Production - Shoot Day 20 MAIN Test Day With Sam

Possibly the biggest and most important sequence for me as a driver/contributor in this project was the test session with Sam. This was my main opportunity to get a lot of track time before the race in a few weeks time. As a contributor, I was really, really nervous about today. I had never driven this car before and I felt some pressure to perform by the crew ( to ensure they got good shots) and also Sam because he wanted to ensure that I was good enough to race his car. I spent a lot of time before this shoot creating individual camera plans and also used the photos taken from the test shoot to create a detailed plan of what every single camera operator should capture on this day. Each camera operator had a number of locations, at least three each, to film at to ensure a wide range of coverage and a lot of options in the edit. All of the resources that I put together can be seen below and I am personally proud of the plans I put together as they gave a really clear view on what every person needed to obtain.

SHOT LIST

W/S & M/S - INT - Alex's Car - Alex In Car On Way [not speaking] To Donnington B-Roll + Miscellaneous establishing shots. M/S - INT - Alex speaking to Cailan in the car: What's happening/ how is he feeling? E.S/M/S - INT - Alex's Car - Road Signs to Donnington Park on the journey (Main Camera) C/U, M/S -INT- Out front of the windscreen and side windows, Rolling into circuit and parking up. M/S -INT/EXT- Alex getting out of car & Alex walking to sign on C/U -INT- As Alex signs on and has drivers briefing M/S - EXT - Donnington Park - Two-Shot of Alex & Sam greeting each other + Talking C/U - EXT - Donnington Park - Mix of Close Ups between both Alex & Sam W/S - INT - Sam's Garage - Wide Shot of the entire garage, a mix of static shots and pans. [CAILAN CAMERA PLAN] C/U - EXT - Donnington Park - Iconography of the circuit, Flags, Signs, Buildings etc. [CAILAN CAMERA PLAN] W/S - INT - Sam's Garage - Alex getting into the car, driving out onto the track [CAILAN CAMERA PLAN] W/S & M/S - EXT - Car flying down the straight [Camera from pit wall through gap in fence] Both coming towards and away. Get 2 great takes of each [CAILAN CAMERA PLAN] W/S -EXT- Camera Crew To follow separate plans for various trackside locations C/U - INT - Sam's Car - GoPro Shot of Alex in the car trackside M/S - INT - Sam's Car - GoPro looking forward, behind the driver C/U&M/S - INT - Sam's Garage - Close Up shots of Sam seeing car out of the garage, Medium shots of Sam watching the car from the pitlane & garage. [CAILAN CAMERA PLAN] M/S - INT - Sam's Garage - Medium shot of Sam as Cailan asks questions [Looks slightly off camera towards Cailan] Questions below [CLIP MIC] FILM AROUND 4PM GET SAM READING OUT LAP TIMES W/S - EXT - Donington Pitlane - Car coming in/out of the pitlane [CAILAN CAMERA PLAN] C/U - INT - Sam's Garage - Alex getting out of the car [CAILAN CAMERA PLAN] C/U&M/S - INT - Sam's Garage - Alex taking helmet and gear off [CAILAN CAMERA PLAN] M/S - INT - Sam's Garage - (PTC) Alex talks to Sam & Cailan about his experience, "like being dropped in at the deep end" M/S - INT - Sam's Garage - Alex & Sam debrief with each other ambient audio and mumbling discussion C/U - INT - Alex and Sam speaking [Switch between the two for cutaways] M/S - INT - Sam's Garage - Alex saying goodbye to Sam and walking out of pitlane RECORD BUZZ TRACK WITH AND WITHOUT CARS ON TRACK W/S - EXT - Donnington Park - Alex walking back to road car M/S - EXT - Donnington Park - (PTC) Alex sitting inside car with door open talking to camera. M/S - EXT - Donnington Park - Alex getting back into car W/S - EXT - Donnington Park - Car driving off into the distance at dusk, only see tail-lights GO PRO CAMERAS ONLY TO RECORD WHEN ALEX IS ALONE IN THE CAR. TRACKSIDE CAMERAS [BAR SHOTS WHEN THE DRIVER CANNOT BE SEEN] TO RECORD WHEN ALEX IS ALONE IN THE CAR. THIS IS TO SAVE BATTERY AND MEMORY CARD SPACE. PHONE NUMBERS IN CASE WALKIE TALKIES FAIL! YOU WILL GET A TEXT WHEN ALEX IS ON TRACK AND IF NOT, WATCH OUT FOR TINTED VISOR!

This shoot started really early. My Dad and I left the house at 3:30am and arrived to collect Cailan and George one hour later. My Dad thankfully drove which enabled the rest of us to catch up on sleep. I personally don’t feel as if I would have been able to drive on track as well as I did if I did not have this rest so I am very appreciative. The rest of the crew also needed sleep to ensure they could be at peak performance throughout the day. My Dad also very kindly helped us on this shoot date which enabled us to get more coverage than we would have otherwise. 30 minutes before we were set to arrive Cailan started filming B-Roll of the journey to the event to ensure Simon’s prior feedback of “Showing you’ve explored the country” was taken into account. Cailan also filmed as we drove into the venue and as I got out the car and went to sign on. We were not allowed to film in this briefing but this did not matter as this was not needed for this sequence. This sequence is very much about me and Sam and the car I will be driving.

After meeting Sam and introducing him to the crew, the crew filmed shots of us having a conversation after my first run on track. This would be great for coverage and options in the edit and what was captured was very genuine and cinematic. One problem when reviewing this footage was that the audio was not great and that was because we did not use clip mics. We were not allowed to carry the microphone and phone on track and Cailan was not always there to take the equipment away, so we decided not to continually mic up then take it off just in case Cailan was there filming. I’m not sure there was a solution that would have ended up with us having perfect audio in this scenario and what we have is usable but needs some further audio editing to be closer to the rest of the project. While the audio is not the best, I would rather have the authentic conversation that we had with acceptable audio rather than a blatantly staged chat with good audio. I am confident we made the right decision on this.

After capturing a number of great shots of me getting my gear on and getting in the car, Cailan went out on track with the rest of the crew to ensure we had a wide array of trackside shots ready for this sequence. Along with being a great person to race with, Sam is also a great contributor and advisor to me when on track and I felt like I was continually learning throughout the day. Sam started by driving  while I sat alongside and learned, before we switched and he was the passenger while I drove. We would be on track typically for 15 minutes and then get back to the pitlane and have a chat while the car cooled down. I would also be letting the crew know about my current position when in the pitlane and possible timings so that they would be able to change locations when I was in the pitlane. This worked well as I got more laps than expected and the crew managed to obtain footage from each of the locations I set out for them.

When reviewing footage I was very impressed with what all of the crew had captured. Each angle that I had planned for was exactly right. I was very, very impressed with it and I was personally very happy that my work spent before the shoot was used properly to create a number of spectacular shots. The crew even managed to capture some of their own angles which was great as it gave us further options in the edit which will be a blessing. All of the on track stuff was exactly what I wanted and the onboard footage captured from the action cameras was also fantastic. As with the other track day shoots, one camera was facing me and the other was facing out the front of the car looking at what I was seeing. The camera looking at me was fantastic, the one looking out the front could have been better due to the overexposure of the windscreen , but because of the automatic settings on the GoPro, there was not much we could have done. I think we could improve this for the race day by further testing the camera at Brands Hatch on the Friday before the race and understanding what the auto settings are doing. My understanding is that it is the metering on the camera that was exposing on the dashboard rather than outside the windscreen. This should be a simple fix which will enable us to have a very dynamic view come race day.

Conversation over the walkie talkies was apparently great throughout the day, I only really said thank you to the crew along with letting them know when I was leaving the pitlane. But my Dad, George and Cailan apparently did a great job at understanding what was needed from them as well as what was happening. I am very happy we made the purchase of these walkie talkies early on in the project as it has made sequences like this very professional and much easier. While I was out on track by myself later in the day, Cailan and George made their way back to the garage to ask Sam some questions about who he was and also my progress. Sam used the clip mic for this segment which meant the audio was fantastic and his answers were equally good. These will be included in this sequence to show the viewer Sam’s opinion of me and also let the viewer know a bit about him and his personality. The crew did a great job to capture this while I was on track and I was really impressed. These are the questions the crew asked Sam:

1. How has Alex been doing today?


2. What has been his biggest improvement?


3. Are you looking forward to racing alongside him?


4. Sam, where did your motorsport journey begin? [childhood memories] 


5. When did you realise you wanted to be a race driver?


6. How did you come about getting this car?


7. What was the process like building up a car?


8. How have your years in the sport been?


9. Being in the sport, has it changed your view on anything?


10. How is it having drivers come in and race alongside you?


11. What is the aim for 2019 and the future?


After the on track sessions were complete, we filmed a “debrief” between myself and Sam, in which we used clip mics to get great audio. Although the chat was natural it did feel a bit staged in comparison to the authentic conversations I was having earlier with Sam, but it was great to get a conversation with good quality audio. This along with a few cutaways of myself walking back to the car and a chat to the camera about my honest thoughts from the day. Considering this will only be, once again, a small segment of 2-3 minutes I am very impressed with the whole team with all of what was captured, I think we all did a fantastic job and can be very proud of ourselves for completing our roles so professionally. 

One issue that became apparent after the shoot date and a long drive back home was that we were missing one of the SD cards used in the Sony at the end of the day. This included some vital footage of Sam speaking as well as a lot of on track material. I was very worried when this happened and I was a little angry that this had got lost between Cailan and George. Thankfully a few days later George found it in one of his small pockets which was a massive relief and I was so happy that this was found. Without this, I feel we would have lost a lot of vital footage that could not be re-shot. From this error we can learn to ensure we put ALL SD cards in the same secure location after each shoot day so that this does not happen again. This was the only issue that we encountered throughout the day and thankfully it was resolved a few days later.

Overall I am very happy with the job done by the team today. Everyone followed the plans that I had created beforehand and used the questions suggested for Sam which ensured we have a massive amount of coverage for this sequence. I feel like, as a team, we are improving after every shoot and understand little details to enable us to be better and quicker with decisions which lead to capturing the golden moments. I am really impressed with the amount of quality material we have which will actually make choosing the right shot harder, as there are so many to chose from. Barring the SD issue we come out of this shoot very confident about the race day which is now just one week away! I am nervous, but very excited!