Documentary: Location Recce

Location Recce
The location: Windmill Allotments
The Windmill allotments is a community garden based in Margate. They are the creators of what they call "the Veg Box Scheme" and this is where they get their volunteers to help grow and pick fresh produce which then get put into bags and sent off to a variety of people who are unable to grow their own or who don't have time to buy fresh produce.

 Not only do they have the veg box schemes but they also have something called "Cabbage Patch Kids" which is a parent and toddler group where kids can come and learn a variety of outdoor skills such as; den making, pond dipping and worm hunting, food growing, cooking and tasting fresh produce.

Already it gives an idea bout what this company is about and gives an idea of what their values are. Plenty of different avenues to discover when it comes to this place so we have to have a look around and see which parts of it can really carry our story along.

As a group we took a trip to the location and I thought it would be a good idea to take pictures of areas I liked or inspiration for shots that we could use. 

Here is an example of a possible shot, although my photo is dark, upon arrival I liked the welcome sign as it was not a usual welcome sign. It was slightly arty and playful, gave a sense of what kind of environment the allotment is. The only downside is that because of where it is positioned, if it is a sunny day it may be hard to see the letters clearly so its a tip that if we chose to do a shot like this we have to make sure the exposure is as good as it can be. 

As we walked through the allotments, I really enjoyed the way in which the rows of veg grew. They were so symmetrical and gave me ideas of good depth of field shots that we could make. It would be good to get up close and enhance the amount of veg that is grown in the allotment. The only downside to this is that the vegetables get picked so often and so they may not be available on the day to get GV's in the same way as this image. However, its still something to consider and keep in mind for when we go to shoot. 

The "Top Plot" allotment has wide spaces and one of the things I noticed about the location is that when you look out into the distance, you see rows of houses. Its contradictory to the open field and rows of greenery that is present in the foreground and I believe that would make great imagery. Maybe by adding a focus pull that could create nice imagery too, its definitely something we should play about with.

This is an image of the inside of the "poly-tunnel". This is where most of the lettuce grows. one of the things I immediately noticed about it was how symmetrical the layout was inside. I thought it gave opportunities for nice imagery. It was bright, the growing vegetables add a lovely colour scheme but again, this setting will frequently change so it may not be the same when we are ready to film. It is also very hot and humid in here so this may be an issue when filming due to the lenses steaming up.

So it is clear that the issues that we may face when getting the GV's would be the weather and what kind of work would be taking place before/after/during the filming day. So we must communicate with the windmill allotment team so we know what their plans are and what will be picked. With this information, we can have a better plan for what images we will be able to get.