GW: DOCO SHOOT ISSUES

I transferred my rushes from the doco shoot yesterday and finally viewed them today. It was A bit of a nightmare and real disappointment from the doco shoot with Brian yesterday as there are in my opinion some real issues with them. The problems stemmed from being under-crewed due to availability of collaborators and crew and also using some of my students and possibly expecting too much from them. Some of the footage is great and the shots of Brian are great, the wide shot is solid and some of the hand-held camera footage is good too. Brian's performance is good throughout and although and sells the issues well. It is more due to my direction than anything else but it would have been good to make him more likeable and charming as this would have endeared the audience to him more. However he plays the role well staying on the realistic side of acting and plays off well against me.

The issues stem from being under-crewed, the crew (students) being relatively inexperienced and myself doing too many roles and taking my eye off the ball. I was the writer, director, producer, actor, art director as well as being camera and sound supervisor and it was simply too much and too many balls to keep in the air at once. Looking back I needed a sound-person, third cameraman and ideally a production assistant. Budget for this and the fact that I was shooting in a small space at a friends house led to me not being able to do this. Also due the the lengthy set up of the shoot I was too eager to get shooting and should have run more thorough checks but due to the restlessness of cast and crew I did not do this!

The main issues are two fold. 1: There are sound issues. The main camera that was recording the sound did not record ANY sound. My student who was using that camera was listening to the sound coming into the mixer BUT the feed from the mixer to the camera did not work. This is a schoolboy error but the blame lays firmly with me not my student who was relatively inexperienced with the kit. The issue stems from the fact that the TASCAM sound mixer was not used to record the sound just balance it and then feed this mix to the camera. So even though there was sound going into it where it was monitored there was no sound outputting from it to the camera. I should have checked the sound back from the camera and also checked the leads were set up right. I should have monitored the sound more frequently myself too. The sound was recorded on all of the other 3 cameras though but only on their in-built microphones so there IS SOME sound. It is usable but unfortunately not as good as it could or should have been. However I may well be able to polish it a little in post-production and call in the help of some sound designer/recordist friends.

2: I am really unhappy with the shot of me which is poorly framed with not enough looking room, not as well lit as Brian's shot and the focus is not 100% sharp. The main issue was that this camera was unmanned due to only having two crew and myself but I was busy doing too many roles as mentioned earlier. It was obviously hard to check this shot as I was in it but I should have got the crew to shoot some footage and then viewed it back. It really needed a cameraman on the camera too as then the shot could also have been varied between MS and MCU. below is an example and contrasted with a shot of Brians.

Putting it right.
1: Time and availability of myself, crew and actors mean that a complete re-shoot is going to be tricky so it will gave to be pick ups. To keep the time down I will only shoot pick-ups of the footage of myself. The plus side is that the footage will be better and that I will be able to get the MCU and MS that I am after and address the framing and lighting. The issues will be continuity, making sure I deliver the lines right so it all cuts together. In order to try and make sure this goes right my actor Brian will be there for eye lines and to do his lines to make sue my phrasing and performance fits. I will also take the rushes from the last shoot to match the lighting with Brian's footage. Sound wise I am going to speak to friends who work in sound and decide if it is best to record the best sound I can or to recording using the camera in-built microphone again so the sound will be the same.

2: In terms of the sound I will need to enlist the help and advice of the sound guys I know. The sound is not awful and the dialogue is still fine to listen too but there is some background noise that I want to try and reduce. If all this fails I may decide to put a disclaimer on the titles at the start of the piece. The premise was that we were given the interview shot at short notice and then taken to an undisclosed location for the security of Ben Wright. I could put in the titles setting this scenario up at the start that there were sound issues to not only allow for the error but to give a sense of realism to the shoot. Under the premise obviously a re-shoot would have been impossible.

On a positive note there is some really good footage in there and it has real potential to get the feel that I am after...