Contingency Plan

Contingency Planning

Obstacles that I may face during filming:

1. Organisation: I will make sure that I plan far in advance to minimise the risk of things not going to plan such as being unable to film on a day due to unforeseen circumstances such as clashing plans as I am relying on a friend to be the subject in parts of my music video. I have created a GANT chart to illustrate the tasks that have been started, the tasks that still need to completed and also keeps a record of which dates they were started/completed by.  

2. Weather: I will check the weather before planning to film as this may affect the quality of the visuals and also can cause damage to the equipment if it is raining. Making sure that appropriate clothing is worn such as a warm jacket and appropriate footwear when filming is essential and this will also be considered during filming. 

3. Equipment faults: This has also been taken in to account in the planning of filming to allow for any technical faults that I may face such as camera/lights not working or running out of battery. I will make sure the camera is charged on the day before filming to ensure that this will not be an obstacle and carry the charging plug around with me so I can stop by somewhere to charge if needs be. 

4. Filming test/practice: As I am not overly familiar with all the equipment I plan on using such as DSLR, studio equipment etc. I have   added time in to my plan to practice shots and familiarise myself with the settings on the DSLR and the lighting set ups that I like the appearance of. I have planned a studio session with some other students to test out studio lighting so I am prepared when it comes to the date of official filming. This is also good time management because it means that I won't waste time messing around with the equipment on filming days because I will be already of aware of what settings/lighing is required to achieve certain shots. 

5. Things not going to plan: It is important to plan for the unplanned such as the subject cancelling plans to film due to illness/work commitments etc. I am aware of my subject's work commitments prior to filming and will plan around this where necessary to ensure that this will not disrupt any plans to film, for instance planning multiple days to film certain shots in case the first filming day is unable to take place. I have also made sure to book a studio slot for two weeks in a row to allow for any disruptions that may be an obstacle to filming. I have also created a more simplistic plan to follow as a back up in case the original plan is unable to take place. This ensures that if things don't go to plan that I already have a structure to follow so it won't disrupt things too much.

Despite planning time to cover any disruptions in filming there were multiple things that prevented filming from going as planned. I became ill on the 4th - 10th March and was unable to carry out any filming that I had planned that week which set the schedule back quite significantly and on the following week my subject was unable to attend filming plans due to last minute work commitments. Therefore, I felt that this meant it was necessary to go to my back-up plan and come up with a more realistic and simple approach to filming to ensure that I could still get the shots I needed in a more pressured time frame. I was able to arrange a date with my subject on the 15th of March where I planned to get some more outside shots as well as the experimental lighting shots that I had previously planned to do in the studio but was able to do at home using a small light projector I had purchased on Amazon a few weeks prior as part of my back up plan. I believe that my contingency plan was fairly effective due to already having a second plan ready for me to go to when things fell through. This saved a significant amount of time during filming and made sure I was still able to continue with a similar plan for my music video. However, I do think I could have perhaps started filming slightly earlier by spending less time on planning so I would have had more time to stick to the original plan of shooting in the studio.