Commissions Unit: Canterbury Workshop

Day Trip to Canterbury

Last week, as part of our course, our class travelled to Canterbury (in two groups, on different days) so that we can gain experience on actuality and general filming for footage which can be used for a documentary.

The first group (I was in the second) travelled to Canterbury Cathedral, whereas the group I was in travelled to a stone masonry, on the outskirts of Canterbury.

Once we got to the stone masonry, we were assigned our day task. We had to film actuality within the masonry as well as any footage which would be effective footage if we were to make this into a documentary. Once we had enough footage, we then had to edit it into chronological order or any order as if we were making a mini documentary. However, we didn't do any interviews due to the masonry team being hard at work so we didn't want to disturb them to an extent.

We were put into groups of 3-4 people. I worked with Illy, Sam and Sophie, where we then also assigned which part of the cast we wanted to be, so that when filming we are organised.

I was assigned the director role with Sophie as an assistant, Illy was on camera and Sam was on sound.

How did it go?

As this was our first time filming actuality - my group and I generally felt quite pressured and nervous. We also had to fill in risk assessment sheets and consent forms regarding permission to use people for our film. 

So firstly we made sure that we had both of these completed before filming. We tried getting a consent form from everyone in the workplace however we didn't have much time so only got one from the people who were definitely going to be in our film.

Nonetheless, as I was directing, we began shooting general ideas which we think would be interesting. We tried to cover long shots first so that we can set the scene, then gradually move in closer and closer until you see the actual depth and detail of the stone masonry's. 

We only had around 3 hours to film - at first this seemed plenty of time but the time went past so quickly! However, we made sure that we had some shots of the outside of the workplace as well as making sure we had some still shots using the tripod, so that everything isn't handheld.

Our group generally came up with the idea of making our filming chronological e.g. gradually move in towards the workshop, show the workers picking up tools, introducing them, etc.

Below is our film. As a group we only done minimal editing as this workshop was more on the footage then the editing itself.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv1C_5rRqIk&feature=youtu.be

Feedback

After having a screening of watching our classes footage, Helen gave us feedback for ours.

We generally received good feedback - we had a lot of coverage and included everything which you would expect to see if you were to go there yourself. The idea of introducing the characters and some shots in general worked effectively for the actuality and were unordinary shots which you wouldn't expect e.g. the broken glass shot in the credits, the tracking introducing shot, etc.

Our group also used the 3 shot rule efficiently - this works by having 3 shots, one being a wide shot, a close up shot then a reaction shot (so in this case showing the masonry's face whilst they work).

Minus more work on general sound correcting and editing, Helen mentioned that we could've generally included more closer shots, as our documentary could've been tighter and only include what we actually want to include. 

The idea of this workshop was to get used to the method of filming actuality, e.g. following the 3 shot rule. This works by filming the actuality and then afterwards filming the reaction it creates (similar to the Kuleshov effect I spoke about in one of my posts).

Nonetheless, this workshop benefitted me quite a lot, as I am now used to actuality work, meaning when filming for my project I should feel more confident. It also taught me how you need to work quickly and manage time efficiently as well as being cautious that the camera and sound is set up - otherwise if there is a fault then some footage might be completely pointless i.e. no sound.