Professional Practise - Main Goal - Post 10

Delegating:

In my last post I said I was going to make an effort to delegate tasks to prepare for the documentary in Beijing. Basically, I didn't do it. I did do a little bit of work myself by writing some emails to potential subjects in Beijing, but apart from that, nothing. My most recent documentary idea (for documentary class, not Beijing) fell through this week though, so on Tuesday I will be meeting with Scott and Sima to talk about adapting my documentary assignment to cover the Beijing preparations instead. That will mean that it will be much easier to devote my time to Beijing preparations from now on, so I may be doing more delegating starting from next week.

Boundaries:

This week the year 3s worked on the shoots for the year 3 actors' film, with Athina as director. I was filling the role of Director's Assistant, and also took a small turn at 2nd Unit Director as well.

Being the DA mostly meant doing nothing, but at times this was more difficult than it sounds. For instance, being on set close to the director and watching them work all the time with little else to do means there is plenty of time and headspace to think about what I would do in the same situation. I'm generally a pretty outspoken person, so it was often difficult to keep my suggestions to myself. There were a couple of times when I slipped them in if I thought it was timely or important enough, and fortunately my suggestions were appreciated, rather than causing irritation, so I'm pleased that I was able to be tactful and stay quiet or speak at the right moments. I think this is something that would have to be gauged with each different director and situation, and it is important to read the mood well. The other boundary I had to consider was between myself as DA and the people in the production team. As someone who has never been a DA, or worked with a DA, or seen a DA work, this was actually quite difficult to negotiate, because the production roles are called "assistant directors" for a reason. Some of what I was doing intersected with what the 3rd AD and the PA were doing, and I still don't really know what the real difference is with being a DA by comparison.

As for doing the 2nd unit stuff, I think I did quite well when working with Leigh on this occasion, on an interpersonal basis at least. Doing the 2nd unit stuff was a surprise for both of us, and there was no preparation whatsoever, AND we were working with a 2 year old, so basically any attempts to control the situation would have been utterly futile. Since I am normally considered to have control issues, I guess the circumstances saved me from airing these at the time. The work with Leigh was nice and fluid and we felt like a good team, however when we watched the rushes we could see that the product had suffered for the lack of control and preparation.