3.1 Teamwork

Teamwork is critical to the success of film production, as there are many interdependent roles involved. For a film to be successful, it has to be well-managed, or it risks being delayed or uncompleted. Delays can be costly, especially with massive film productions.

Varied roles in film production have to collaborate and communicate effectively so that the production team can achieve the director’s vision. Having strong teamwork will reduce the number of potential problems that will arise during production. For example, if the line producer effectively communicates shooting schedules, then all members required for production will be available at the right time. Also, if a director works closely with a cinematographer, it is easier to maintain a cohesive vision to avoid clashing ideas, which may be challenging to fix in post-production.
It is critical to film production for each member of the crew to collaborate. Good teamwork ensures that deadlines are met and that the production team can achieve its aims and goals with greater ease. With most of the members involved in film production being freelancers, good teamwork can inspire more significant innovation, benefiting the film. The blend of different ideas, careers, and experiences can lead to new ideas that the central members in production can utilise to improve the film’s quality.

Poor teamwork will lead to poor productivity and efficiency. Due to the nature of the film industry, where production is challenging to delay, having an inefficient crew will lose time and add to costs. Delays can make film productions more expensive than budgeted and slow them to the point of incompletion. For example, if shooting schedules are not communicated clearly to the right actors, then production cannot proceed as scheduled. Also, suppose a director has to take on the responsibility of other roles in the production. In that case, they are less likely to give their official position the due diligence it needs to complete the film’s desired vision.
However, although teamwork is essential to completing a film project, without the overarching guidance of a film producer and the director’s involvement in all creative aspects of production, the film will lack overall cohesion, have poor management, and likely be unsuccessful. It is the producer’s role to ensure production runs smoothly. It is the director’s responsibility to create an environment that encourages teamwork and inspires all crew members.

3.2 Qualities needed to work well with others

When working with others, it is valuable to display the following qualities. 

Good Communication
A production team can achieve good communication by having clear, direct channels of communication. Collecting relevant contact information during the first production meeting is an excellent way to manage your communication. For example, our producer created a central document with all of our contact information. Using documents like this means that all team members know the correct email addresses, phone numbers, or social media handles to use when communicating with others. We also created a group chat on Instagram to allow for quicker, more direct communication. This medium allowed us to share audio & visual files and written messages to brainstorm ideas and organise our meetings. This was in addition to our Shared Google Drive where we could view, edit and contribute content to the film project at our convenience. This software made it easy to gather important documents and keep our ideas organised. 

Reliability
Film productions run on tight schedules. Being reliable is beneficial because it is costly to go over budget. Imagine you are part of a team, but you cannot be depended on to do your job when needed. In that case, you can deter the production’s progress and reduce the possibility of you receiving recommendations for future projects. For our film project, I made sure that I had a direct understanding of my responsibilities and expectations as a camera operator. Knowing what I needed to do, and for when, made it easier to manage my time and get the work done. Also, I communicated with my team whenever the submission of a task they required of me may be delayed and if any situations arose that may have affected my ability to complete my assignments. 

Staying on Task
As creative as the film industry allows you to be, you have to stay on task. Staying focused is the only way to honour the team’s vision. If a team member is not prioritising their responsibilities, it could make it more difficult for other members to complete their jobs. For example, if I didn’t submit my interview footage on time for our project, then the editors will be delayed in getting the final cut of the film produced. Additionally, If I chose to divert away from my group’s expectations and disregard their instruction when working as a camera operator, I would have submitted footage that was inconsistent and too varied from the rest of the short film to be relevant. Staying focused on your job ensures your team can accomplish its goals on-time and in the desired format. 

Sharing Ideas
The film industry allows you to interact with different people who can contribute original ideas to group discussions. The BFI Academy is my first time working in a group on a film project. I found that our final film benefitted from the integration of our many ideas and experiences. By working together, we could suggest better ways to achieve our visual aims and managed to tell the story of identity in a captivating, genuine way. We all had different artistic influences and technical skills that, when put together, complemented each other and allowed us to work efficiently. Collaboration is essential to the film industry, and I loved witnessing the power of sharing ideas on improving a project’s quality. 

Good timekeeping
Having production delayed is costly and challenging for a film production team to manage. If crew members, props and sets are required for more time than budgeted, the producer has to assign more finance to cover these costs, leading to sacrifices in other departments. It is crucial to stay on task to avoid any further complications. For example, my team and I managed our time by generating a shooting script for our production. We scheduled times for recording, breaks and group discussions to make sure we covered all our bases and were reviewing footage as we went along. However, because some of us had to reshoot footage and had issues with accessing our contributors, our film’s final edit had to be delayed slightly to accommodate for the collation of the additional footage.

Safe Working
Protecting the wellbeing of your crew is necessary. Completing a risk assessment before any film production is a standard procedure and essential to ensuring all potential liabilities are considered. Having any form of injury, whether it’s damage to equipment or harm caused to a crew member, can cause delays to production and be expensive to fix. It is also a risk to endanger the safety and wellbeing of the members on set. For our short film production, we had to complete a risk assessment. Although we completed production for our project from remote locations, we still accounted for any possible risks and identified solutions if they occurred. 

3.3 Working collaboratively on your film production

The BFI Documentary Filmmaking Academy was my first joint group film project. Going into the film academy, I worried that I would struggle having my voice heard and suffer from working in a group when I’m accustomed to working independently. However, once we began pre-production for our final project, the group interaction quickly challenged my doubts. I thoroughly enjoyed working with other people, as my team members had fresh perspectives and interesting ideas regarding our given topic. This integration made it easy to establish a foundation for our project and move forward with our planning process without any conflict. It was easier to share my contributions with the group because we were all different people but had the same, desired outcome. Ironically, during our feedback session, each team member commented on my consistent contribution to group discussions and appreciated that I always had an idea or concept to pitch.

As it was my first time working as a group on a film project, I had never understood the critical role a producer plays in a film’s success. Our producer, Dilan Kaygisiz, was integral to our time-management and organisation. She created a shared Google Drive which allowed us to share resources quickly. Also, she set up regular meetings to plan our short film and took detailed notes during each session which helped track our progression during the planning process. She worked closely which each member of the group. For example, she would send me catch-up notes on meetings I was unable to attend and set up meetings outside of our course dates to finalise our ideas for the short film.

One of the main benefits of working with others was the sharing of ideas. I learned to trust in other people’s skills and abilities, as sometimes you have to rely on others and prioritise the quality of the final film over your desire to be in control. I found that being confident and friendly made it easier to work with others. I contributed my ideas without being disrespectful to the other contributors and have finally learnt the importance of good communication on group projects. However, one of the most significant challenges, especially working remotely, was maintaining consistency across the camera operators. As a result, the quality of our story suffered slightly. Because we had to self-direct our interview shoots, we were only able to review the footage after production. So, we could not communicate notes and suggestions during production to help create a cohesive, visual story across our interview subjects. The inability to work together in a traditional sense meant that we had to reshoot a lot of footage outside of our scheduled shooting days to create a more cohesive, final project. Besides that, my team and I worked well to manage any conflicts regarding our ideas and did our best to respect each other.

Moving forward, I think I want to be more confident to depend on my team and ask for help. Sometimes I was reserved and may have hesitated to express certain opinions or ideas. Still, after working with such a diverse group of people, I understand that it is important to be outspoken because it’s better to contribute than staying silent. Additionally, I want to continue working on group projects to improve my teamwork and people skills, especially the ability to reasonably consider other people’s ideas and let go of control.