TV News: Shoot Diary Day 4
Today's shoot was to form the live part of our news piece. I must say that right from the outset today felt like one of the most productive, efficient and well put together shoot days we've had.
Today we went to interview AJay, who was the contributor I found, he was a big electric car enthusiast, who would hopefully be able to give us a different perspective on the future of motoring to what we had already seen. My role today was assistant camera operator and assistant director, which I was pleased with as my skills were put to good use. We also had full team attendance today which was great.
What was good about today right from the start was we had a clear plan of what we wanted. I had previously planned out potential set up's that we could use (although this had to be adapted which I'll get in to later), and we were conscious of time. We didn't want to over run with the time slot we have for our "live" piece; we also didn't want to take up too much of our interviewees time.
As such we introduced ourselves and followed Helen's advice, meaning the interviewee put the kettle on while we scouted the house for potential filming locations and set up the equipment (a mini RECCIE if you will). Its important to note that I contacted AJay the day before to make sure everything was still good, this was when he told me he had to change locations from his office to his house. Meaning we had to adapt our set design plans.
This was where we encountered the first difficulty of the day, our subjects house had good natural light but that alone wasn't enough. The problem was, the lights we brought looked far too obvious and ruined the point of lighting a subject in the first place (getting them to look natural). But the lights in the interviewees house interfered with our cameras causing black bars to flicker across frame.
We had originally planned to film inside with a lighting set up, however when we realized this wasn't possible we adapted our plans and scouted the Garden. We considered filming in front of the subjects car, but this was too close to the road and had too much traffic noise for a successful interview. Instead we moved to the patio area of the garden where our presenter and interviewee could sit across from each other. This worked really well and allowed for great framing and camera angles.
We eventually settled for a 3 camera tripod set up, which while not un common in news, strayed slightly from our original plan. However it allowed us to get great coverage and i had previously discussed the possibility of a multi camera set up with Helen, which she liked.
We decided that the natural outside lighting was more than enough since it was a clear day and put the lighting away.
What was really interesting was our sound set up and general set design. At first we planned one clip mic for the presenter and the rest to be picked up via bomb. However upon arriving on location we realized this wasn't practical. So instead we discussed with Ajay how we could "jazz up the set a little" (we had a few objects to hand that we tried out but they didn't seem very natural). However Ajay was kind enough to let us put a spare bottle of wine he had on the table, with two glasses. This not only looked natural, but let us hide/attach the clip mic behind it, for great audio levels (anything else was picked up by our RODE mics).
There was also a small bush behind the table which made for a nice contrasting rustic background when talking about the future of motoring (we've utilized contrast a lot during this shoot); I kindly asked if i could snap a few branches so that it didn't overfill the shot and distract from the subject.
After these preparations were complete we did a few practice runs of the script we had written. We had Alex presenting (who did a great job) Cailan operating the main camera and Andrew as a camera assistant. I also had a camera to operate but noticed it was difficult for Alex to present and direct at the same time. So i stepped up as assistant director and offered advice on framing and sound. I also offered Alex some friendly advice on how he could present a little smoother instead of it feeling forced at times. I offered this advice since i have experience in the area, however I think Alex felt I was "stepping on his toes" (something that we struggled with earlier in the project), so after some discussions we met at a middle ground.
I also discussed with the group that we would be leasing with the studio at times and suggested we leave a gap for a response from both sides just as I had seen in other news broadcasts. I tried to direct as to how long of a pause we should leave when talking to the studio or proceeding to the next sentence, which sort of worked, it would have been better if i was listened too a little more. But it helped when i read aloud the pre-written responses we had planned.
In order to make Alex feel a little more comfortable we made a few alterations to the script whilst there to help it flow better. We also ran through the questions with AJay, who was happy with all of them but suggested we change the phrasing in places.
I need not have worried about this as it only helped the interview flow better. Alex struggled with his confidence at first and tried to suggest I take over since I had more experience; and while I could have done this I knew there was great potential in him and wanted to see it. I was right to do so as after a few takes of the intro, once Alex warmed up, and relaxed a little he did a truly fantastic job.
We got some great what I like to call "word tennis" going between Alex and AJ, question answer, expansion etc. Which was really good, Helen was worried AJ might be a bit "flat or dull" however i think is enthusiasm really shone through, and Alex and AJ were able to bounce off of each other really well. So much so that we had to do another take just to help the interview fit within our time limit.
Cailan had some epic framing as usual on his camera's and when I checked the audio levels they sounded great. Andrew was also a great help and i think i made a good assistant director.
After a very successful interview AJay was kind enough to let myself and Alex get a few shots of his electric car (while Cailan and Andrew reviewed the footage and packed away the equipment) that we can use for cut away's.
Alex focused on getting close ups of the interior and exterior as that is his specialty. I meanwhile experimented with a few different shots. At first I got some pans with the tripod, which didn't work amazingly well, so I moved on to zooms and focus pulls which worked better. Then to top things off I got out my mini dolly and got a few pans/tracking shots from the ground which I think worked and made me very happy. Finally I set up my gorilla pod on the ground and got an ever so slightly canted shot of AJ driving away which I was really pleased with, while Alex did some great tracking shots.
I also continued to document behind the scenes (i'd like to note this was my own original idea), and overall was very satisfied with my contribution today. We had a very productive day and have some great footage to work with, i can't wait to review it in the edit process next week. Tomorrow we will hopefully wrap up our shoot with a studio set up/scene.
Positives
We worked well as a team, and everyone had a clear contribution and did there job really well.
We stuck roughly to our schedule.
We utilized all the equipment we had to hand really well.
We got a great flow going for our interview that went back and forth between presenter and interviewee, allowing both personalities to shine through.
We had a creative set up for both camera and audio that paid off.
We got plenty of footage, actually more than we planned that will come in handy.
We adapted well to the situation when things changed.
We had time to RECCIE the location before shooting and bounced around different set up ideas.
I didn't loose my temper with any of my team mates.
Difficulties
Since it was difficult for Alex to present and direct at the same time, I stepped up as assistant director, and while I think I did a good job, I did feel as if I was "stepping on Alex's toes" or getting in the way at times.
we were originally planning to film in an office but this changed last minuet and we had to find more appropriate props for set design.
The lighting in the house interfered with our cameras so we adapted our plans/set up to move outside.
Alex struggled a little at first but once he relaxed he did a truly stellar job as a present.
We had to do multiple takes since some were too long, or one person messed up, or in one instance a plane flew over head (but the multiple takes will likely come in handy).
Today was very productive. We were able to complete a lot of things on the edit list. Alex helped by finding some press release footage from Tesla while I synced up all the audio from the Panasonic, with the go-pro footage.
By the end of the day I had finished placing all the clips and syncing the audio for our "live" interview. Before Alex left i made sure to ask if there were any specific angles he wanted to showcase in this section, and I did my best to fulfill his requests. This meant that we had a rough cut ready for tomorrow. I will make sure to show the group in the morning as I want their opinions on a few shots before showing Helen. 
