After Fergus's suggestion last week, I decided to get in early this week and get my camera set up before 10am. I was the only person to do this and I was happy to have my camera all ready before we were due to start.
Being early also gave me an opportunity to understand my camera position as much as possible before we started filming. Even without direction from the directors I realised that I would be focusing on the two chairs on the left of the set.
I knew my camera would love now and again through the show but the time I Had while everyone else was setting up was useful to go through the script and circle the parts of the scripts where my camera would be used.
It should also be noted that my fellow camera operator on camera 4, Cailan, called in sick meaning that I had to operate my camera for the whole day. I actually enjoyed this a lot as I got a chance to try parts of the show that I may not actually film on the actual take. It gives me the experience for the live show in case Cailan falls ill come the day of the actual shoot.
I am just worried that Cailan has lost a lot of camera time but I will do my best to teach Cailan all that I learned this week in terms of camera positions and framing etc.
The directors were a lot more natural with their directions to the camera crew today and that eases the nerves when on the floor. I have now marked a lot of what was stated by the directors on my draft script so that next week I have a great idea of what the camera will be needed to do in each section of the show.
As there are 5 cameras for this show it does mean that a lot of the time where are large portions of time when the camera we are on is not being used. In this time I am starting to learn that you need to get your next shot planned and ready before the director next calls for your camera. This should also ease the nerves of the director as the shots will already be lined up for when they are needed.
Today was once again a great learning experience. I now know much more about the script and where my camera will be located in each segment of the show. We still have a lot of learning to do for the actual show, but Del said we all did a good job today and acted very professional with the presenters.
I liked that the presenters understood that we were still learning and really understood when the directors called for a cut half way through a take. Overall today we did a great job on the floor and I really started to ease into my role and I feel a lot more confident with the camera in a studio environment than I was 2 weeks ago.
The only problem is that we have nearly a three week break before our next rehearsal and we hope that the actual set will be ready soon as we can finally visualise where the cameras will work when they are ready. I am really excited for this unit and now that I am fully focused on my role I feel I am learning at a really quick rate.
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