Today was the first day of shooting for my documentary. I loaned out a camera from the college, as well as a tripod and a Takstar mic for the interviews. I filmed the performing arts class scenes today, which included me going into the theatre early to set up and ensure the lighting was ok to film in, and it gave me chance to move things around if I needed to. Of course, the performing arts class had their own way that things should be, considering it was a long performance and I was just simply filming them practice.
I did not want to disrupt their performance too much, as it may have thrown them off, so when I was filming the rehearsal I kept the camera stationary on the tripod at the front of the 'stage'- moving it side to side to capture all of the movements.
I shot some behind the scenes footage before the full performance, ensuring I captured some footage of the class figuring out how to start, where to start from and whether or not they should run through the whole dance or just little bits. I was consulted on this as the director and videographer, but I just told them to do whatever they were comfortable with and that I would work around it- as they were the ones who knew their limits.
During filming there was an incident where one of the performers injured themselves and twisted the wrong way. I stopped filming when this happened and went to check if she was alright. The other performers did the same and the injured performer insisted on continuing to perform, which would not have been ideal as she would've become more injured. A couple of the other students offered to sit out on the performance and ensure the girl was okay. I was told I'd be alright to continue filming, so I did, but after every take I went back to check on the girl to make sure she was still okay.
In some of the footage you can see where the girl is absent from the performance, though I am unsure if I will include this in the documentary as the performance went smoother beforehand.
After filming the performance, they asked if they could run through it again and if I needed any more footage, I said that I did not, but I did offer to take some photographs for them and for me to use in my documentary, so they decided to not run through the whole performance, instead choosing to practice some of the parts they were not too comfortable with. After photographing, I started editing them and sent them over to the class.
I did feel a little nervous photographing a moving performance, as it was not something I had done before, and these images above were the best, though there were some that did not look very appealing, whether it was a blurry arm or that the entire photo was blurry, or that the lighting was too harsh.
After filming the performances, I began to film the interview. Originally the idea was to have two people from the class talk about their talent, but by the time I had set up the interview shot the majority of the class had to leave for their next rehearsal. Regardless of this, I still got enough interview footage with just one interviewee. I did not get many behind the scenes footage of the interview, as the interviewee managed the shot in one take.
After the interview I was finished with the filming of the performing arts class, and was ready to move on.
Production Day Two: 13/01/23
Today was my second day of filming. I had to travel to location for this shoot but luckily the location was not too far away. Upon arriving I set up the camera on the tripod and started to sort out lighting. I was filming the magician today, so I experimented with different lighting and shot types to see which would be the best.
I used the same equipment that I used on my first day of filming, including the canon EOS camera and Takstar Mic for the interview. The magician brought his own equipment, including the things I mentioned on my resource list during pre-production, including a deck of cards, bubbles and tic tacs, etc.
After experimenting I decided to only use the main room light, as the spotlights cast too many shadows on the subjects face and made it difficult to see the tricks. Once I had finished setting up, I began to film, working with the magician to get all the footage I needed.
Of course, sometimes tricks do not go to plan, so it took a lot of retakes to get the perfect shot for the documentary but eventually I managed to get all the footage I needed, as well as some photos.I also filmed some footage for the magicians social media, that I may use in my documentary.
There were some issues with filming at this location, as it is a public magic shop with customers and staff walking around and I could not have just asked to close the shop, so in quite a few of the shots you can hear people talking amongst themselves or the odd creaky floorboard. In my documentary I will try to cut these background noises out as much as I can.
Once I had finished filming the tricks, I filmed the interview. I did not get much behind the scenes of this as I managed to film it all in two takes, each of which I will use in my documentary.
When I had finished the interview, I was finished with filming for the day. It was exciting to get to work with a real magician and to be able to film his tricks.
Production Day Three: 18/01/23
On the third day of filming, I was working with a singer. The plan was to film in the same theatre as the performing arts class, but it was booked up for the foreseeable future, so we had to find somewhere else short notice. Luckily, we were able to film in the photography studio.
I set up the camera and microphone, only to find out that the singer had forgotten their backing tracks for their original songs, and we would not have been able to film otherwise- as I would have had to get copyright permission for the singer to sing existing, popular songs.
Instead, we chose to just film interview footage of the singer talking about their talent, so that we did not have to reschedule another day for filming and have to rush around to find a location to film again.
I did managed to get one or two behind the scenes images, yet did not manage to get ant BTS video footage, as the images were just to set out the white balance- and the interview was filmed seamlessly.
After filming the interview, I was finished filming with the singer. I decided that I could just use the interview footage and include some stock photos of singers to break it up, rather than having to rush around scheduling another day, and I will have enough footage to make the documentary long enough.
When I had finished filming I returned all of the equipment back, and left location.
Production Day Four: 17/03/23
On the fourth and final day of filming (since I decided to no longer film with the guitarist due to scheduling issues) I was working with the game coder/game art designer. This was someone I knew well personally, so filming and directing was a little easier for me seeing as it was someone I knew.
I travelled down to Middlesbrough to my sisters house, as that is where I would be filming. Once I had set up the camera and tripod and began filming. It did turn out to be a little difficult, as their dog kept running around and trying to play, though I managed to film with the distraction.
I took some pictures of the set up too, as these were the only bts images I could get as we were working on a time constraint.
Seeing the whole setup of the interviewee was very interesting to me, as I have never really seen something like this. Filming him do his work was also quite interesting to me, as I got to see something I never really had interest in, but watching the work helped me learn exactly what goes into things like this, and made me realize that games designing jobs require much more than just a few clicks.
Once I had filmed him working, I filmed the interview scene. I managed to film this all in one take, which I was grateful for with the time constraint. Unfortunately, this meant I did not get many behind the scenes footage, but I was also grateful that all of the footage was seamless and ran smoothly.
With this filming done, I was finished filming all of the scenes required for my documentary, and I could continue editing it all together (as I had started right after filming the performance class to get a head start)
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