Unit 4.2 Know how to plan and manage workload
2.1 Describe effective time management skills needed to plan workload
The skills I use for my personal time management revolve around having a work diary, this way I can plan my tasks for the day ahead and once I've completed said task I can cross it out (a feeling that I personally find quite liberating). Another pro to my diary is being able to prioritise what needs to be done when, and I can add stuff in wherever I am in the world. Internet or not.
Another tool of the trade for me is google calendar, that allows me to add and share appointments with our production team, therefore allowing everyone to know what is happening in the workplace.
In the Google Calendar settings it also lets you set reminders and alarms so you will never be late again, supposedly :).
2.2 Describe how to specify and agree timescales, budgets and resources
From past experience I have found that emails are a very important tool for agreeing certain time scales and sticking to the agreed timescale. Emails allow us to bring up a past discussion that you may of had in person. An example of this could be at my past job I was asked not to bother watermarking some erotic screeners, due to the fact it would take to long and the sales team member wanted to close a deal quickly. The screeners were going to a high risk country where if lost in transit could be sent on and then sold. Despite the fact this incident would then be on my back if they were lost and illegally distributed, I sent an email to the salesman confirming our conversation with his 'okay' to sending them without a watermark.
That occasion taught me how important it was to confirm stuff in some sort of electronic format so if all went pete tong, I could then say well heres the email stating I should of done this.
So if there is someone out there with these unwatermarked erotic screeners - i'm watching you!
2.3 Explain how to construct a simple project plan
To construct an effective project plan you have to look at four key things Pre Production, Production, Post Production, and Marketing & Audience Consumption. These four things are heavily connected and reliant for a possible financial success. Marketing and Audience is one that can dictate whether or not the film has to be taken back to the pre production stages, possibly due to an incorrect portrayal of a character.
A project plan could be arranged on a spreadsheet, or on specialised location management software. Or my favourite being a whiteboard, simple and effective. With the company i'm working for currently being in pre production i'm sure that I will be picking up further knowledge on project plans as the weeks go on.
2.4 Explain the use of a contingency plan
Contingency plan - A very important tool to the trade, that prepares you or your production for an unfavourable scenario, whether this being a camera running out of battery, as you've filmed for much longer than anticipated - the contingency plan would involve having spare batteries.
Despite the fact it's a massive pro to have a contingency plan, i'm personally someone who likes to think of the positive side of said situation and find myself most effective thinking on my feet by finding a feasable solution.
A contingency plan could also be used in your social life, where you find yourself having to make these alternative choices if the preffered one fails, almost like a failsafe. For example if I were planning on going to the park with friends and the weather took a turn for the worst, I would have the instinc of going to the pub or someones house if we weren't in the mood for getting pissed on by the sky!
2.5 Explain the importance of storing work, using version control and observing file naming conventions
From personal experience I have found it is VERY important to label files correctly, not just for your sake but for others. An example of this would be at my last job in distribution, I was updating some avails for content and had them saved on the server. I knew where to find these files but once leaving the company, I received a message asking where they were on the server but guess what? I DIDN'T KNOW! A hard lesson to learn, not just the fact my ex colleague had to redo the work, it also meant I used up valuable company time completing it to have nothing to show for it.
So the learning curb for me now is when i'm saving work I title it by the exact thing it is and sometimes if i'm feeling snazzy I do the date in this format > 111609 (Abit of extra information never did anyone any harm).
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