Planning - contingency plan

Contingency plan

AS there are many pieces of equipment, lots of things to be borrowed and many experimental techniques being used us decided we should have a contingency plan so that if anything doesn’t go to plan there is a back up to our issues.  With a lot of prep beforehand, we were able to produce this plan in case things went wrong.

1.       Camera Braking – we always have the camera on our mind, it must be ready to film whenever we need it to keep production going. As our dates are limited we needed to complete on schedule. To prevent this being altered we will always have 2 cameras on hand as well as iPhone cameras which we have had success with in the past. All of these are stored with chargers and spare SD cards in case we fill them.

2.       Unavailable equipment – due to our producer being a drummer, we always had a drum kit ready to use. The issue comes with guitars and amps needing to be borrowed. These are sourced from our school. We have managed to plan around this with a spare amp and guitar that we can use from one of our friends. So if the amp or guitar were not available then we could use theirs. Things like mic stands are only needed in one scene and came with the venue so we were able to get lots of on site extra’s.

3.       Lights not working – This can always be a large issue when using a lot of lights. We are not prepared with a new set of lights but we do have a long cable connected to a socket and a light bulb so if they were not working then we could elevate the cable with the socket and use it as a spot light. This is obviously not the best compromise but it would allow us to film a spot lighted scene and provide some footage until the lights were repaired.

4.       Actor ill – something that is likely to happen and can be very counterproductive. We are providing a backup band member in case one member is unable to start the project but once it has begun we will have to use the same members. Our plan is to simply look to refilm the next week in an available slot. Rather than wasting a day we will also film parts of the plan where we did not need that member. Get the scheduled shoots that they were not needed for and reschedule.

5.       Broken instruments – our instruments are pretty study and we are going to be very careful with them. Yet we do have a spare set of drum skins along with new guitar stings in case they break which are the most likely. The amps are fine as we do not actually turn them on in the video. Spares of those things likely to break are provided.

6.       Location unavailable – we have allowed for one back up location for our main shoot of the live performance. Otherwise there are 2 houses which are members of the crews. These should be fine. Our back up location is the schools drama hall which is equipped with lots of professional lighting for a good effect. We also have allowed a lot of extra time to organise extra days of filming before our deadline and the actors have been aware of many days which are weekly schedules on a Thursday morning where they may be called upon. Allowing such a long period will allow us to reschedule.

Continuity error in footage – we may make some continuity errors in our filming process. To combat this if we cannot reshoot we are going to use clever editing to avoid this piece where it does not match continuity for the rest of the footage. We can also crop out our errors by using iMovie to make that footage still available. We also have used a long shot style of filming where we film the whole song from multiple angles the whole way through. So we can just use another angle if needs be

by Josh Graham