Test Shoot

 Test Shoot 

 

Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties there was some missing audio and videos from the first shoot we did. However, this first shoot became a very useful test shoot for us as we realised what coverage we needed, and it helped us discover the style we wanted to move forward with throughout the documentary.  

 

The original shoot worked as a good location recce, previously we did not have time to complete a recce before shooting. This meant we realised the size of the house and the kind of equipment we needed to take on our second trip. This shoot also made us realised that it was hard to frame the couple in a two-shot sat in the living room due to its size. The room was quite small and cluttered meaning there was little room to sit the participants and place the camera. We knew that when going back to film we would take DSLR cameras as they created a beautiful image and were more compact so wild easily fit into the space.  

 

Due to the factors stated above, when reviewing the footage, we hated the framing of the two shot which spanned the whole sit-down interview. It looked very unnatural and the eyelines were slightly too high. From this we discussed repeating the interview with a different framing however, we decided that a handheld style was better fitting for the story we were telling.  Handheld shots allow action to be followed very closely and may mimic the movements of the subject in a POV shot. They are traditionally used in documentaries as there is little time to set up tripods and react to live events (Becker). We decided we would use the audio from the first shoot from the interview and then try to get coverage for the important parts of the story. However, we understood that there may be a situation where we would need to cut back to the interview as the story was a priority not the image.  

 

There were also some audio issues, the Tascam was low on battery and the replacements were forgotten and one of the cameras did not record sound as the settings were wrong. This resulted in us having some video clips without accompanying audio which meant they were not as valuable as we hoped. However, we managed to save some of the clips to use as b-roll or we filmed audio which would fir behind the clip.  

 

From doing this first shoot we learnt a bit more about the story and created a deeper emotional relationship with Susie and Tim this meant that when we returned, they were more comfortable being around us and Infront of the camera, so they were more natural and relaxed. We were also able to create an in-depth shot list for our second shoot which detailed exactly what coverage we needed, what we needed repeated and elements of the story we wanted to know more about. Doing all of this helped us think about how the edit would be structured from the content and coverage we had.  

 

 

 

References  

 

Becker, K. “LibGuides: Film and Media Studies: Camera Movement.” Eac.libguides.com, eac.libguides.com/c.php?g=723550&p=5311207.