End of Allocation Evaluation
For my end of allocation evaluation, I will be discussing sections of my allocation of where I have exceled in my skill set, things I need to improve upon and what I aim to learn more about for future production roles. I will be elaborating on both roles as Production Assistant and Camera Operator, as the show role of a camera operator was just as impactful as the role I was allocated with. In the allocation of a Production Assistant, the main skills and knowledge I have come to learn is to truly understand what this role entails. Before this allocation, I have just finished my role as PA and Camera Operator on the Opera Triple Bill, as these roles are a double allocation. As seen from the AAP I have completed before this half of my allocation began; I was prepared for the kind of jobs that would be asked of us by the PM. Such as masking, taping up cable, risk assessments and budgeting. As well as regular sanitisation of the space and doing any changes at any point to suit the creatives' vision. In my AAP for the opera, my goal was to improve my communicative skills and I feel that was achieved, so with the extension of another PA role, I have become a more well-rounded confident person.
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The skills I have learnt specifically as a Production Assistant was increasing my skills on AutoCAD from the Opera, I also completed 95% of the Risk Assessments for POD and continued to split the progress meeting minutes between me and Georgie. I didn’t really do much spreadsheet work this time around as any covid PPE, kit-list spreadsheets were still left over from the Opera that we could use. I dealt with first years more this time round which was nice. To properly meet them in person was great, and also it was a new opportunity to be in charge of a group of people in an authoritative way. So, this time round- the more valuable skills were learning how to communicate the requirements needed in a team. And adjusting to that role reversal of supervising rather than being the one being supervised.
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As a Production Assistant, there is always room for improvement for my communication skills. I don’t feel like these skills can improve any further on this allocation of Production Assistant- If I have an allocation as Production Manager though, it would be my chance to fully engage with all members of the production. Such as in progress meetings, in person and through emails. On the other-hand by the time I am in third year I will have completed allocations in different technical departments, so If I am PM- I know what is needed of the technical departments to fulfil their needs. A lot of the first weeks for POD has been me and Georgie battling with Maisie’s process and pace with how she manages the production, and this has been difficult to deal with. Especially coming off of the Opera with Josh, as he was so on the ball and efficient about everything. We ended up confiding in both external PM Sam Bennelick-Jones and Technical Theatre Head of Department: Andy Taylor about how we felt and was brought to a different perspective. Maisie still continued to not be as effective with her time as we would have liked but we became a little bit more compliant with her. Furthermore, the stress and tiredness of me and Georgie being Production Assistants, for ten plus weeks without a break was really getting to us, so our patience was very short.
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In terms of being a Camera Operator, the skills I have learnt this time around is learning how to work with a Broadcast Director and truly understanding how important presetting shots are. We can now just use macro buttons- so instead of calling Cam 1 by typing it, we can now press one singular button to control a camera. It was so nice to have been included in rehearsals, and to have been invited by Rose Dayan (Stage Manager) to the Welsh Centre. It really eliminated any fears I had as a Camera Operator as Chloe Jones instilled a bit of fear in me and Georgie when we had our broadcast meeting-mentioning that POD is high paced and complex. In addition, it was also nice to have been included in the Tech notes this time around and talk through the issues with Broadcast that way- rather than endlessly going through cue changes with a stage director that doesn’t understand Broadcast. Being a Camera Operator this time around, felt professional, inclusive in most parts and controlled.
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I did find myself becoming a lot calmer for this side of the allocation in general, I do think having previous experience in this role was a contribution. However, I have found working with Dan Light increasingly hard to work with. He has a power complex with his role as Vision Mixer and forgets that we are in the same year/course as him as well as forgetting that we are at university. He takes his role so seriously to where I can’t feel relaxed around him. Furthermore, every time I took initiative and moved a camera in Tech week, we were reprimanded for it by Dan, when it was fine to do so every time. I did improve with better professionalism this time around and was compliant to what was asked, maybe because the process itself was more professional than the opera. I am more knowledgeable of not just the process but knowing people’s expectations and the kind of framing that is anticipated of us. As well as fully knowing our capabilities as camera operators by this point.
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Reflecting on working with other production members, was a mixed experienced. My feeling of Georgie as the other PA hasn’t changed since the Opera, if anything I’m even more grateful as the weeks immediately after the Opera ending was extremely tough, and we both helped each other through this period. I have seen Georgie grow to be a more confident person through in this allocation, beside myself. She still needs to improve on her people skills somewhat, especially when her spirits are low, but she is improving. With my Production Manager Maisie, we found issues with her lack of urgency for tasks that needed to be done. There are some standard tasks that should have been done long ago, and a few things haven’t been thought through (handrails for the steel deck being trapped underneath the set). It was a hard transition to go from a production manager like Josh Collins of whom was very thorough with his work to Maisie who wasn’t as much. I did get used to Maisie the more we went on, but very quickly me and Georgie learnt to do tasks with our own initiative otherwise it won’t be done in time, an example of this is doing risk assessments that need to be done from the rehearsal reports and doing production desk plans of CAD. I do think that what she lacks for in management skills she makes up in personable skills. She is easy to talk to and get along with (unrelated to work). She could just try and stick to a topic/matter at hand as she easily goes on tangents, making the task longer to complete.
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I did enjoy working with our external Production Manager Sam Bennelick-Jones for this allocation. She was very approachable, friendly and charismatic, as well as knowledgeable in her role. The only main issue I had with Sam was how closely she clung to Maisie and was her advocate in everything without taking into account of how we felt for the most part. The only time I saw acknowledgement of how we felt was when me and Georgie confided in her in the first week of fit-up about our issues with Maisie. She also had a tone with Georgie once about communication between herself and Maisie over a particular task that needed to be done- causing Georgie to cry. I don’t think that is acceptable. Which is a shame because for the most part, I really enjoyed working alongside Sam.
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Reflecting on the Broadcast Team, like before, I found it enlightening working with Akhila Krishnan in this area of expertise. She was direct, confident and knowledgeable in her role and was encouraging me and Georgie in our role as operators. Her decisions to push tech notes was questionable considering of how little live performances we had- causing us to not have much of a show-day break. Other than this, I would very much like to work with her again. The same can be said for Maxim Gamble- our AV Tech Support throughout this process. I have nothing but high praises for Max, he was always readily available and was non-stop in his role without any complaints. As for Chloe, she was nice enough to me and Georgie upfront in this show. I think our awkwardness was carried on from the Opera as she was brought into that process late, didn’t get the training that she needed for the show and wasn’t well informed. So sometimes her attitude towards me and Georgie wasn’t the best and in Tech notes there wasn’t no communication, so we were left out of a lot of notes. I have to say though, she improved greatly this time around, I think both from now past experience and being with the show from day one. The only issue I had with her on this production was that she made me, and Georgie unnecessarily stressed to be Camera Operating POD from the explanation she gave us of the show. It was a good thing that both me and Georgie had the opportunity to see a rehearsal each at the Welsh Centre so that those fears subsided.
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In conclusion, looking back at this double allocation, I have become a much more open to criticism, better with my people skills and understanding how productions work from the very start to the very end. I genuinely feel like a different person since the academic year started. This term has been extremely challenging, mainly from the sheer number of hours we had to be in. I am finding the 12-hour days a struggle, especially when there is no half term to break it up. In such times as this, with the Covid-19 pandemic, wearing masks for the lengths of time that we do, as well as not accessing our families as easily as before has been the biggest test of all. I am lucky to have been sitting at a desk for the second half of both allocations and being able to have a breather. My goals from the last evaluation still remain: to become someone people can trust, look up to and respect but I also want to break down some of the toxic, unnecessary relationships this industry faces. These goals can’t be achieved overtime, so for the time being, I aim to keep these goals in mind as I move forward into my other allocations for the rest of the academic year. I still aim to be a Production Manager in my third year to see if I am up to the challenge, as well as transferring the skills I have learnt so far into my Grad Project in third year.
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