Production - Shoot Day 19 Fitness At Home Test

After an understandable critique from Simon about our current fitness sequence, I decided that we should spend some time on working out exactly what we wanted to do with this sequence. This critique was also made more important due to an important email from the gym where we had recorded the first sequence. When George had emailed about going back to record a new, different sequence, they replied saying that, regrettably, they had to close after a number of years of service. This was a massive blow for us as a team because we had expected to return to the gym for a sequence in which I see how I have improved on the goals they had set. This along, with the feedback, meant we had to reconstruct our sequence as a priority.

The new plan is to cover the fitness sequence mostly with a voiceover. We would still include clips from the first time we went to the personal trainer in Tonbridge, but a much more condensed and concise version of events would be covered by a voice-over, which clearly states the aims set out for me by the personal trainer. This would lead to a montage sequence which shows me in a different gym getting to work on the goals set out for me by the personal trainer. We would then have a number of stings from this point to the sequence in which I reveal the outcome. These stings will be 7-10 second montages showing the challenge that I am going through not just with fitness, but also on the simulator and with the finances etc. After a number of these stings the results of my fitness will come in, with me stepping on the scales to reveal if I have lost the weight. The strength portion will be harder to visualise without the personal trainer being available anymore so we may have to point out any gain through voice-over.

As we knew this was now the only way this sequence could work and still be a challenge I worked with George in finding a replacement gym in which to film. George found one in my local town who were happy for us to film so we decided to record some scenes next week on our pick up day. We would get any footage that we had previously either forgotten or not filmed to the right quality. Along with this we were also due to film some drone shots of me cycling and racing simulator clips to be used in the stings. I think these stings will really enable the viewer to see the difficulty and challenges I went through in completing this project and I am pleased that this idea has been accepted by the team. We may otherwise have struggled to show the challenge throughout this process.

I decided that today we would go out to rehearse some of the shots we would film in the gym by practising some of the exercises given to us by the old gym. We did this test shoot at the back of my house as it would enable us to decide if they would look interesting on camera or if we would have to use different ones to show the intensity. I would still be doing the exercises given by the personal trainer, but for the sake of an interesting sequence we may have to change them.

After going through my exercise routine as well as the one laid out by the PT from the old gym I was able to look at the footage that Cailan shot on the G7. Cailan was using his initiative with this as we had no plan for this test shoot because it came round very quickly after the closing of the old gym. Nonetheless, when reviewing the footage it was clear that the experiences laid out were not visually interesting, especially when filmed outside my house. The exercises that I needed to do were mostly static and stretches which don’t give the feeling of struggle or strain so we had to change our outlook on how this would be filmed.

For the montage after the V/O sequence from the old gym we would be using the camera plans from the test shoot to mix together a montage of me at the local gym on a variety of equipment. The equipment I would use would be more for cinematic shots, but we needed to do this to ensure this sequence is interesting. Using the camera plans from the test shoot and reviewing footage I am very confident that the new plan for filming this montage at the local gym will make for a much more visually interesting piece. It would also show the struggles that I am going through to become ready for this race. I am very happy with the new plan and the test shoot allowed me to understand what would not work so that I can adapt plans for the actual shoot at the local gym soon. I am very happy with how the day went and how I have adapted the storyline around some criticism and an unfortunate situation. I now know the new fitness montage will be much more intense.

We will also capture the reveal about the weight lost and attributes gained just before the race day, probably in a pre-race reflective piece. This would enable the viewer to [hopefully] see the progress I have made and the dedication I have put into the task of achieving my dreams.