Major Project - Shooting The Diary Room Part 1
The Diary Room Sequence
Having spoken to Steven who previously allowed us to test shoot in his garage, as well as let Alex drive his Formula Ford single-seater during a media day at Brands Hatch several weeks ago, we agreed that we would be using the garage today as part of our diary room sequence. The goal was to shoot a total of 4 pre-prepared questions that would comprise a master interview with Alex, internally referred to as 'The Diary Room Sequence'. This essentially acts as our master interview that we cut back to at several points during the documentary, and is by far the most controlled environment/scene that we have throughout the entirety of 'DreamChaser'.
Connor Winfield was with us today helping us out with filming, he was on my FZ330 capturing close-ups of Alex from a 35 degree angle, with myself operating the track and dolly that I had previously practiced with during the test shoots we'd conducted both at the garage prior, and in the studios themselves. I found the track and dolly fairly comfortable to use this time round, however there were some issues in the terrain that we were using to shoot with. Half way through the track positioning there was a miniscule bump in the flooring, which would cause the camera rig to get stuck for a split-second before moving onwards. This was frustrating as despite how insignificant it may sound, having the camera suddenly stop moving, before immediately resuming looks incredibly jarring when watching the footage back, yet because of the restrictions we had in terms of the space that we could use within the garage, there weren't any other options in terms of where we could place the Track and Dolly.
Fortunately we were able to address this issue by moving the camera past slightly faster, therefore ensuring that the rig managed to pass over the crack in the flooring with the necessary momentum to avoid it getting stuck. This has been something that I've come to learn whilst working on mobile rigs like this during my time on this documentary, particularly today and at Accrington when filming the walk and talk scene with Dan Rowbottom. If the surface on which you're resting your rig isn't completely flat - there's likely going to be noticeable stutter or jittery movement within the shot, some of which can be hard to pick-up on in the moment just from the camera's smaller display.
The overall shot composition for this sequence consisted of a C.U. (Close Up) from Connor on the aforementioned FZ330, a M.S. (Mid-Shot) from the tripod-mounted Lumix G7, and a M.S. (Mid Shot) from the Uni's Panasonic DVX200, mounted to the track and dolly rig, which was operated by myself. The reason we went with a 3 camera set-up for this sequence was we wanted George to have as much versatility as possible when it came to editing this sequence, so being able to cut from a M.S. to a C.U. during key moments will be crucial to highlighting the emotional moments during this interview.
We managed to get all of the questions recorded and in the bag with several takes of each, hopefully this is well received by Simon when he views it in a few weeks time. We believe that having this kind of master interview present throughout the documentary will aid in creating a much more cohesive story than providing exposition and character development strictly through in the moment PTC's (Pieces to Camera) and voice-over.
Having spoken to Steven who previously allowed us to test shoot in his garage, as well as let Alex drive his Formula Ford single-seater during a media day at Brands Hatch several weeks ago, we agreed that we would be using the garage today as part of our diary room sequence. The goal was to shoot a total of 4 pre-prepared questions that would comprise a master interview with Alex, internally referred to as 'The Diary Room Sequence'. This essentially acts as our master interview that we cut back to at several points during the documentary, and is by far the most controlled environment/scene that we have throughout the entirety of 'DreamChaser'.
Connor Winfield was with us today helping us out with filming, he was on my FZ330 capturing close-ups of Alex from a 35 degree angle, with myself operating the track and dolly that I had previously practiced with during the test shoots we'd conducted both at the garage prior, and in the studios themselves. I found the track and dolly fairly comfortable to use this time round, however there were some issues in the terrain that we were using to shoot with. Half way through the track positioning there was a miniscule bump in the flooring, which would cause the camera rig to get stuck for a split-second before moving onwards. This was frustrating as despite how insignificant it may sound, having the camera suddenly stop moving, before immediately resuming looks incredibly jarring when watching the footage back, yet because of the restrictions we had in terms of the space that we could use within the garage, there weren't any other options in terms of where we could place the Track and Dolly.
Fortunately we were able to address this issue by moving the camera past slightly faster, therefore ensuring that the rig managed to pass over the crack in the flooring with the necessary momentum to avoid it getting stuck. This has been something that I've come to learn whilst working on mobile rigs like this during my time on this documentary, particularly today and at Accrington when filming the walk and talk scene with Dan Rowbottom. If the surface on which you're resting your rig isn't completely flat - there's likely going to be noticeable stutter or jittery movement within the shot, some of which can be hard to pick-up on in the moment just from the camera's smaller display.
The overall shot composition for this sequence consisted of a C.U. (Close Up) from Connor on the aforementioned FZ330, a M.S. (Mid-Shot) from the tripod-mounted Lumix G7, and a M.S. (Mid Shot) from the Uni's Panasonic DVX200, mounted to the track and dolly rig, which was operated by myself. The reason we went with a 3 camera set-up for this sequence was we wanted George to have as much versatility as possible when it came to editing this sequence, so being able to cut from a M.S. to a C.U. during key moments will be crucial to highlighting the emotional moments during this interview.
We managed to get all of the questions recorded and in the bag with several takes of each, hopefully this is well received by Simon when he views it in a few weeks time. We believe that having this kind of master interview present throughout the documentary will aid in creating a much more cohesive story than providing exposition and character development strictly through in the moment PTC's (Pieces to Camera) and voice-over.
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