Major Project - Donington Park Circuit Scouting
Donington Park Location Recce
One of our key sequences during this documentary is the Track Day with Sam McKee, Alex's racing partner, that takes place at Donington Park, Leicestershire. The sequence consists of Alex meeting Sam for the first time, getting to grips with the BMW 3 series vehicle that he'll be racing in a month's time, and getting track time out on Donington Circuit. Donington is another MSV led racing circuit in the UK, similar to that of Brands Hatch and Silverstone.
As a part of our preparation for this lengthy and important shoot, we wanted to ensure we knew exactly where we were going to place cameras track-side, as well as giving ourselves the opportunity to get to grips with the layout of the track and the pitlanes where I'll be situated for the majority of the shoot. Though following the events of today, we believe that it'd be a good opportunity for me to get some track-side experience by moving around the left side of the circuit facing the exit of the pitlane. Upon arriving first thing in the morning, we decided to walk round the length of the track as a first port of call, this would allow us to survey the layout of the circuit first-hand and understand the limitations of certain areas that we had previously marked on a map as points of interest.
Before doing so we were required to go sign in as media personnel through the media office on the far side of the track grounds, similar to previous visits to tracks like Brands Hatch and Silverstone - we were issued with a media vest, number and coloured wrist-band to indicate that we had track-side access. Walking round the track was what took the large portion of the day due to Donington's size; it is by far the largest track we will visit during our production on 'DreamChaser' and took us a total of ~4 hours to circle completely by foot, with a break halfway through for track-side lunch. Despite the gale-force winds we were faced with in the morning, the knowledge gained from this process was invaluable and the weather began to warm up as we reached the opposite side of the circuit. As we were surveying the track Alex was taking pictures with his Lumix G7, specifically of potential shooting locations and the cars on track as part of their track day experience.
Having photo reference material to look back on as we plan for the Donington Track Day shoot in the coming weeks will be incredibly useful, and Alex will be able to incorporate these images into camera/shot plans for operators present on the day, making their lives far easier. This is a practice we intend to maintain throughout all track-based shoot days on this project as it ensures that guest operators like Alex Hargood, Katie Joslin, Laura Dagga and Connor Winfield are able to step into the role as smoothly as possible, given that they have the exact shot that we want on a print-out piece of paper in front of them.
Once we got back round the other side of the track we stopped in the on-site garage-style café to condense our findings and figure out the locations that we're likely to use during our shoot day, we ended up settling on four key locations - one being the aforementioned corner facing the exit to the pitlanes, another being at the top of the track as the cars come down the lengthy stretch of winding road on the far-side of the circuit, a section near the beginning of the track just past the 'Welcome to Donington Park' sign, followed by an operator on the pit-wall attempting to get footage of the car accelerating down the straight (pictured below).
As we got back in the car and headed home at the end of the day, it became clear how valuable making the effort to come so far just for a scouting opportunity was, despite all of us having some doubt initially as to whether or not it was worth the time/financial investment to do so. We're far more prepared for Donington than we ever would've been otherwise.
One of our key sequences during this documentary is the Track Day with Sam McKee, Alex's racing partner, that takes place at Donington Park, Leicestershire. The sequence consists of Alex meeting Sam for the first time, getting to grips with the BMW 3 series vehicle that he'll be racing in a month's time, and getting track time out on Donington Circuit. Donington is another MSV led racing circuit in the UK, similar to that of Brands Hatch and Silverstone.
As a part of our preparation for this lengthy and important shoot, we wanted to ensure we knew exactly where we were going to place cameras track-side, as well as giving ourselves the opportunity to get to grips with the layout of the track and the pitlanes where I'll be situated for the majority of the shoot. Though following the events of today, we believe that it'd be a good opportunity for me to get some track-side experience by moving around the left side of the circuit facing the exit of the pitlane. Upon arriving first thing in the morning, we decided to walk round the length of the track as a first port of call, this would allow us to survey the layout of the circuit first-hand and understand the limitations of certain areas that we had previously marked on a map as points of interest.
Before doing so we were required to go sign in as media personnel through the media office on the far side of the track grounds, similar to previous visits to tracks like Brands Hatch and Silverstone - we were issued with a media vest, number and coloured wrist-band to indicate that we had track-side access. Walking round the track was what took the large portion of the day due to Donington's size; it is by far the largest track we will visit during our production on 'DreamChaser' and took us a total of ~4 hours to circle completely by foot, with a break halfway through for track-side lunch. Despite the gale-force winds we were faced with in the morning, the knowledge gained from this process was invaluable and the weather began to warm up as we reached the opposite side of the circuit. As we were surveying the track Alex was taking pictures with his Lumix G7, specifically of potential shooting locations and the cars on track as part of their track day experience.
Having photo reference material to look back on as we plan for the Donington Track Day shoot in the coming weeks will be incredibly useful, and Alex will be able to incorporate these images into camera/shot plans for operators present on the day, making their lives far easier. This is a practice we intend to maintain throughout all track-based shoot days on this project as it ensures that guest operators like Alex Hargood, Katie Joslin, Laura Dagga and Connor Winfield are able to step into the role as smoothly as possible, given that they have the exact shot that we want on a print-out piece of paper in front of them.Once we got back round the other side of the track we stopped in the on-site garage-style café to condense our findings and figure out the locations that we're likely to use during our shoot day, we ended up settling on four key locations - one being the aforementioned corner facing the exit to the pitlanes, another being at the top of the track as the cars come down the lengthy stretch of winding road on the far-side of the circuit, a section near the beginning of the track just past the 'Welcome to Donington Park' sign, followed by an operator on the pit-wall attempting to get footage of the car accelerating down the straight (pictured below).
As we got back in the car and headed home at the end of the day, it became clear how valuable making the effort to come so far just for a scouting opportunity was, despite all of us having some doubt initially as to whether or not it was worth the time/financial investment to do so. We're far more prepared for Donington than we ever would've been otherwise.
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