The reason for visiting London was to get shots of New buildings, advanced looking buildings and architecture and just as many things that look clean and modern as possible. I had spent a few hours creating a plan about a week ago and with clear instructions about how to get to each one. Here is it from last week's blog post:
"Location 1: Battersea power station (Take a National rail train from London Victoria to Battersea Park station)
Location 2: Stratford (Take National rail from Battersea Park to London Victoria and then get the District line to Bow Road and then get the DLR from Bow Church to Stratford)Location 3: London City Airport (Take DLR from Stratford to King George V DLR Station and walk to filming location)
Location 4: Ontario Tower (Take DLR from King George V to East India DLR and walk to Tower)
Location 5: Canary Wharf (Walk from Ontario Tower to Canary Wharf)
Location 6: The Gherkin and Lloyds building (Take Jubilee or Northern Line from Canary Wharf to Bank)
Location 7: Cardinal Place (Walk from the Gherkin to Canon St and get the Circle or District line to London Victoria and walk)"
Unfortunately I was delayed because the train was late (typical) and Andrew did not show up because he said he could make it back in time to pick up his brother, which was fair, meaning it was just myself, Cailan and George but it probably wouldn't make much of a difference to our productivity.
Today all of us had a camera and a tripod or fig rig style tool so it was all up to us as individuals to get the shots we wanted. This was great because I have felt so far, I have had to guide the group through each shoot day. This is because without my ideas starting a conversation, we didn't get anywhere. I guess this means I have picked up the Director role of this project, This is because I wanted to be counted and actually since I have started these conversations about shot ideas we have got somewhere. Even if my idea was not the best idea, I felt I did always have to start the conversation otherwise we got nowhere. I know George got annoyed that I was starting conversations and directing my ideas, but I would not have felt so strongly about following my ideas if everyone was coming up with loads of ideas, but that was not the case. Anyway, back on topic, it was good to all have a camera so we can shoot the shots that we wanted to.
Our first location was Battersea Power station which Andrew chose but once we got there it was impossible to get a shot on a tripod because of the building work that was going on. This is not Andrews fault as he could not recce the location before hand but it was wasted time. I did get a shot with my phone looking up and over a bridge at the power station, which may be used. We also got a shot of the train pulling into the station, which for some reason always looks aesthetically nice.
We wanted to get the long tube journey out the way first, so we took the tube from Victoria onto the other side of London to Stratford and the Olympic Stadium. We had a set back with the rain so we decided to have lunch while it was raining in the hope that it would pass by. Unfortunately it was still raining when we finished so we quickly went to the luxury of Primark to get an umbrella. Then it stopped raining.... Welcome to England.
We then got a mixture of shots at Stratford, Cailan got time lapses and I got some footage of the surroundings. I am not really sure what George captured but I am sure it was OK. I got a shot that I particularly liked at the time, of a train coming around a corner and it was a cargo train so it looked very different to the super high tech buildings in the background. It was shots like that we had originally planned to capture.
Whilst leaving Stratford we captured a few last shots that caught our eye. It may seem like we didn't have a plan but it was our intention all along to find a cool location and then look for locations around to film. As we had knowledge that we could film anywhere in London it was a good plan to follow for general B-Roll.
Next up was on a bridge near London City Airport. I know this may seem like a strange location, however shots of planes taking off and landing shows an innovation in transport technology and will be great for the opening sequence of our show. This was my NO 1 Location for today and I think i got my best shots of the day here. I was setup with my own fig rig panning as the planes took off and landed as Cailan did get some time lapses. George seemed to get some more stock footage of London and the horizon as well as some planes on the runway. I personally feel I got a great shot of the plane flying over us and landing as well as multiple takes of planes taking off from the runway. Of course with situations like this we can not plan when a plane will arrive or take off so we stayed here for around 15 minutes which was a fair amount of time to get the footage we needed.
An idea that I suggested to George at the start of the project was to vlog the whole project as a behind the scenes video that we can all use for our blogs.I think this will show that we went to the next step with our project. We will edit together this vlog of the whole week when the main project is done and it will be a great complimentary to our main project. I have been running the Instagram account with Behind the scenes pictures and also car related posts about the future of the automobile. The Instagram has actually already started to build up a following which I am happy with, with over 50 followers in the last week! George has been running the Twitter account along with a few posts from myself, the Twitter has not been gaining the same attention that the Instagram but we are still updating both regularly which once again shows that we are going to the next step with our brand!
Our penultimate location was parallel to the o2 area from the other side of the Thames. It was a great opportunity for me to get some great pans of the location as well as some close ups of boats and planes which we could see from the same location. Great B-Roll that we can add in at the right opportunity. It may seem odd that we dedicated a whole day to this but we thought if we did not do this today we would have probably done nothing as we have a packed shoot schedule so we wanted to keep the energy and passion for the project going! However I did feel at this stage that Cailan and George did want to get home so I thought that we should abandon a few places on our list so that we could all get home sooner. We have another long shoot day tomorrow so it seemed fair.
Lastly we headed near the Gherkin, but we did get a little distracted on the way, we saw a really nice blue building which we could use as a great backdrop whilst traffic drives past the shot. Cailan got a time lapse of the building and the cars going in front of it. George used his mini dolly to try and get some shots but he said they didn't work out but we understand as not everything can work!Day 3 Conclusion:
I think today was a good success as we set out with a strong plan and we accomplished pretty much all of it. Unfortunately we could not complete every location due to the light being lost and at the same time everyone was starting to feel a little tired by around 4:30pm as we had done ALOT of walking!I think we did a great job as a trio today, I feel maybe we did not need a fourth team member today because even three of us we did feel may have been too much. However it was a great day to keep up to date with the project and chat about ideas and potential adjustments.
Tomorrow we should all be on location, and it is vital we are because I will be presenting and we will have a three camera setup meaning we will need 3 people on camera which would be the rest of the group with me presenting. This is my last day of shoot week because I am following up a lead from earlier on in this unit, which I have spoke to Helen about and she said I should definitely follow up because opportunities like this don't come around often! I will not be needed on Friday anyway as it is news anchor work and only 1 person is needed on camera so the rest of the team will be able to work around that, however they knew I would not be in Friday all along so it will not be an issue. Excited for tomorrow as it will be a major piece of the project coming together!!!
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