Sheffield Steel

Ciaran Gallagher, Ami-Lee Galloway, Rebecca George, Solo Shariff-Hickey &

Ross Walker

Aims

We wanted to make a film that would highlight Sheffield’s pastand present and how the city has developed.There was no better way to do this than to look at the steelindustry and what an impact this had on all aspects ofSheffield life.We wanted to portray the industry in a positive way and showthe journey it has been on throughout time, as it has a longand interesting history with many struggles and hardships, aswell as the great innovation that lead it to triumph.

Strengths

As a group we all decided on the idea with greatconviction, so we could get straight into filming.We communicated well with one another and gotour ideas across effectively, by way of brainstormingand constant contact, so that we all knew wherethe project was heading and were all able to attendany filming.

Weaknesses

We failed to plan ahead regarding weather meaningthat we had to try and resolve this by improvisingshelter and changing the shots position to avoid thelens getting wet.Another issue we had was that one of the places that we contacted failed to respond in good time and so we improvised by getting external shots of the location.

Lessons Learnt

Always have a back up planned if a contact fails to get intouch.Always check the weather.Book out somewhere to do a voice over to ensure that theenvironment can be completely controlled.Planning ahead and communication is key to any productionthat runs smoothly.

Individual Contribution & Technical Skills Acquired

Solo Shariff-Hickey - Producer and Editor:

I took on two roles as when we started our project, I was the one who had thecontact to our client in the industry so I got in touch with him about ourfilming. I also did the editing as I felt that these were two jobs that wouldn’tget in the way of one another due to the fact that they involved contributionsat different stages of the project.

Ross Walker – Camera – Unsurprisingly, my main role was as acinematographer; a large majority of the shots seen in the film beingones taken by me. The role not being hugely comprehensive, I did mybest to take an active role in other areas of the project; helping withediting and also directing, as well as other miscellaneous tasks.

Ami-Lee Galloway- Sound:My contributions to the piece were recording the sound from theinterviews and the industrial machines. Both me and Rebecca bothshared this role as were were the sound team. I also recorded Rebeccadoing the voice over for the piece. I helped with some of the ideas forthe piece and informed the group of a couple of locations that I knewthat we could go to to film. I attended all of the filming days and I wasdriving the crew as some locations were too far to walk.

Rebecca George- Sound:My most significant contribution to the project has been my sharedresponsibility of recording sound. This includes getting audio from theinterview and the sounds of the machinery. We also got the voice over,to which we wrote the script of and recorded, me being the one to berecorded. Smaller contributions included coming up with thealternative idea for the original presentation and doing the preparationfor the final presentation.

Ciaran Gallagher- Director:

As director my main job role was to oversee the project. For pre-productionwe had to decide on what we wanted our documentary to be about. Whichwe in the end chose to base it on the Sheffield steel industry. My job role wasto make sure all visuals and audio were working to a high quality on set,making sure the cinematography was on point and the audio was at the rightfrequency. And to oversee the project in post, making frequent meetings withSolo to see the progress on the edit and giving my feedback.