Major Project: South Downs Sequence

Major Project: South Downs Sequence

Today saw the completion of another key sequence in our documentary.

We headed down to Birling Gap, a small cinematic stretch of the South Downs to film what will be quite an emotional sequence.

We had previously been to scout this location so had a pretty good idea of where we wanted to film. The main issue we were concerned about was the weather conditions. As in our previous scout, it was very very windy, cold and wet. Which would have been significantly less than ideal conditions to film in. 

To account for this I was sure to schedule this shoot as late as reasonably possible in our schedule so that we had a higher chance of good weather, which fortunately we did.

My main responsibilities for today were to ensure we stayed on schedule, achieved all of the shots on our list, guided Cailan where necessary, give feedback to Alex, and to operate the drone.

The first part of the day was spent getting driving shots that we would need for the introduction of our documentary. Cailan would film from inside the car, whilst I would stand roadside, and fly the drone over them from a safe distance. We had some practice at this on our location scout, so I was more familiar with what I was doing here and got some good shots.

The I had suggested on my schedule that we have an early lunch, not only to prepare us for the walk. But to give us a chance to charge the drone. 

After this, we headed out to film the main bulk of the sequence. Alex already had a location in mind for this, and Cailan needed to film some walking and cinematic establishing shots along the way. As such, I hung back a little bit to ensure they had some space. Once we had reached an appropriate place to film the first PTC I helped guide Cailan so he could safely follow Alex without tripping over, as well as help Alex form more coherent answers. But after they had got a good rhythm going, I gave them the space they needed and went ahead to locate the next spot we needed to film.

After our scout and looking back at previous shoots I decided to bring walkie talkies along with us to aid in communication. So I went ahead and found a suitable location to film. The team then met me there and we set up for the next PTC. This one had to be shot on the G7, since we found from our karting shoots that the Sony struggles to focus when there is a solid background like an expansive grass/sky/sea. So by using the manual focus on the G7 we could ensure a sharper shot. And since I had Alex clip mic'd this wasn't too much of an issue. My only concern will be balancing the colour pallets of the two cameras.

I helped Cailan get up, and suggested he try a few different angles to help me make a more fluid edit of this sequence. The walking and takes were taking a little longer than I had planned so to ensure we kept efficiently to my schedule I once again once left them once they had a few takes down. Upon Alex's suggestion, I went to capture more drone footage that we could use to establish the location, so that we didn't have to spend time doing it at the end. 

On the way back I liaised with Cailan in regards to the shotlist I had on hand, working out what had been done, and what we still needed to film. So once back at our starting point, I helped him check off his last few B-Roll shots whilst Alex recorded some audio of the sea.

Overall today went really smoothly. I maintained a healthy balance as producer. Making sure my DOP got the shots we needed, but also giving him the space he needed and ensuring we maximised our time.