Filming

Today was spent filming our Social Action Film on College Food providers. After weeks of Pre-Production and spending the fast few days obtaining filming permits and securing locations today we took to the coolege with a camera (again Callum was absent so it was me and Tantra). We very quickly hit issues when on shot number 1 it started pouring with rain. Thankfully, the rest of the schedule was based indoors so we got to work with that.

While we had developed story boards and shooting schedules, when working in a constantly moving environment it is often difficult to achieve your initial aims. While on shoot we were often forced into different positions than planned and then each new environment would give each of us different ideas and different approaches. In the end, as I have always believed, it can be very good to avoid the constraints of the plans.

We quickly developed a style for how to capture each enivronment. With each different area (Coasters, Subway and The Shop) our first priority was actuality footage. This was the filler, with establishing shots, capturing normal buisness as it happened (despite the slightly more quiet atmosphere of shooting on a Friday). Shooting the actuality footage first gave us an idea of each place which was usefull. Step 2 was obtaining interviews. We had a large amount of Public Release forms primed and ready before shooting and this was where they came into play. For about an hour we observed students in Coasters, one by one asking people for interivews that would make up our Vox Pops sections. While initially we got the cold shoulder, once the first few had agreed to be filmed, more people felt comofrtable being on camera and answering questions. While there were a few difficulties working with the public (camera invasions etc) I found the process intresting and enjoyable. Each Contributor signed off our release form before filming. We ended up with around 12 interviews for Vox Pops, as we added a couple of extra scenes with other students from our class as, when they talked about the documentary with us, they ended up having some strong opinions which we asked them to then express in the film. We also asked James Searle, our student tutor, to provide an answer from the colleges point of view and will be in contact with a manager from Aramak (the caterer for college) as the official statement for their side of the story.

As I said earlier we tried to create a visual style. This envolved both tripod shots as well as "shaky handheld" style. These will be coupled together to create visual impact when it comes to editing.

Our biggest issue of the day was with Subway. While the day before we had got a Waiver form for the location signed off, the workers were upset with being filmed and we were asked not to film. This was annoying as we had taken the time to get the Waiver signed buit in the end not vital for the documentary.

In the end I was very pleased with the work we produced. It took a long time and it was difficult to get everything we wanted but in the end we have atleast enough to make a fairly decent documentary taster.

I am anxious about next weeks plans for filming. As it stands, none of the teachers we emailed inquiring about interviews have returned our mail so Tuesday will be spent more agressively chasing the interviews in first person. Time will also be a factor but at the moment we have just about enough time to hopefully tackle the issue.