Major Project: Abbi Pulling Interview

Major Project: Abbi Pulling Interview

Today saw the completion of our final interview for this documentary. We went up to Snetterton Circuit to speak to karting championship winner, and young rookie racing driver Abbi Pulling.

Quite a while ago on this project Simon said it would be good to get a younger female contributor to bring a new energy and sense of diversity to this project. I had been working really hard to try and find one for weeks on end. Emailing and messaging as many drivers as I could find, and I initially got really far with a driver called Katie Milner. But a few days before we were due to go and interview her, she suddenly went dark. Despite keeping in regular contact she suddenly called off the interview and stopped replying to my messages. But I was undeterred. I kept searching for drivers and eventually got in contact with Abbi.

We had in-depth discussion about the project for a while, and I explained exactly what we were looking to speak to her about, gauging her interest. And fortunately, she seemed really on board with our project. I began discussing dates with her and started looking in to her background in the sport. Her availability was slightly limited and quite late in our schedule, none the less after doing some research she seemed like a really great person to speak to, so I pushed the team to make it work (which we did). 

Going in to the shoot, we knew it was going to be tight (based on how far away Snetterton was and the fact we had to be back in Maidstone that afternoon to see our tutor. As such I was sure to pay extra attention to my schedule to make sure the crew were as efficient as possible. 

On the way to the interview, I organised the filming of the "Whats To Come Sequence". A short spoken sequence where Alex explains the different challenges he will face in this documentary. We had made a previous attempt at this in Alex's room. But it did not go how I expected it, and it was heavily critiqued by Simon. As such, I came up with a clear, and more thought out solution to this sequence. Alex wasn't initially keen on the idea, but I explained it to him in the most justifiable way possible as it was designed to reflect both Simon and Helen's feedback. 

I had the script and a mic to hand, while Cailan also had the camera, and we filmed this PTC in the car, on the way to Abbi. This way it was more fitting of the journey metaphor in our doc and we had more visually interesting shots to cut too in the edit. After a few takes I think we got exactly what we needed.

Once we arrived at the circuit I messaged Abbi to find out where she was based (what garrage) and headed over to meet her. By the time we reached her garrage, she had just gone put on track. So to make the most of our time I went to get us signed on as media so we could film in the pitlane as soon as she pulled in.  

Once Abbi had returned we gave her a moment to get out the car, and unwind for a minute. Before going over and introducing ourselves to her and her Dad. I initiated conversation and discussed how she'd been getting on out on track, before proceeding to explain teh idea of the days shoot. 

She was very professional but also easy to get along with and was open and engaged in our ideas. Once I had explained our plan I then spoke to her dad to find out when she'd be on track so i could adjust my schedule accordingly. It worked out that we had just under half an hour before she was due back out. She had to have a quick de-brief so whilst this was happening I went with Alex and cailan to scout a place that his camera plans would work (as we did not have the opportunity to scout the location at an earlier point).

I initially considered swapping my schedule around so that we filmed the latter shots first, to be more efficient. But ultimately decided that it was better to film the first half now as it would play out better in the time that we had. I then went to get Abbi, and made sure that before we started filming that both she and her dad signed the appropriate consent forms I had brought with me (since Abbi is still a minor). 

Once this was sorted I re-introduced her to Alex and we talked her through the questions we wanted to ask her and how we'd film it. 

She was very open and professional and was happy to proceed after a few small alterations. The first half was a walk and talk interview (which Simon really liked the idea of) focussed on setting up Abbi as a contributor. This only took two takes to get right, which was great and left Abbi with more time to prepare for her next track session (which we were able to film).

Whilst Alex filmed most of the B-roll on the shotlsit, Cailan and I headed trackside, to the locations Alex had assigned for us. Leaving early to ensure we were there at the time I had scheduled. We used teh walkie talkies i had brought to communicate and I ensured everyone had a digital copy of the camera plans to follow whilst Abbi was out on track. 

I struggled a little bit with this filming due to the unfamilier circuit and high winds on the day. But was generally happy witht the footage I got (as were cailan and Alex with theirs). After we saw Abbi heading in we then headed back to her garage. I explained to her the plan for the second half of the interview which she seemed equally interested in. However we had to wait for her team leader to get some footage on his computer and de-brief with her before we could film. This put u =s a little behind schedule, but we made the most of our time by setting up the cameras and testing the shots.

Whilst Alex and cailan did this I stayed with Abbi to make sure it came across that we were interested in her performance on the day, as well as our own filming (which we of course were). And as soon as she was done with her de-brief, I got her set up at our new location. Where her and Alex had a sit-down interview about fitness. I ran them through the questions briefly and spent the majority of the interview checking the cameras to make sure they stayed focused.  

This all went really well and we got plenty of usable clips from this interview. I then ensured that Cailan filmed a few additional shots to help connect the two parts of the interview together which will help me in the edit. 

After checking our shotlist and schedule (which we had caught up with....just after some crazy efficient teamwork), we confirmed that we had everything we needed (including signed consent forms). So we thanked Abbi and her dad for their time, and informed them of where they will be able to see the finished cut. Then proceeded to head back to Maidstone for a tutorial, didging the footage on the way. Unfortunately we were so tight for time, and busy ensuring we shot everything we needed that we didn't really capture any photos from the day. So instead I've attached a copy of the content forms to this blog post.