Major Project: Fitness Sequence Test Shoot
After finishing Jamie Caroline's interview slightly early, allowed us to arrive at our second location of the day slightly early. The location we were scouting and testing this afternoon was to be for our upcoming "fitness sequence". This was the first segment of the documentary that I had entirely arranged myself.
A few weeks ago I planned out this sequence, "putting out the feelers" for a number of different gyms, explaining our documentary and what we plan to film, and this location (The Strength And Conditioning Centre) was the location that seemed the most promising. I had been in contact with them over social media ranging our visit. Today we arrived and introduced ourselves to the owner
(Martin) who I had been speaking with.
Thanks to my contact with him he was pretty much aware of our plans and was happy to assist us, taking us on a brief tour of the site and proving information and suggestions we might find useful. He was very helpful and after the tour allowed us to get on with our test shoot.
For this shoot I had already collated copies of the shotlist we plan to work from on the actual day, that we could base our test shoot on. I had arranged for Connor to be come down and be on camera for the actual shoot, so also Brought him with us for the test. Although he got some practice on camera, the initial plan I had was slightly altered, due to the remnants of Alex's illness rendering him unsuited for the intense physical exercise we needed to film. So we had Alex and Connor swap roles as I guided them through their new responsibilities.
On me I had a list of all the shots and equipment we needed to film, and ensured we worked through these one by one in a timely fashion. However here is when I think I began to overstep my role slightly, getting a bit too closely involved with the filming. Initially I just wanted to ensure Cailan got the required shots, but I began to take on more directorial responsibility than I should have done, instructing him to do things unnecessarily, and having a greater influence on his decisions than was appropriate for a producer.
Looking back I should have given Cailan the space and respect he deserved and trusted his own initiative. Only instructing him if I believed he was straying from the plans I had played out. Thi is something I will seek to work on.
Other than that however, I think the test shoot was a big success.
We got to know the space we had to work with and I made notes of what we would need to do next time (such as bringing additional lighting, and ensuring we had two shoulder rig's and microphones to work with, allowing us to easily adapt to our space).
It was great to meet the owner before our proper shoot and I think that despite some difficulties, we handled the day in a professional manner.
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