Professional & Critical Practice (Commission): Shoot Day

On 20th March I held my shoot for Alpha Weapons Academy's promotional video.

Contributors
Acting as camera operator and director, I took full control of the directions and camera shots, movements and angles. While my sound operator Jordan Parker, ensured that the quality of sound during both classes and interviews was of high quality.

In the planning process of the shoot, I intended to carry out a long interview with the head instructor of the company, Dave McPherson and two short interviews with students to tell us their point of view on the class. After viewing the first class in filming, I selected two students that I felt were the most energetic and enthusiastic and they agreed to be interviewed (along with signing consent forms with the rest of the class).

Interviewee One: Kate

Interviewee Two: Ben

Schedule & Location
The schedule of the day was approximately as follows...

• 09:30AM - 10:30AM: Set up time (setting up equipment, discussion for the day with Dave, introducing selves to class, signing consent forms, double checking script and shot list)
• 10:45AM - 12:30PM: Filming of traditional class
• 12:30PM - 12:40PM: FIlming of interview one with Kate
• 12:40PM - 1:00PM: Brief break and filming of students putting on sparring class gear and setting up for sparring class
• 1:00PM - 2:00PM: Filming of sparring class
• 2:00PM - 2:10PM: Filming of interview two with Ben
• 2:10PM - 2:30PM: Brief break and Dave cooling off / preparing for interview
• 2:30PM - 3:00PM: Filming of interview with Dave
• 3:00PM - 3:30PM: Reviewing of footage and packing up

The filming schedule was worked into the weekly schedule of the classes, with student interviews filmed between the technical and sparring classes, and Dave's interview filmed after all classes finished. This allowed for the usual flow of the day to continue without filming interrupting that, allowing students to continue as if the camera wasn't there - allowing for actuality.

The location of Alpha Weapons Academy mostly consists of two rooms, the main room for all weapons training and fitness and a room connected to both this room and the entrance for breaks and setting up. Seeing as I'd recceed the location and observed the classes before filming to see that all activities take place within the one moderate sized room, I made sure to plan a number of shots from a variety of areas in the room in different sizes and angles. This allowed for me to have varied footage from around the room, rather than for example, static shots from one corner of the location.

Varied shots of the classes

I chose to hold Dave's interview in front of a serving hatch styled window between the two rooms that allowed for him to talk without lots of background noise, but with an interesting background behind him of the class practising with weapons. I found this to be much more effective than if I'd had him sat down in a quiet room with no action happening.

Static MCU shot for Dave's interview

Script & Shooting
As expected from an activity based shoot, I found filming to be very improvisational. I needed to be constantly alert and aware of what everyone in the class was doing and think on my feet by continuously moving around the room to capture different people in the class undergoing different activities in varied shot sizes. All based on what I felt looked the most important and entertaining.

However, I was able to keep the shoot structured in line with my shot list and script through knowing what to expect from the classes in a previous visit. I found that the best way to keep a structure to filming was by constantly referring back to my script and shot list to remind myself of the key shots that I wanted to capture.

My hard copy script with notes on the order of shots in line with the schedule
(with a key edited in to explain the meaning of the numbers for this journal post)

I found that I was more than able to capture every shot that I planned in pre-production to be able to have the editing approach that I needed for the film. However I was also able to capture extra, unexpected shots. Including comical smiling shots between Dave and the students representing the atmosphere of the class, and a warm up fitness-based routine to show how important fitness is within the classes. I also decided to shoot static shots of items such as sparring gear and weapons, in case I needed extra footage to cut over interviews during editing, which I felt was a smart move.

Some of the unscripted, improvised shots

What Worked

• The entire day of filming was extremely professional and went smoothly
• I got more than enough shots and captured every shot that I initially planned
• I have built up a good professional relationship with the company due to professionalism during both pre-production and production
• Putting in a lot of planning and recce-ing beforehand proved to be vital in knowing what to expect on filming day and scripting
• Acting as both director and camera operator allowed me to capture every shot quickly, rather than giving a crew member directions and explaining to them what I need
• I didn't need to take any structured shots, there was enough action and enthusiasm to have all of my shots be actuality-based, which is what I wanted from the shoot

What Could Have Been Improved

• I found there to be a slight echo in sound due to the location, however this was unavoidable and would have been more obvious without my sound technician using a boom pole. I would have potentially used clip mics for interviews if they had been available
• I possibly would have filmed a second interview with Dave, asking him to be slightly more enthusiastic, due to him appearing nervous or shy occasionally during his interview
• The only issue during the day was that the two 8GB memory cards had run out of space before filming the last part of the day; Dave's interview. However thanks to my sound technician, during a break he was able to quickly retrieve my laptop from home so that we could upload the footage on location, clearing space to film the interview. If I hadn't added the codec to my laptop prior to filming I wouldn't have been able to upload the footage, and if it hadn't have been for my sound technician I wouldn't have been able to retrieve my laptop due to not having my own transport to take equipment with me, nor being able to leave it alone on location. This could have been a large problem on the day, so next time on a shoot I will make sure to bring my laptop with me.