Production - SHOOT DAY 7 Silverstone Interviews

Our seventh shoot day involved a trip up to Nottingham to shoot our third round of interviews with Team Brit, a disabled motor racing team. These interviews would be showing a singular or group of drivers who allowed nothing to get in the way of their dreams of being a motor racing driver. These interviews allow an area of motivation for myself as I push past my hurdles and race myself. These interviews will be inspirational and will allow the viewer to understand the significance of achieving your dreams.

I had suggested Team Brit, and Bobby Trundley in particular, to George and he did a great job in setting up the shoot date at Silverstone. After understanding more about the contributor's story and their journey to race in motorsport, it allowed me to write up questions specifically about them. This personal touch to the question enables the answers to clearly show the issues they have had to overcome. The planned contributors where Bobby Trundley + Jon Allen. These are the questions that I put together and I knew they would allow the interviewee to elaborate on how they overcame adversity to achieve their dream.

Bobby Trundley (Team BRIT):

1. So Bobby, growing up, how did you first find your love for motorsport?
2. As a child, did you think that autism might affect you achieving your dreams of being a racing driver? 
3. How hard was it to overcome the issues you faced to actually race a kart?
4. How much of a role have your parents had in getting you racing?
5. When getting in a kart for the first time, did it affect you, or did racing come quite naturally?
6. You’ve gone on to win some large UK kart championships, do you think this proves to anyone that you should never give up on your dreams?
7. What advice would you have for any other children growing up with autism, who want to be racing drivers?
8. Does the emergence of teams like Team Brit mean motorsport is now much more accessible to people with disabilities? 
9. What is the ultimate dream going forward?
10. Thanks, Bobby, good luck in 2019! 

Jon-Allan Butterworth (Team BRIT):

1. Jon, where does your love of motorsport begin?
2. So instead of taking up a motorsport career, you joined the RAF, was it hard not being able to follow this dream initially?
3. So in 2007, while in Afghanistan, you were involved in a rocket attack, what were your thoughts as it was happening? 
4. So how and when did you realise you had severe injuries? 
5. What was your first reaction when you realised the decision was made to amputate your left arm?
6. Something that astonishes me is that pretty quickly you adapted and joined the Para-cycling programme in 2009, is it in your nature to push yourself and make the best out of any situation? 
7. You went on to win a number of medals in Para-Cycling, how did you motivate yourself and go about finding new challenges?
8. So recently you have turned your attention to motorsport, when did you realise this could be a possibility?
9. So when getting behind the wheel for the first time, what were the biggest challenges?
10. Do you feel you’re at any disadvantage now when racing?
11. Bringing this back to where this all started. When you first realised you had your left arm amputated, did you think you could go on and achieve the amazing things you have?
12. Do you have any advice for anyone with a disability who wants to get involved in motorsport?
13. Well great, thank you Jon. Good luck in 2019!

After creating the questions I produced a shot list for this segment. As we have to interview a number of drivers on this journey, I wanted to ensure that every interview felt different. Therefore, I looked back through my reference material and found an interview in which both interviewee and interviewer were in the same wide shot, with close-ups focusing on each person. This reference material led me to adapt my original shot list and create one that would engage the viewer while giving the viewer a perspective of the location. This would be a sit-down interview like the one with Jamie. However, this time I would appear on screen, giving each interview its own, unique identity within our piece. 

Bobby Trundley + Jon Allen (Team Brit) - Overcoming Adversity - Location: Silverstone 

MAIN CAMERA - SONY AX53

SECONDARY CAMERA - PANASONIC UNI

THIRD CAMERA - PANASONIC G7

BOTH USING CLIP MIC

• Drone shot of Circuit (If possible)
• MAIN CAMERA Various C/U coming into Silverstone (Iconography)
• MAIN CAMERA C/U Alex in car
• MAIN CAMERA From in front: M/S Alex walking to “Sign in”
• SECONDARY CAMERA C/U, M/S Iconography of Silverstone (ON TRIPOD)
• MAIN CAMERA M/S Alex greeting Bobby & two speaking (Covered by voiceover)
• SECONDARY CAMERA (on tripod)  ULTRA W/S Two sitting down on chairs (in pitlane / near garages?)
• SECONDARY CAMERA (on tripod)  (punch in from UW/S) W/S of Interview
• MAIN CAMERA (Handheld) C/U of Bobby in Interview
• THIRD CAMERA (Handheld) C/U of Alex in Interview AND C/U of items being shown (ie. Helmet, special controls etc)
• After Interview MAIN CAMERA to capture M/S of cars on the track, down the pitlane
• SECONDARY CAMERA to capture C/U various people speaking/laughing etc
• MAIN CAMERA to capture GV’s Drivers getting in the car, firing up etc. 
• MICROPHONE to capture RAW Audio of cars going around the track (ATMOS)
• MAIN CAMERA or DRONE capture sunset
• MAIN CAMERA Alex in the car after the interview, reflecting on what he was told (hold for the contemplation)

After the preparation was complete, it allowed us to feel confident about the actual shoot date. We arrived early at Silverstone which allowed us to sign on and speak to the team about our plans for the day. Unfortunately, we had some bad news which was that Jon, who we intended to speak to, was not at the event today due to a last minute change of plans. This, while unfortunate, was not the end of the day as we had a number of very interesting people we could speak to. This was nobodies fault as it was a last minute change, but it did mean that we had to write some new questions, which George did while I was preparing for our first interview with Bobby. Due to on-track noise and further interior factors, we waited a little longer than expected to film this interview. 

The interview itself went well, I had a great rapport with Bobby as he knew me from my YouTube channel and this meant our interview was much more like a conversation which leads it to feel natural and honest. Bobby gave some great answers, which I think was thanks to the time spent on creating detailed questions. I was happy with my job as a contributor but I struggled mid-interview when George suddenly expressed a problem with his camera [George was on camera due to no other operator being available]. He was worried that the camera was not exposed correctly and expressed concern about the quality. We had to stop the interview halfway because of these concerns, but there was nothing myself or Cailan could have done as we did not know how to solve the issue. I understand that George had concerns, but disrupting the interview halfway was probably not the most professional way of solving this issue. After reviewing the footage, it was clear that it was not as bad as George had thought anyway, meaning some adjustments in the edit would most likely solve the under-exposing. Below is an example of the wide shot on a tripod, then the close-ups of myself and Bobby on handheld rigs. Some colour correction is needed on both handheld cameras, which could possibly have been due to an oversight of the camera operators, not white balancing their cameras. 

I am a little disappointed in the simple mistake not to white balance, but it was a singular issue that day which was improved upon for the rest of the day. It may take some time in the edit to match the colours from the main Sony to the Panasonic's capturing close-ups, but this will not be an issue for our editor. Overall, I would say this interview went really well and we got some fantastic sound bites for our documentary, showing an impressive and inspiring story of "never giving up". 

Our second interview was with Sean Rose, an ex-RAF physical trainer who is paralysed from the ribs down. George did a great job to write up some interesting questions while we were preparing for our interview with Bobby, these are seen below.

1. So, Sean, you’ve done a lot of extreme sports in the past, but what in particular drew you to motorsport.
2. Was it a natural progression, something you’ve always wanted to try or more of a spontaneous decision?
3. Considering your long history with extreme sport, how does motor racing compare to that, especially in terms of the mental and physical strength you need as a newcomer?
4. So I understand that you flew planes before in the RAF, and you’ve obviously been driving on the road for a number of years. How difficult have you found it transitioning into racing on track?
5. How much of an impact do you think your injuries have had on your learning process?
6. With the high risk associated with extreme sports like motor racing, how supportive have those around you been towards your passion for these things, especially given the injuries you’ve already sustained from your time in the RAF?
7. How hard has it been in general for you to keep pushing yourself to such extremes for this many years?
8. Given the success that you’ve had despite the adversity you faced do you feel that anyone can follow their dreams and succeed in this industry with enough determination?
9. So I’m going to be entering my first-ever motorsport race this April. Even though you’ve just started in your racing career, being in a similar place to me do you have any advice or experience is to pass on that you think are important for me to know at this stage?

I thought on the spot and had to slightly adapt my camera plans. My new plan was to have Sean sitting in the pitlane to give a great atmospheric shot, as I did not want to somewhat copy and paste the Bobby interview. Therefore I had the main camera on a tripod at an M/S with Sean looked slightly off camera towards the source of questions. Two other cameras would be focusing on getting C/U, punched in the version of the first shot and one handheld camera getting various, unique angles. An example of each of the shots can be seen below. As seen, the white balance is much better and I would suggest that is thanks to more time being available to the camera operators when setting up the cameras. While slight differences, it means the edit time for this scene will be drastically reduced thanks to the time taken to white balance beforehand. The interview went well, but Sean gave answers which often ended after one sentence, meaning viewers may struggle to connect with him. Bobby was our intended interviewee for this scene so we may only use him as first intended. But Jon, then Sean were back up options if Bobby didn't give quite the desired answers. Overall, between the two interviews, we have some great messages that exactly portray the dedication needed to follow your dreams. 

One thing, as a team we have been great at during this project is capturing B-ROLL and cutaway shots for our sequences to ensure they are consistently interesting throughout. As can be seen in the shot list, I wanted to capture scenes from around the track that would give George opportunities in the edit to make this scene as interesting as possible. The team captured shots of me on the teams' simulator using the hand controls as well as general scenes with me interacting with the team and Bobby. These will be great in allowing the scene to have the hard-hitting narrative I want along with showing the reality of the day and the great family feeling within the team.

We later then went around the track as a team and caught the Team Brit car out on track as much as possible. Like the other shots, the importance of cutaways in these segments is unquestioned, so myself and Cailan both used a camera to capture as many shots of the car on track as possible. I was happy that we worked really well as a duo and captured a large number of usable shots from various different locations, meaning we will have a lot of choice in the edit. This was one of the first times in this project that I was able to be behind the camera and as George was not confident tracking cars, I actually filmed some footage as well. 

It is hard to imagine that most of the scenes filmed in this project will only be present for 60-90 seconds, which at first was a little demoralising considering we have put so much time into each segment. However, it is clear that if we want a consistent production throughout, this time needs to be dedicated to all scenes, not just ones which are longer in length. After reviewing the footage I was pleased with how it had come out and I think my planning beforehand was also key in allowing the shoot to be as smooth as it was. Nobody was at fault for the camera issue and the contributor changing, and we adapted well to still film two full interviews as well as a large stock of cutaway material for this scene. I will have to slightly change the script to fit the new contributors but that is the case for other portions of this script so a full re-write of the script will be completed within the coming weeks. 

As a team, we also picked up on other points that could be improved to ensure smoother shoot dates in the future. George had decided to pick up a camera in one scene but in doing so had ruined Cailan's shot. Of course, both Cailan and I were annoyed that the producer suddenly decided to film but, we cleared this issue up in the car and I made it clear that George was not to use a camera unless specifically stated in the shot list or was told to by Cailan. This had led to a number of shots being unusable because George is present in the background, but I am impressed with George admitting he was wrong and taking a step back in the future to ensure that Cailan is in complete control of the camera operations. This was our only real issue in the day as all others were adapted to on the day. The amount and quality of the footage was great and certainly meant the trip to Silverstone was a successful one. All that is needed now, is for George to catch up with his editing and show us rough cuts of each shoot date. It was a great day and we left with some fantastic interviews with some thought-provoking answers. This will certainly be a scene where the viewer engages in the stories told and hopefully questions why they have not chased their own dreams.