Major Project - Filming The First Fitness Session
The Fitness Sequence - Part 1
Today we were in Tonbridge at 'The Strength And Conditioning Institute' filming the first half of the fitness sequence for our 'DreamChaser' documentary. Going into this project we knew that there would be much more to the entire process than Alex simply passing his ARDS license test and getting out on track. If you talk to any of the top F1 & GT racing drivers, they'll emphasise to you the importance of maintaining your physical fitness.
We had Connor Winfield with us today helping us with operating a second camera, while we had George on-site, given some of the feedback we'd received as a group from Simon and others, we ensured that George was in a more producer-focused role rather than operating a camera as he had done during several other shoots prior to today. When we showed up to the gym we were greeted by Martin and Craig, two personal trainers and members of staff at 'The Strength And Conditioning Institute'. As we set up our equipment Alex went into one of the changing rooms to get into more gym-appropriate gear before we began filming. Both me and George made a point of discussing our shooting plans for the afternoon with both Craig and Martin so that they were up to speed and could even suggest how to more efficiently execute our vision for this sequence. An example of this would be when we mentioned that we wanted a part of the sequence to involve a sit-down conversation between Alex and a Personal Trainer (PT), at which point Craig suggested that we could use one of the meeting rooms in the back of the gym as a way of escaping from the noise of the gym floor.
As D.O.P. and lead camera operator I was on the Sony AX53 for the duration of this shoot, mounted to a standard shoulder-stabilisation rig, with Connor on my FZ330 with a y-mount equipped with a small square light and a Rode microphone to capture better quality audio from the scene. The sit-down interview with Alex and Craig took place in one of the smaller back rooms, however we had issues with lighting during this segment of filming, myself and George attempted to alleviate the uneven lighting using our own set of mountable light rigs, however it was difficult to position them in a way that didn't cast noticeable shadows across a lot of the frame. Alex weighed himself and took the opportunity to set some goals for himself that he could achieve within a month's time - at which point we would return to the gym and check through his targets to see if he'd achieved his goals. This was one of our main motivations for including the fitness segment of the documentary, in that not only did we want to show that fitness is an important and often under-estimated component to motorsport; but also that Alex would be genuinely progressing/working towards this goal of his throughout the course of the documentary.
After filming the sit-down sequence, we moved on to the far-left side of the gym where Martin took Alex through a set of basic exercises in order to gauge where he was at in terms of knowledge and general fitness. These included activities like push-ups, sit-ups, aerobic exercises, muscle tension exercises and more. We filming this in a similar way with me being focused on a two shot of Alex and his personal trainer at all times, with Connor moving around getting close-up's of Alex at any opportunity he could, that way we would always have the master two-shot, but could cut to close-ups for particularly strenuous, impactful or emotional moments. Once we were done with this, Alex got changed back into his regular attire and we thanked Martin & Craig for their hospitality, cooperation and assistance for the shoot. Before we left, I was sure to wrap up our shot-list for the day with a W.S. (Wide Shot) of Alex walking out of the gym from the inside, a mirror of the opening shot of the sequence in which Alex enters from across the street, outside of the gym.
The shoot went smoothly and we were able to successfully execute our shot-list to a tee, with Connor's help we were able to expand our coverage of the sequence significantly, and this will hopefully benefit us during the edit.
Today we were in Tonbridge at 'The Strength And Conditioning Institute' filming the first half of the fitness sequence for our 'DreamChaser' documentary. Going into this project we knew that there would be much more to the entire process than Alex simply passing his ARDS license test and getting out on track. If you talk to any of the top F1 & GT racing drivers, they'll emphasise to you the importance of maintaining your physical fitness.
We had Connor Winfield with us today helping us with operating a second camera, while we had George on-site, given some of the feedback we'd received as a group from Simon and others, we ensured that George was in a more producer-focused role rather than operating a camera as he had done during several other shoots prior to today. When we showed up to the gym we were greeted by Martin and Craig, two personal trainers and members of staff at 'The Strength And Conditioning Institute'. As we set up our equipment Alex went into one of the changing rooms to get into more gym-appropriate gear before we began filming. Both me and George made a point of discussing our shooting plans for the afternoon with both Craig and Martin so that they were up to speed and could even suggest how to more efficiently execute our vision for this sequence. An example of this would be when we mentioned that we wanted a part of the sequence to involve a sit-down conversation between Alex and a Personal Trainer (PT), at which point Craig suggested that we could use one of the meeting rooms in the back of the gym as a way of escaping from the noise of the gym floor.
As D.O.P. and lead camera operator I was on the Sony AX53 for the duration of this shoot, mounted to a standard shoulder-stabilisation rig, with Connor on my FZ330 with a y-mount equipped with a small square light and a Rode microphone to capture better quality audio from the scene. The sit-down interview with Alex and Craig took place in one of the smaller back rooms, however we had issues with lighting during this segment of filming, myself and George attempted to alleviate the uneven lighting using our own set of mountable light rigs, however it was difficult to position them in a way that didn't cast noticeable shadows across a lot of the frame. Alex weighed himself and took the opportunity to set some goals for himself that he could achieve within a month's time - at which point we would return to the gym and check through his targets to see if he'd achieved his goals. This was one of our main motivations for including the fitness segment of the documentary, in that not only did we want to show that fitness is an important and often under-estimated component to motorsport; but also that Alex would be genuinely progressing/working towards this goal of his throughout the course of the documentary.After filming the sit-down sequence, we moved on to the far-left side of the gym where Martin took Alex through a set of basic exercises in order to gauge where he was at in terms of knowledge and general fitness. These included activities like push-ups, sit-ups, aerobic exercises, muscle tension exercises and more. We filming this in a similar way with me being focused on a two shot of Alex and his personal trainer at all times, with Connor moving around getting close-up's of Alex at any opportunity he could, that way we would always have the master two-shot, but could cut to close-ups for particularly strenuous, impactful or emotional moments. Once we were done with this, Alex got changed back into his regular attire and we thanked Martin & Craig for their hospitality, cooperation and assistance for the shoot. Before we left, I was sure to wrap up our shot-list for the day with a W.S. (Wide Shot) of Alex walking out of the gym from the inside, a mirror of the opening shot of the sequence in which Alex enters from across the street, outside of the gym.
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