5 Phases of Making a Fiction Field Production I Film

Well my friends, it's that time of the year. Picture Lock season. Each and everyone of us has worked hard, suffered greatly, and felt like we've gotten nothing accomplished. But as we near the end of our filmmaking journey, I want to reflect on the steps we've taken (or at least I've taken) to get to this point.

5 Phases of Making a Fiction Field Production I Film

1. Pick Your Group
Though this seems like an easy task, the cooperation of your team members can either make or break your film and/or mental state. A group that works well together and has members with different strengths makes the difficult process of making a film a little bit easier. They become your family. Either you love them or you hate them, but you're attached to them no matter what. Thankfully, I got lucky and have a really strong group with some great people, and they have become not only my coworkers, but my friends.

2. Pre-Production
You're all so excited. "We're going to make a movie!" You assign jobs, then start planning how the rest of the semester is going to go. You have to write the script, find sponsors, start a fundraising campaign, get actors, get additional crew members, get locations, storyboard, start production design, the list goes on... forever. But you're bright-eyed and bushy tailed, ready to take on this film and make your family proud. So how do you get started? You don't... for weeks. Because you think you have time. You have all semester! Why bother?

Don't worry, it'll all get done. Right?

3. Beginning Production
Nope. You were wrong. You were so, so wrong. By now you've wasted at least three weeks, spring break has come and gone and you haven't even casted. The script may or may not be done (sorry guys, my bad), and you have to start filming in a week. As of right now, your blood pressure is shot through the roof. You have to distribute flyers and still make a blog post. Coffee is your new best friend. But you get together with your group and you muddle through it, dealing with one crisis after another to start on time. You are now familiar with panic attacks, but feel like you have gained superhuman powers at the same time. This is what adulthood feels like, and although you're unsure of the future, you go into the next phase head on.

4. Production
You're in the heart of your production phase. Check your pulse. Yes, you're still alive, but barely. You haven't slept in what feels like years. Your friends and family are worried because they haven't heard from you and don't know where you are. You forget that you have other classes, and your grades suffer from it. Coffee is not your friend, but has become a part of your bloodstream.

Schedules are no longer set in stone. Film shoots are temperamental, either convincing you that you will be the next Steven Spielberg or making you rethink your entire career and future. Arturo laughs as your health deteriorates, slowly but surely. Someone, if not every single person in your group has had some sort of a mental breakdown. But post production is so close, so you torture yourself a little bit longer, hoping and praying that something, ANYTHING good will come of this hell known as filmmaking.

5. Post-Production
You think you'd be relieved, but the work has really just begun. This is the part where you save your film from every little and big mistake that you've made during pre-production and production. And it all falls on the one or two people you call your editors. Thankfully, this is not me, but I have a feeling my work is not done. As we approach this stage of our voyage, I can only hope that it's smooth sailing. But like all of my hopes and dreams this semester, I'm fully aware that this will not be the case. Until then, I'll live my life day by day and hopefully come out of this with at least one lesson: Making films is hard. If anyone ever says anything different, this semester has shown me that it is completely appropriate to react with physical violence.

So to everyone in my class, and all future Fiction Field members, I wish you luck as we come to the close of the longest (yet shortest) semester of my life, and I look forward to all of our hard work to translate into something we're not embarrassed to show even our parents.

(Bonus) Wrap Party

End-of-semester Reflection

As the semester comes to a close, I have a lot to think about and a lot to reflect upon; mainly, the new-found appreciation I have for the field of film production. Before this class, I can confidently say that I already knew much more about the industry than the vast majority of my friends. I've always had an appreciation for the film industry and for those who work in it, but not to this level.

Last year, I took an intro to field production course, and I certainly learned a lot from it, but my overall opinion of film production was not at all affected through the experience. Fiction Field Production 1--through the semester-long project we had to complete--taught me a whole lot more about the industry than I ever would have thought possible.

What was so different about this class was the fact that, for the first time since I've gotten to this school, we were assigned a legitimate project that really put everyone's skills to the test. The project was simple (or so I thought): make a film that's based off a news story. The story can cover any topic and can be from any time period. Everyone in the class brought in a story, we voted on the two we liked best, and then we split ourselves into two groups.

With two groups of seven students, everyone was able to have their own crew position, instead of having everyone split the work evenly like in the intro class. The most exciting part was that we, for the most part, chose the group and position we would stick with for the entirety of the semester. As one who has never been particularly fond of preproduction work, I was ecstatic to be able to step aside and let someone else take care of it.

Now, while this was an especially exciting part of the project for me, it was also one of the more nerve-wracking aspects of the process. While it was no longer my responsibility to write, schedule, direct, or shoot the film (I was given the position of editor), it also meant that a whole lot of things were out of my control. Sure, I could give my input on whatever I wanted--and it was often well-regarded--but for the most part, the final decision on most things was not mine.

My point is that while it's nice to not have to bother myself with certain aspects of the project, it also meant that I had to have faith in my fellow group members. As one who tends to take control in a group setting, this was something I had to quickly learn to get over. From the very start, I had to constantly remind myself not to intervene in others' work and to trust them more than I usually would have in the past.

With everyone working on their own portion of the film, a whole lot more effort could be put into each aspect of the project, as opposed to when everyone had to split their efforts amongst everything. With every student putting forth a whole new level of effort into their work than I've ever seen before, I was able to really watch and admire everyone's talent while also taking the time to appreciate the amount of work they were each completing.

Yes, my job as editor had a lot of work that came with it as well, but to truly be able to see the amount of work that goes into the entire process of a film's production and the high level of skill that's required to make a quality product is unbelievable. I used to think we simply weren't using the proper equipment to make a good film, but it turns out that what it really takes is a group of talented students who are willing to put forth the effort. Duh.

Thank you, Arturo Sinclair, for a brand-new experience and for passing your knowledge onto all of us.

Here's the Facebook event for the screening this upcoming Saturday!