Major Project - Figuring Out The Way Forward
Assessing Our Situation Following The Race Day Incident
As I detailed extensively in my last post, things didn't exactly go to plan during Sunday's race day shoot. Alex was not able to get out on track during the race due to a fault with the suspension on Sam's car, and that leaves us in an interesting situation as documentary filmmakers attempting to wrap up a documentary about someone racing for the first time.
We have discussed several potential solutions to our predicament;
A) We could stick with what we have, edit together the race day sequence as if everything is going as planned, before revealing what occurred in a dramatic way. Fortunately we had the foresight to record the race day commentary using George's iPhone and the 'Brands Hatch Live' app which allows you to listen to commentary in real-time - this would allow us to utilise everything that the commentators said about the incident as it unfolded. This also includes an interview that one of the commentators conducted with Sam in the pitlane shortly after everything went down. We would then close the documentary with the ending PTC that we captured with Alex following the events of the race, where he discusses how far he's come regardless of what happened, and that he's "99% closer to achieving his dream than he was in the first place". The fear here is that this could result in an anti-climax for the audience given that the entire documentary builds up to this moment.
B) We re-arrange another race at an additional financial/physical expense to Alex and the team and shoot it in a similar way that we shot the entire experience on Sunday, only this time Alex would actually compete. After the incident occurred and things died down following the conclusion of the race, Alex was fortunate enough to be offered an opportunity to race again on the 27th of this month, this time courtesy of Rod Birley - a veteran racing driver who helped provide the opportunity for Alex to take the GT Puma out on a track day back in February. We then edit this race into a 2 minute montage that can be put into the documentary either after the final, post-race diary room sequence, or following the credits themselves. Though we wonder whether this would take away from the powerful ending note of things not going as we originally planned and having to adapt to those circumstances in the moment.
C) We do the same as A, however instead of using the ending PTC in the garage, we cut from the end of the race day sequence/incident, to the final diary room sequence in which Alex talks about how things went and what his plans are for the future - before wrapping things up with a line something akin to "...but the chase goes on".
Right now we're leaning towards C, however once we get some feedback from our course lecturer Simon regarding the events of Sunday, I think we'll be in a much better position to move forward confidently. We're worried that whatever we choose to do, we may now be in a position where we're marked down for a lackluster ending to our story, even though things were of course out of our control. Given the amount of time and effort we've invested into 'DreamChaser' over the course of the last 4 months and 25 shoot days, this would be gutting. We were originally planning to shoot the final diary room sequence last night, however we decided to hold off on doing so until we get some kind of an idea of where we want to go with the conclusion to this documentary.
Either way, watch this space for what comes next.
As I detailed extensively in my last post, things didn't exactly go to plan during Sunday's race day shoot. Alex was not able to get out on track during the race due to a fault with the suspension on Sam's car, and that leaves us in an interesting situation as documentary filmmakers attempting to wrap up a documentary about someone racing for the first time.We have discussed several potential solutions to our predicament;
A) We could stick with what we have, edit together the race day sequence as if everything is going as planned, before revealing what occurred in a dramatic way. Fortunately we had the foresight to record the race day commentary using George's iPhone and the 'Brands Hatch Live' app which allows you to listen to commentary in real-time - this would allow us to utilise everything that the commentators said about the incident as it unfolded. This also includes an interview that one of the commentators conducted with Sam in the pitlane shortly after everything went down. We would then close the documentary with the ending PTC that we captured with Alex following the events of the race, where he discusses how far he's come regardless of what happened, and that he's "99% closer to achieving his dream than he was in the first place". The fear here is that this could result in an anti-climax for the audience given that the entire documentary builds up to this moment.
B) We re-arrange another race at an additional financial/physical expense to Alex and the team and shoot it in a similar way that we shot the entire experience on Sunday, only this time Alex would actually compete. After the incident occurred and things died down following the conclusion of the race, Alex was fortunate enough to be offered an opportunity to race again on the 27th of this month, this time courtesy of Rod Birley - a veteran racing driver who helped provide the opportunity for Alex to take the GT Puma out on a track day back in February. We then edit this race into a 2 minute montage that can be put into the documentary either after the final, post-race diary room sequence, or following the credits themselves. Though we wonder whether this would take away from the powerful ending note of things not going as we originally planned and having to adapt to those circumstances in the moment.
C) We do the same as A, however instead of using the ending PTC in the garage, we cut from the end of the race day sequence/incident, to the final diary room sequence in which Alex talks about how things went and what his plans are for the future - before wrapping things up with a line something akin to "...but the chase goes on".
Right now we're leaning towards C, however once we get some feedback from our course lecturer Simon regarding the events of Sunday, I think we'll be in a much better position to move forward confidently. We're worried that whatever we choose to do, we may now be in a position where we're marked down for a lackluster ending to our story, even though things were of course out of our control. Given the amount of time and effort we've invested into 'DreamChaser' over the course of the last 4 months and 25 shoot days, this would be gutting. We were originally planning to shoot the final diary room sequence last night, however we decided to hold off on doing so until we get some kind of an idea of where we want to go with the conclusion to this documentary.
Either way, watch this space for what comes next.
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