It was a pleasure this week to host Pierre and Florence, two work experience students from Devon; over the course of the week, they learnt skills in pre production – including creating call sheets, risk assessments and shot lists – through to filming and working with lighting, sound and camera setups, up to post production, and using different editing and colour grading software. You can watch the short film they made, entirely conceived, shot and edited in just three days below, and read their opinions about the week underneath.
Florence:
“As there are a variety of different views on what is classed as ‘Freedom’, we decided to ask the people of Exeter their opinion. The style of video we chose reflected on how different people have similar yet individual ideas on the exact same concept. The people we chose to interview were different ages and from different countries and places – this was interesting because they all had unique views whilst still sharing the same kind of values.
Whilst creating this short film, one of the difficulties that occurred was having to use the in-camera sound in one of the interviews (since there was a problem with the microphone footage); we tried to edit the sound but ended up having to cut the interview completely due to too much background noise and significantly low quality on the sound file.
During the work experience placement, we learnt how to use different softwares and film equipment – from how to write a call sheet, editing scripts, changing camera settings, fixing lighting, recording and syncing sound to colour correcting and editing in professional computer programs. This week has been really enjoyable and I’ve learned a lot about the film industry – I’m extremely glad I had this opportunity!”
Pierre:
“On this work experience week, we were assigned the task to make a short, three minute film with a certain criteria to adhere to, which consisted of: having a shot of flowers, dealing with the topic of freedom, and finally, including the line: “Life’s flashing by, so fast to see the colours”. Florence and I decided to make a Voxpop-esque video where we would ask the people of Exeter to discuss their notion of freedom, whilst occasionally overlaying “artistic” shots.
This short film helped us gain a lot of experience within the film domain as we were taught in a lot of depth how to operate cameras, software and additional equipment. I believe that this technical knowledge is vital if you want to get in to film as I have learnt throughout the week. I am glad that I chose this placement as the insight I gained was really beneficial. I also learnt that the people of Exeter each have their unique ideologies and identity. Rather than stating the obvious, they provided alternative and provoking answers.”