Major Project - Journey Up To Accrington & Interviewing Daniel Rowbottom
Making Pilgrimage to Accrington & Interviewing Daniel Rowbottom
For our first proper interview sequence during the production of 'DreamChaser', we headed up north to Accrington, just above Manchester in order to shoot with Daniel Rowbottom at his team garage with his equipment and car. This allowed us to get an internal perspective of what goes on behind the scenes of the racing 'team'. There's much more than simply the driver and the car to worry about and that was emphasised throughout the shoot today.
In order to ensure we were in Accrington for the time required as well as were able to get enough rest for us all to be prepared for the events of the morning, we decided to drive up half-way to Birmingham as a group last night, where we stayed at an overnight B&B and left early morning. We ended up arriving at Ciceley Motorsport around 11am where we went and met with Dan and his crew initially, introducing ourselves and explaining what we had planned to shoot. Dan came across as really down to earth and approachable throughout the entire experience, showing us around the garage, the office and the upstairs boardroom. Once we had the formalities out of the way myself and Alex immediately began blocking scenes in the entrance foyer of the building, as well as what sort of actuality would work best for our sequence, inside a factory environment.
George's role during these segments is the producer, so he's referring to the shot-list to ensure that we're acquiring every necessary shot we planned to get, this worked fairly well today and much better than the racing license sequence for example which was good to see. I think George struggles consistently with having nothing to do on set at any given moment, therefore leading him to make the assumption that he should be doing more rather than less. This has lead to several confrontations so far and I hope that George takes on board what we have both said to him and we're able to progress into our shooting schedule with as little unnecessary/unprofessional issues as possible.
Over the weekend Alex purchased a rig with wheels at the base of it, allowing us to mount any tripod onto a wheelable camera set-up. This came in immediately handy during a 'walk n talk' segment between Alex and Dan in the factory, comprising the opening part of the interview. There are also consistent Mid-Shot (M.S.) focussing on Alex during segments where I follow him into locations for the first time, this includes through the front door of the venue alongside the first time Alex enters the garage section of the factory where all the vehicles are housed. The wheel rig worked surprisingly well on the base of the factory, however there was an issue with a crack in the floor which we took the initiative to tackle by shooting an establishing panning shot of the two walking to be intercut amidst the 'walk n talk' segments themselves, thus giving the illusion that the camera is invisible in front of Dan & Alex, but also simultaneously hiding the camera shake for the split-second in which the rig passes over the crack in the floor.
Once this section was in the bag, we moved on to the garage sequences - the focus of which was Alex getting into Dan's car alongside Dan as he explained a bit about what they've done to it and what was expected of a racing driver at his level. This was insightful for both Alex & Me considering going into this project I knew little about motorsport beyond the standard peripheral ignorance one has for hobbies they don't have any experience with. We also shot several C.U. shots of Dan's car itself, which featured several 'CataClean' stickers across the bonnet, along the side of the car and on the rear. 'CataClean' were kind enough to sponsor our documentary alongside Dan and his racing team, thus allowing him to have slightly more exposure through our doc, while also giving us the money to be able to fully execute on our vision for 'DreamChaser'.
After wrapping the interview we began picking up miscellaneous shots from the shot-list, e.g. actuality of people working in the garage, dan himself getting suited up, various panning and establishing shots of the area, as well as the initial introduction of between Alex and Dan in the foyer of the building. Once these shots were acquired, we were able to pack the equipment up and say our farewells to the crew in the garages and in the office. I thoroughly enjoyed the shooting experience today and felt like we performed much more efficiently as a team. Having George supporting me from behind as I walked backwards during some of the 'walk n talk' segments made for a really smooth looking shot composition, and it's things like that which will help us make this entire project truly a step-up from the things we've done before.
For our first proper interview sequence during the production of 'DreamChaser', we headed up north to Accrington, just above Manchester in order to shoot with Daniel Rowbottom at his team garage with his equipment and car. This allowed us to get an internal perspective of what goes on behind the scenes of the racing 'team'. There's much more than simply the driver and the car to worry about and that was emphasised throughout the shoot today.
In order to ensure we were in Accrington for the time required as well as were able to get enough rest for us all to be prepared for the events of the morning, we decided to drive up half-way to Birmingham as a group last night, where we stayed at an overnight B&B and left early morning. We ended up arriving at Ciceley Motorsport around 11am where we went and met with Dan and his crew initially, introducing ourselves and explaining what we had planned to shoot. Dan came across as really down to earth and approachable throughout the entire experience, showing us around the garage, the office and the upstairs boardroom. Once we had the formalities out of the way myself and Alex immediately began blocking scenes in the entrance foyer of the building, as well as what sort of actuality would work best for our sequence, inside a factory environment.
George's role during these segments is the producer, so he's referring to the shot-list to ensure that we're acquiring every necessary shot we planned to get, this worked fairly well today and much better than the racing license sequence for example which was good to see. I think George struggles consistently with having nothing to do on set at any given moment, therefore leading him to make the assumption that he should be doing more rather than less. This has lead to several confrontations so far and I hope that George takes on board what we have both said to him and we're able to progress into our shooting schedule with as little unnecessary/unprofessional issues as possible.
Over the weekend Alex purchased a rig with wheels at the base of it, allowing us to mount any tripod onto a wheelable camera set-up. This came in immediately handy during a 'walk n talk' segment between Alex and Dan in the factory, comprising the opening part of the interview. There are also consistent Mid-Shot (M.S.) focussing on Alex during segments where I follow him into locations for the first time, this includes through the front door of the venue alongside the first time Alex enters the garage section of the factory where all the vehicles are housed. The wheel rig worked surprisingly well on the base of the factory, however there was an issue with a crack in the floor which we took the initiative to tackle by shooting an establishing panning shot of the two walking to be intercut amidst the 'walk n talk' segments themselves, thus giving the illusion that the camera is invisible in front of Dan & Alex, but also simultaneously hiding the camera shake for the split-second in which the rig passes over the crack in the floor.Once this section was in the bag, we moved on to the garage sequences - the focus of which was Alex getting into Dan's car alongside Dan as he explained a bit about what they've done to it and what was expected of a racing driver at his level. This was insightful for both Alex & Me considering going into this project I knew little about motorsport beyond the standard peripheral ignorance one has for hobbies they don't have any experience with. We also shot several C.U. shots of Dan's car itself, which featured several 'CataClean' stickers across the bonnet, along the side of the car and on the rear. 'CataClean' were kind enough to sponsor our documentary alongside Dan and his racing team, thus allowing him to have slightly more exposure through our doc, while also giving us the money to be able to fully execute on our vision for 'DreamChaser'.
After wrapping the interview we began picking up miscellaneous shots from the shot-list, e.g. actuality of people working in the garage, dan himself getting suited up, various panning and establishing shots of the area, as well as the initial introduction of between Alex and Dan in the foyer of the building. Once these shots were acquired, we were able to pack the equipment up and say our farewells to the crew in the garages and in the office. I thoroughly enjoyed the shooting experience today and felt like we performed much more efficiently as a team. Having George supporting me from behind as I walked backwards during some of the 'walk n talk' segments made for a really smooth looking shot composition, and it's things like that which will help us make this entire project truly a step-up from the things we've done before.
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