I was in a position that enabled me to pick good suggestions from all of them and pinpoint things that did not have much appreciation. It gave me a position of giving feedback along with my opinions and suggestions. Being a producer, I had to think about the script in relation to the budget given for the making of the movie. For example, some scenes in script required a lot of money to shoot and it could lead us to go over budget that we had. Therefore, I discussed that we director and script editor and we tried to find a solution by cutting some scenes and adding some substitute scene in a way to reduce the expenses but not harm the story. I was able to coordinate the directors’ demands, as well as the ideas and suggestions of the script editors. I went ahead and tried making the vision of the picture conform to that of the director because it is important that the director and I spoke to each other about our goals and stood on the same ground. From my view, it is good that we had a discussion on these areas, and we were able to try to figure out effective ways of dealing with them. The step that follows will involve photography director and camera operator. He is responsible for looking at the film and after bringing our references such as painting and films. The meeting with photography and camera operator is to discuss the look of the film. I participated in the film casting. Casting can be done in various ways. The mother-daughter duo audition was my preferred option that I advised the director to adopt. The main reason for using real mother-daughter duo was to bring their personal experience on set. The main reason behind using this was to aid in developing the relationship that existed and be able to adjust to the requirements. This idea is best expressed in the movie Ten (2002) that was directed by Abbas Kiarostami. In that film, Kiarostami used a real mother and son, and the result was very realistic and believable. The mother figure requires a woman who is homely and slightly on the plump side. Getting the right actor for the role was somehow difficult due the type of appearance that was required. I had received curriculum vitae of an actress who had relevant experience and athletic features. The actress gave a very pleasant audition, and she seemed perfect for the role except for the physical appearance she had. At this point, I had to convince the director to let go off the fixation that was done on the plumpness that was required of an actress, which to me, seem unimportant. It is important for the director to start rehearsals and spend time with the actors in preparing for the roles due to the tight auditions that was in place. I suggest to the director that we start to rehears with her the back story of her character in the movie that she supposed to act, and it helped her a lot to get into the character. From the interview of Nanni Morreti, a film director from Italy, he mentioned that he prefers using this technique during rehearsal. One scene was exterior on location, and it therefore, there was a requirement of five extras. The director did this because he wanted to improvise the scene with non-actors in the location. I had bad thoughts about this idea asked her to do rehearsal with non-actors for the scene. I had a dangerous perception of the production relying on non-actors for that scene basing on the consideration of the little film stock that was present at this stage during the shooting. Improvising the scene by the daughter was also difficult especially with the non-actors without the rehearsal that could eventually result in consumption of a lot of time that was not present at that particular time. From my point of view, it would have been demanding the crew from the production design department and sound department to dress the actors and prepare them for the scene. The most important reason for these is that they may pose a risk of them demanding money that the film could not afford. We had to build a shed and a kitchen for our studio set. The task was demanding in terms of arranging props and the costs involved during the construction process. Seventy per cent of the total budget was spent on production design of the film, basing on the list that was provided to me by the production design department of my team. I shared this list with producers of other film units with an aim of finding any common props. The reason for doing this is to try to share price of purchase or rent with other film units, which may have common props. The production designer of our film coordinated with other designers from other film units who would be shooting next to us. The reason for this coordination was to find out the common purchases and rentals with other film units to reduce costs by hiring props for a longer period. Our location looked like a block community of council flats staked together in numerous blocks. The permission to film the desired location was cancelled, several days before the time for shooting. I shared this development with our course tutor to seek his advice as soon as I realised the cancellation of the shooting permit. He made several suggestions and explained the consequences of shooting without the permission. Cancelling had many scheduling problems and therefore, I decided to go ahead and do the shooting at the estate even though I did not have permission to do the shooting there. When I look back at the risk I took, it hung on my neck. For instance, if one of the any of the resident had asked us to produce the permission letter, it would have been a very embarrassing situation for the unit. It could have resulted in loss of film stock and services of the actors. At other times during the shooting in the studio, I worked as an assistant director. Working as an assistant director required me to work closely with the members of the crew making sure the production of the film is on schedule at all times. It was easier for me because I had been involved in the scheduling and I was clear in what was required on a daily basis during the shooting of the film. The various actors that were present in the green room waited for long durations when the shot was being prepared and when the shot was set and rehearsed, most of the time was lost because they had no clue on how he had to perform the action. In such a situation, it is better to coordinate with the director to enable him coordinate with the actors, hence being able to save time on various occasions. We had dolly shooting of the film at the last day for film shooting. The shot was prepared after the director explained everything. Once the rehearsals began, they experimented with different lenses, changing the shot thereby making it complicated. The shot required dollying towards the actor as she sits behind the table. The camera operator and grip rehearsed the shot many times with the stand in. We had already lost more time by the time the movement was locked. I should have made the director of photography and the director meet before the onset of the preparation of the shot. The available time could therefore be used by D.O.P in doing preliminary rigging and placing of lights in preparation for the shot. Since this has been the most complicated shot of the film, I could have asked the director to work closely with the camera operator for preparing the shot and not giving him the feed after every time frame was set. Producer has much assistance to the film director during the time because he provides objective points when the filming process moves along. Most of the times the director and other film crews are not able to see discrepancies. At this point, the point the producer pertains on the performance and the technical aspect of the film. From the production time of this film, I have become a better film director and have acquired an understanding of the craft of filmmaking. I have gained an understanding of the importance of being a strong producer who is a spine in the production of a film. Read More