Professional Practice: Day 1 Shoot Review

How Did it Go?

Tracking Establishing shot of 'The Big Space'

All in all, my first day's filming went to plan! The weather was sunny which made the shots using the Canon seem much more effective and generally worked as a bonus as the sunlight helps to reflect on the happiness of the promotional video.

Day's Shooting Structure

On the day, we decided to change the running order around so it's easier and more chronological, which you can see below:

10:00am: ARRIVE

The Life Boat Museum entrance

10:10am: Film Scene 1 (POV walking through entrance).
10:20am: Cutaways of Life Boat Museum
10:50am: Cutaway of 'Big Space
11:20am: Establishing of open pebble space
11:30am: Cutaways of Smithery and the Gallery
12:15pm: BREAK (30 mins)
12:45pm: Establishing shots of warships
1:15pm: Tour of Submarine & Cutaways
2:00pm: Ropery Tour & Cutaways
3:30pm: WRAP

What Was Filmed?

Inside the Smithery Gallery

As there was quite a lot to film, I didn't manage to get everything in one day, however still achieved quite alot. Below are the key aspects of content which myself and Kate managed to get:

    - All tracking shots (warships, smithery, open-space for graphic match, big space)
    - Ropery tour: cutaways. Making rope (go pro)
    - Smithery gallery and cut aways
    - Submarine tour (go pro)
    - Life boat museum cutaways
    - Into POV

Was There Anything I Missed?

Open pebble space, which could be used for the graphic match
when the Dockyard is busy (and for the festival)

One of the main problems we faced was of course time. It took much longer to set up gear because we had to carry around the track and dolly which took a while to set up properly at each location - making sure it was straight, balanced, etc. So we missed a few shots and scenes, such as:

    - Interview at smithery
    - Interview at ropery
    - Interview at submarine
    - POV walking from entrance to warships
    - POV walking from warships to ropery
    - POV walking from smithery to life boat museum

Was There any Problems?

Establishing tracking shot of the Gannet

Minus the lack of time, we didn't face any major problems. One of the problems would be that we were rushed to film on the Submarine due to a group of school kids coming onto the ship, and of course we weren't allowed to film on there without consent, so this was a bit rushed. Nonetheless, we were prepared and managed to get all the footage we needed.

Wind too proved to be slightly problematic however we didn't record much audio meaning it wasn't a major problem. It just made it harder to set up and slightly risky using the track and dolly because at some points the wind would blow it away!

What Went Well?

Establishing Tracking shot of the Cavalier

Minus these slight problems, we generally had a good shoot and got some fantastic establishing shots. Addionally, we had two  types of coverage for both the ropery and the submarine, meaning when editing I can switch between the GoPro and the Canon. The POV GoPro footage visually makes you feel like you are there as well which is what I needed!

The ropery tour in action

All in all, I'm pleased with the day's shoot. My next shooting day will be focusing just on interviews, so that I can use a Sony (and Canon if possible) to make sure I get the highest quality for each interview.

1st person perspective of climbing through the Submarine!