I encountered many minor problems and set backs over the course of the process that may have affected the overall end result. It became increasingly difficult to write sketches that I could actually possibly film, as many of my ideas involved extreme locations and in one case, a celebrity appearance! I was limited on how many sketches I could write and perform and in some cases, was limited by time constraints, access to certain locations, lack of budget, access to certain props and costume and availability of other actors. This meant that I had to keep the sketches as simple as possible and bear all of these factors in mind. This limited my options, as although I had ideas for around thirty sketches, I only ended up producing around nine. Although I would never have had the time to actually film and edit thirty sketches, I still felt hindered by this.
Location became an issue as a huge majority of the sketches were filmed in or around my own house. This meant that the Mise en scene became familiar as each sketch seemed like it was being filmed in the same room. Out of the nine sketches, six of them were filmed in my rented property at Hendon, one in my actual home in Enfield and two at my auntie's house. This meant that I had to be creative with the space as I could not access a genuine news room for the 10 O'clock News sketch so I had to place a table in the corner of my bedroom.
The actors that did take part were my colleagues and were very helpful and vital in achieving the desired outcome, however finding a date where they were free to help me became an issue, particularly with the A-team sketch as I required another three actors. Planned to be filmed over Easter, the filming date had to be moved back to the beginning of May as there was not an earlier date in which all three actors were available. This meant that I had less time to film it and edit it resulting in unnecessary stress and a rushed final project.
During the filming process, I found myself feeding off the other actors' energy as some suggestions were made whilst filming that ended up staying in the show despite not being in the initial script. An example of this is when Darrel Draper suggested that he should say the line "Now then, Now then" whilst playing the role of (Jimmy) Hannibal (Saville). Another good example of this is when Damien Feeney suggested eating KFC chicken whilst playing B.A Baracus for the A-team sketch. Although that was not an idea I had considered, whilst filming the sketch, it was kept in as to add more humour and a stereotype to his character.
A major issue developed during the editing process as Final Cut Pro failed to recognise the MP4 file types I had filmed each sketch as. This meant that I was forced to convert all of the files as .MOV file types and edit the entire piece on IMovie instead. Being a more basic editing software, a huge majority of techniques and effects that are available on Final Cut Pro were not available on IMovie. This resulted in a poorer film quality and hindered the overall quality of the projections.
Although the sheet that was eventually projected on was not suitable for projections, the outcome was still positive as after trimming and hemming the sides of the sheet and placing a pocket for weights at the bottom, the overall result was a screen that was of a good size and quality and the projections onto it were clear and unspoilt.
After the first viewing of the show at 6pm, I had discovered slight faults with the footage itself. It became clearly evident that the Babestation sketch was too long and was in need of cutting and the sound quality, particularly of the shots taken outside in the wind was poor. However despite being aware of this, there was very little I could do to rectify this as the programme IMovie would have taken around two hours to upload a new edited version of the show and with my next screening being at 7:30pm, I had no time to re-edit and upload a new version.
Despite all of the problems that occurred, I was still proud of the final project and what I had achieved, as the camera equipment available to me was not of the best quality and I had very limited practice with the equipment, but I had achieved a sketch show lasting for roughly half an hour that was of good quality and one that I could be proud of.
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