Unit 5: Contribute to Good Working Relationships

1.1 Identify key roles and tasks in the production process

When given a film project that requires a team, the first thing to do is to identify what needs to be done. Once you know what needs to be done, you should then discuss individual roles with each other. You should always make sure that the appropriate people are doing appropriate tasks, meaning if someone is best in one area, give them that area, for example, if something needs to be done in After Effects and only one member of the team can use it efficiently, give a role that involves After Effects to that person.

I shall use the example of creating a commercial that requires graphics with a team of 3 film-makers and a sound technician:

Planning/Pre-Production – All members of the team should be involved in this, as this allows everyone to know what is going on and makes sure that everyone is comfortable with what is going on.

Production – The production of a film project will normally be split into different aspects, most commonly filming, editing, sound recording and, in this case, creating graphics. Everyone will be involved in filming, but the strongest film-makers will take lead. Editing will normally be the priority of one person, so it will be given to the strongest editor. Sound recording will be the responsibility of the sound technician and the graphics will be the responsibility of the person best at After Effects.

1.2 Outline how to clarify, agree and revise working arrangements in a way which promotes good working relationships

The best thing to do to clarify and agree arrangements is to have a face-to-face group meeting. This allows everybody involved in a project to be together and discuss what they think should be done in the project, allowing everybody to voice their opinion. This is great as it allows a team to come to an agreement quickly, rather than waiting for a bunch of e-mails to be replied to. If the team lose focus or get confused, another meeting should be held to revise the arrangements. This is good for working relationships as it allows people to interact with each other better and to understand each other’s skills.

2.1 Explain the importance of balancing the needs of tasks and people

It is important that you balance out the needs of the tasks to be completed and the people who are to complete it. For example, if you have given someone the task to edit a video, you need to set them appropriate time-scales, which will be determined by their skill level and how quick they can work. Giving a deadline of 1 day to an apprentice to edit a large project isn’t acceptable.

2.2 Explain the importance of sharing information with colleagues

It is important that everyone who is involved in a project is given all of the appropriate information. This allows everyone to be in the loop and know exactly what they need to do and who else is doing what. This is important as if 1 member of a team is misinformed then that will affect the entire team.

2.3 Identify ways of tactfully requesting others to change working arrangements to improve own productivity

One way to get someone to improve their work arrangement is to ask them first. However, it is not the best idea to just straight up ask “can you do better?” One thing you can do is to regularly check up on how well they are doing. If you think they aren’t making enough progress, then ask why they aren’t going at a good pace as there may be a problem. If there is a problem that is making their work arrangement suffer, e.g. not being comfortable using certain software, you can then try to help with that problem, which in this case would be to give them some training in using the software.

However, if the problem is laziness, it might be a good idea to ask a manager or team leader to sit in with them for a while to check on how well they are doing. This will pretty much force the person to work better.

2.4 Describe how to explain own decisions clearly and constructively

It is important that you are able to explain your decisions clearly as not only do you need to make sure that everyone knows what is going on, you need to make people know that you are confident in your idea as if you don’t seem confident then neither will your teammates and they are unlikely to go along with your idea.

The best thing to do is to explain your decisions face to face and just be confident in the way you present your idea. Make sure that you are providing enough information about your idea and that you allow people to ask questions and are able to confidently ask those questions.

2.5 Describe how to resolve conflict situations or dissatisfaction

It is important that you have all of the information you need and have an un-biased mind set when trying to tackle a conflict. You should also make sure that it is your place to tackle the conflict as if it isn’t, you will just be interfering and making it worse. If it is not your place, then make sure the person who can tackle it is aware of the conflict. If it is your place, then collect of all of the necessary information and sit down with your team and discuss what the problem is. Once everyone is made aware of the problem, everyone can then use the information they have to have an input on the discussion. Everyone can then solve the conflict by coming to some sort of agreement/compromise to make sure that the production can carry on smoothly.

2.6 Explain the importance of liaison with colleagues to productivity

It is important that you regularly interact with your colleagues as it will help to improve you working relationship by a lot. Doing this allows you to make sure that everyone knows what they are doing in a project and allows you to clearly understand what skills everyone has, which will allow you to make the most use of your colleagues, allowing you to get a better product.

For the next points, I will be using the example of when I and 2 other film makers filmed a college band. The only thing we did here was film it, no editing.

3.1 Clarify, agree and revise working arrangements, promoting good working relationships

The first thing we did when given this task was to look at when the filming will take place, which allowed us to prioritise it amongst our other work. In this case, we didn’t

have a full meeting as we didn’t see it necessary as we had all done this kind of work before. On the day of the shoot, we then delegated 3 separate cameras to each other and we all helped with setting up the other camera for a static, deciding together where the best place to put it would be. We quickly came up with the decision that I would man a camera on a tripod as I had the least steadiest hand, Simon would use a handheld from the back of the room as he had the most stable hand and Michael would use roam the room with a handheld as he was the most comfortable moving around.

3.2 Communicate own decisions clearly and constructively

When deciding who should do what, I made sure that I spoke clearly and confidently when voicing my opinion. I pointed out who was best at what and the rest of the team agreed and decided that the best positions for each person to be in would relate to their skills.

3.3 Resolve any conflict situations or dissatisfaction as necessary

Initially, we had a problem where one of my team mates wasn’t full pleased with the position that we thought he should be in as he thought he should be using the camera on the tripod as he thought he didn’t have a stable enough hand. We resolved this by ensuring him that he was the best person for the position we gave him and he eventually agreed.

3.4 Liaise with appropriate colleagues to ensure effective and productive working

We liaised with each other when setting up the cameras to make sure we all knew what we were doing. We also liaised with the person who was responsible for the bands gig so we knew how the band would be set out so we could set up the cameras appropriately.