What is Workflow?
Work•flow /ˈwərkflō/
“The sequence of industrial, administrative, or other processes through which a piece of work passes from initiation to completion.” – lexico.com
Stages of Creation Development
Inspiration
How do we find ideas to develop?
- WHAT TOOLS SHOULD WE USE?
- I think there are many different tools you can use as part of your inspiration. Whether it is mental tools and ways to create ideas or even physically looking up workflow ways, there are a variety of options for the process.
- WHAT PROCESS SHOULD WE USE?
- I think we should always show others our work, especially if they are more advanced than we are. They can give us their own perspective on how they viewed it which is important because it allows you to see from another person’s point of view, not just your own. Once they give you their corrections, you should take what they said into account and try to change it in a positive way.
- HOW DO YOU MEASURE QUALITY?
- As I said before, one way to measure your quality is to get feedback from others. Whether it’s positive or negative sometimes it really does help you come up with better ideas.
- Other ways you can measure quality would be to try out different styles of equipment. Before, during, and after production there are so many different styles of producing top quality things, even when you start out with low quality things. If you can get all the right view points and story line’s that really grasp people’s attention, they’ll want to watch it no matter what.
- WHO MEASURES QUALITY?
- I personally think your audience measures the quality. Your audience is who you are trying to please so their opinions are what matter the most.
Intention
How do we clarify our specific goal(s) for a project?
- Your intention is all up to you. You can not blame anyone but yourself if you have a bad intention and something doesn’t go the way you want. You need to be able to decide for yourself what your intention is behind what you are doing because then and only then will you be able to develop more and more of an idea for where you want things to go.
- There are many different kinds of intentions. First off, you need to be able to have what kind you want in mind. Are you trying to make the audience laugh? Are you trying to make them feel something in their heart, like love or sorrow. Or maybe you’re just trying to get a good scare out of them. Like I said in the beginning, your intention is all up to you and how you want others to perceive it.
- Another thing to remember about intentions is your own audience. Let’s say you’re making a comedy movie. People who want to have a good laugh are gonna be more drawn to watching it. Now you also have to have an age target. One thing I learned from a marketing class I took last year was that everything has an age category. Sure, any age can watch a movie, but who do you want to be drawn the most? Adults? Teenagers? Kids? Then you have to be able to keep up with the trends. The jokes have to be up to date in order for people to find it funny because no one wants to hear the same old things. People want something new, like things that haven’t been done before.
Pre-production
How can we brainwrite, brainstorm, storyboard, and plan our ideas at this phase?
- This sort of depends if you are working alone or with a group. If you are working alone I find it best to always have a note section on your phone that’s easy to type something up quick if you happen to see something that grasps your attention.
- Another thing you could do is bring a camera around with you. You could snap a quick picture or even take a short video, either way you have something to look back on and study the details from it. How can you incorporate that into your film in order to gain something from it.
- Now, if you’re working with a group I think the best things to do when planning is as soon as you have an idea tell them about it. You don’t want to spend all your time thinking and planning out this amazing idea just for everyone in the group to not like it because let’s be honest, that’s just a waste of everyone’s time.
- When working with a group it will be very hard to always come to an agreement on everything but I feel it’s important to hear everyone out, and talk through everyone’s point of view until you can come to a collaborative decision. This way you won’t make others feel like their opinions aren’t validated, and no major arguments begin.
Production
How do we communicate with each other and execute our plan for this phase? This is where we actually make the project.
- As I said in the pre-production statements, it’s important to always write down your ideas because then when you go back to review the footage you have taken you can decide if you really put your emotion into it. A storyboard is a technique a lot of writers use when writing their books because they have a clear image in their head of the perfect way to describe what they feel/saw. The only difference is instead of putting all of that description into writing, you try to capture that on a camera that way it has it’s own story to tell.
- For example, let’s say it’s a cold, snowy day in the winter. You’re walking down a sidewalk and see a bride trying on a wedding dress through the windows. All her bridesmaids are there cheering and you can just tell by the expressions that that’s the dress she’s going to choose. Now, if you are going to put that into a film you have to be able to replicate the same view you saw that day and think about how you felt when watching that. Did it make you happy for her because she looks happy? Or maybe you felt sad because you had just broken up with your significant other. It all depends on what story you’re trying to tell, but either way you have to be able to capture the emotion.
- There are all different kinds of emotions. There’s the basics: happy, sad, numb, scared, etc.
- Then, there are the more complex ones which are usually the best to portray: elated (great happiness and exhilaration), ethereal (something that seems too perfect for this world) etc. And since we can’t use the writing to capture that, we have to rely on capturing that with the camera.
- Next, is your time. Time management is everything. Something I have learned from my dance team at Capital is that you have to be able to follow through with the things you say. If you tell someone your film will be done by a certain time, it is your job to make sure that happens. Time management is a huge part of your production, if you don’t have a plan for it all nothing will get accomplished. You have to have a very organized and detailed plan, especially when it comes to figuring out all the money, paperwork, cameras, lighting, editing, audio, etc.
- Lastly is reviewing and final changes. You have to review your footage and make the final decisions on all of your video’s. This is extremely important because in order to have your film look how you want, it all has to be put together in order.
Post-production
How do we communicate with each other and execute our final stages of the project for this phase? This is where we publish the project.
- In order for your film to be successful, you have to work with the team you have and use all your talents to the best of your abilities.
- Again, you need to be thinking about your audience. If they were watching the whole film all put together, what are they gonna think of it?
- You’re also going to be figuring out where you want your showings. Figure out how and where you want your premier to be at, as well as giving out the press releases in order to gain more hype for when it does officially come out.
Presentation/Performance
How do we share our project with our learning community, advisory members, and the world?
- One way you could go about this is hiring a manager to schedule all of your appearances for you and make sure that you are up to date about what’s happening with your film
- Thankfully being as advanced with technology as we are in 2020, we can easily get word out about films on various different social media accounts. All you need is one thing of it to go viral and you will gain more and more hype, especially if you already have any famous actors in it.
Feedback
How do we conduct a feedback session at the end of the project development cycle?
- A good way to easily obtain your feedback is to look at reviews critics and customers have written about your movie. One thing you have to remember is that not everyone will like your film, and that’s okay. You will have negative feedback because people are always gonna find things they don’t like about it.
- It is important to look at the negative things people say because then you can take those things you didn’t do well or didn’t add and try to incorporate it next time or work on developing it to be better. It’s good to know your weak points.
- But it is also important to look at your positive feedback because then you know what your strong points are and what positions you are most successful in.