Major Project - The South Downs Sequence
Shooting The South Downs Sequence
Today we shot the south downs sequence for our 'DreamChaser' documentary. This is one of the key sequences of our documentary and will be one of the last things that pre-cedes the Race Day itself, therefore we wanted to be as efficient and effective in our work as possible. We adhered to a strict shot-list throughout the day put together by Alex as part of his responsibility as Director of the project. This was reflected within the storyboards I put together last night and can be viewed in the prior post; like many shoots however I was constantly filming anything of interest that could be used as B-roll, cutaways or establishing shots during this sequence - for example there's some actuality that I captured of seagulls on the cliff-edges, large sweeping pan shots of the cliff-side vistas and general GV's of the location.
When we arrived at the location we immediately noticed that the wind levels were much lower than our scouting visit to the south downs location, which was a positive for us when it came to recording audio using out clip-mic attached to Alex, given that wind disturbance can be one of the most detrimental factors to consider when thinking about recording quality audio for a production of this caliber. Having checked the weather forecast we knew that it was unlikely to rain, however there was an incredibly small chance that it would start raining during the latter part of the afternoon, therefore we opted to perform the drone capture material before shooting the PTC section up on the west cliff-side, this was done in an effort to alleviate potential issues with rainfall preventing us from flying the DJI MavicPro drone.
The drone shots we acquired were great; myself and Alex spent approximately 40 minutes driving up and down the roads circulating the south downs area whilst coordinating with George via walkie talkie as he operated the drone. We were able to get several side-on tracking shots of the car following the road, as well as several great looking aerial/birdseye view shots that could only be captured using something like a drone or a helicopter, we hope that going the extra mile to incorporate unique looking drone footage like this into our documentary, we'll provide a varied style of cinematography.
After capturing the drone material, we circled back towards the main parking and pub area on the cliff-side and began walking up towards the west-cliffs, equipment in hand. We were only using a 2 camera set-up during this shoot with myself on the shoulder-mounted Sony AX53, occasionally switching to the Lumix G7 for C.U. (Close-Up) shots of Alex talking. As for audio, as previously mentioned we recorded Alex's dialogue using a clip-mic, plugged into my iPhone with the voice memos application. We've used this technique in the past and we've found that it is by far the most efficient and effective way for us to record high-quality audio on the fly, without the hassle of bringing a boom mic out to the cliff-side and attempting to operate it with the wind being the way it is at that altitude. We also recorded several raw tracks of environmental ambiance, both up on the cliffs and down by the beached area. Myself and George already have a good idea about how we want this sequence to both look and sound, and environmental audio will be a key part of that.
The material we got today was of a high standard, and we were also able to get some great looking drone footage both in the morning and up on the cliff-side thanks to the pub allowing us to charge the batteries while we stopped for lunch. I'm incredibly excited to see what this sequence ends up looking like in the final timeline as given what we recorded, I think it's going to be one of the more powerful sequences featured in 'DreamChaser'.
Today we shot the south downs sequence for our 'DreamChaser' documentary. This is one of the key sequences of our documentary and will be one of the last things that pre-cedes the Race Day itself, therefore we wanted to be as efficient and effective in our work as possible. We adhered to a strict shot-list throughout the day put together by Alex as part of his responsibility as Director of the project. This was reflected within the storyboards I put together last night and can be viewed in the prior post; like many shoots however I was constantly filming anything of interest that could be used as B-roll, cutaways or establishing shots during this sequence - for example there's some actuality that I captured of seagulls on the cliff-edges, large sweeping pan shots of the cliff-side vistas and general GV's of the location.
When we arrived at the location we immediately noticed that the wind levels were much lower than our scouting visit to the south downs location, which was a positive for us when it came to recording audio using out clip-mic attached to Alex, given that wind disturbance can be one of the most detrimental factors to consider when thinking about recording quality audio for a production of this caliber. Having checked the weather forecast we knew that it was unlikely to rain, however there was an incredibly small chance that it would start raining during the latter part of the afternoon, therefore we opted to perform the drone capture material before shooting the PTC section up on the west cliff-side, this was done in an effort to alleviate potential issues with rainfall preventing us from flying the DJI MavicPro drone.
The drone shots we acquired were great; myself and Alex spent approximately 40 minutes driving up and down the roads circulating the south downs area whilst coordinating with George via walkie talkie as he operated the drone. We were able to get several side-on tracking shots of the car following the road, as well as several great looking aerial/birdseye view shots that could only be captured using something like a drone or a helicopter, we hope that going the extra mile to incorporate unique looking drone footage like this into our documentary, we'll provide a varied style of cinematography.
After capturing the drone material, we circled back towards the main parking and pub area on the cliff-side and began walking up towards the west-cliffs, equipment in hand. We were only using a 2 camera set-up during this shoot with myself on the shoulder-mounted Sony AX53, occasionally switching to the Lumix G7 for C.U. (Close-Up) shots of Alex talking. As for audio, as previously mentioned we recorded Alex's dialogue using a clip-mic, plugged into my iPhone with the voice memos application. We've used this technique in the past and we've found that it is by far the most efficient and effective way for us to record high-quality audio on the fly, without the hassle of bringing a boom mic out to the cliff-side and attempting to operate it with the wind being the way it is at that altitude. We also recorded several raw tracks of environmental ambiance, both up on the cliffs and down by the beached area. Myself and George already have a good idea about how we want this sequence to both look and sound, and environmental audio will be a key part of that.
The material we got today was of a high standard, and we were also able to get some great looking drone footage both in the morning and up on the cliff-side thanks to the pub allowing us to charge the batteries while we stopped for lunch. I'm incredibly excited to see what this sequence ends up looking like in the final timeline as given what we recorded, I think it's going to be one of the more powerful sequences featured in 'DreamChaser'.
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