News Unit: Shoot day number 2 (Amy and Wilson)

Shoot day two, Part 1(Amy Ashmore)

My Role;
My role on this day was slightly varied as I managed to chip in as a director by helping to find the right spot to shoot, setting up the clip mic and just general placement of things. I was also there to help get secondary footage of bits and pieces that could go within the promo video using the canon dslr. 

What happened;
The kit we had is as follows; A tripod, Rode directional mic, Sony PMW, x1 clip mic. Upon arriving to the location, I noticed that we had a couple of hours left before lunch time so we all knew that it would be best to start filming as quick as we could to avoid unnecessary noise that comes with hundreds of people walking around. We had a specific time slot for which we would be able to film Amy. The first was 11am to 11:30. This is when she has her break. The second time she had time would've been lunch time so we knew how important it was to get the filming right the first time to avoid unwanted noise. But it also allowed us to have the possible second chance to film her if anything went wrong. We arrived at 10 am at the University and begun to set up in the room we had permission for. 

Upon arrival I knew we would face a few issues as the workshop room had quite a few students in, working on their pattern cutting and garments. When setting up the kit we noticed that we did not have the long XLR cable and so this produced a problem for the sound. Since Imogen would be interviewing 2 guests, it would've been ideal to have 2 clip mic's but I believe we were unable to get them. All we had was 1 directional microphone connected to the camera and a clip mic. We then had to prioritise who would get which Mic.  I thought our best option was to focus the directional rode mic on Imogen and Amy should have the clip mic. Simply because Amy is the guest speaker and it is important that we hear what she has to say about the topics instead of hearing Imogen clearly read out questions but not the ability to hear any responses from the contributors. What would've been ideal was the use of a longer cable. This would've allowed Imogen to move freely and make proper contact between the two contributors. It would've looked even more professional if we even had a decorative microphone holders with our logo on it.

What went well;

• Saskia's ability to create smooth, clean shots. This helped our filming go very quick.
• Even with complications, we still managed to film the whole interview with Amy and Irene within that allotted half an hour we had. It shows that knowing what you want can really help the outcome of things.
• We all chipped in our knowledge to get the shots done right
• Our ability to overcome the obstacles that was thrown our way and still come away with decent footage that we could work with.
• The location worked really well for our story. Having the fashion students working on garments and patterns relates to our package and it was clear that we made the right choice.

What didn't go well?

• The sound was a big issue and we knew it was going to be an issue from the moment we walked into the room. The minute we started filming the important parts, we were told by the sound operator that the ripping of paper was being picked up heavily on the microphone. I then took it upon myself to ask the students in the background to try to not rustle paper for just 5 minutes but we had no luck, which is fair enough as they have their work to do but our sound would've been much better if we could just have that 5 minutes of lower background sounds. 
• we tried to get the contributor's to speak up but it still wasn't good enough for the sound. We eventually gave up and hoped to have the opportunity to improve this in post production.

What we should improve on?

• Maybe it isn't such a good idea to just as the people in the background once and once only. That is what makes the difference between you coming away with brilliant sound or awful sound. If you don't ask, you don't get. I really hope we can all have the confidence to try and approach these situations if we know it could benefit our production.
• We should really think about making sure we have ALL the kit we need. It is not good enough coming to a shoot and only just realise something is missing. This shouldn't be happening for the second time. Sound is almost the most important element when it comes to news and our package may suffer because of this. 

Shoot day 2, Part 2 ( Wilson McCabe )

My Role; 

My role in the second half of our day was the same as the first half. I played multiple roles during this day including Directing, and DSLR camera work. 

What happened; 

So our aim for this day was to film Wilson in his natural surroundings whilst he did his make up and to also interview him. The style of interview would be one of which the interviewer is not present in the shot, nor can you hear the questions being asked. We wanted to get Wilson to answer the questions in self containing ways so the only focus would be on him. Upon arrival we automatically saw that Wilson's house was filled with interesting things and had real character to it. We knew we would be able to get great shots that would illustrate his personality. So we made a set up according to this. I immediately noticed that he had a shelf filled with colourful make up and books. This would make a nice backdrop for the interviews, however we saw the neat white part of the wall below and thought that would make more sense for him to sit down, use a mirror and do his make up. There would be no distractions for the viewers whilst he does this in front of a white back drop and would therefore enhance the overall look. 

What went well; 

• Our ability to suss out the best ways we could film and knowing which elements would look good in shots.
• Both Imogen and I took turns on the DSLR to get some extra shots of Wilson as he did his make up and we managed to get what seemed so far to be decent shots that could be used in the edit or in the promo. We managed to get some good GV's.
• The sound was really good as it was in a controlled environment.
• Great, vibrant visuals from Wilson's make up techniques.

What didn't go well;

• We were all under the impression that Wilson hadn't made plans for the rest of the day as that is what he had told Rosie, but during the interview we were then notified that he needed to leave soon because he had plans and so that slightly threw us off balance as we were now running against time just as we got into the most important parts. 
• You could tell that Wilson was nervous and felt under pressure, rightfully so since this can be considered as a sensitive subject. He kept giving closed answers and did not always answer the questions as good as we hoped (at times) however, I do not believe this was entirely his fault as he was not really properly briefed before hand. 
• I believe that after the time restraints kicked in, it became much more difficult to pick up on things to be altered, we didn't want to keep him back any longer so in my opinion, instead of us stopping him and asking him to do it again, our mentality changed and so the mediocre things became acceptable because we didn't want to hold him back any longer than we needed to. However that meant that some of our footage was compromised.
• We did make him restart a few answers so it could be self contained but then his responses become more robotic each time so we had to be careful not to stop him too much.

What do we need to improve for next time?

• It is clear to me how crucial it is to brief your contributors beforehand and to get them more relaxed. Showing them the questions days in advance is not enough preparations for them as it can still be daunting for them when they get in front of the camera. Especially when it is a topic such as this one.