Production - Abbi Pulling Interview

Our final contributor interview was with Abbi Pulling. A multiple, outright British karting champion who is stepping into her first full season of car racing in 2019. Therefore we thought she would be the perfect person to speak to about how important both fitness and mental strength are in motorsport. We had planned to do this segment much earlier in the shooting schedule, but we had a number of previous contributors ignore our messages to confirm an interview. While the professionalism of these drivers disappointed me, we were very happy to arrange an interview with Abbi. George did a great job in doing this and finding the most appropriate date and time to conduct this interview.

I complete my typical work for this sequence, including a shot list, camera plans as well as ensuring to re-film the "what's to come" sequence that we had previously completed, but in a worse environment. We decided to re-film this sequence in the car to the Abbi interview as that was actually when it would be placed into the timeline. We all agreed this would work well and would look much more natural than our first attempt.



Below is the work that I have completed:

Shotlists:
Pre-Interview

• Shots of Alex Driving - M/S & C/U - Close-ups on Face, speedo, gear change, mirrors etc.
• Shots of road signs and car on the road [NEED MORE THAN NORMAL AS WE NEED SOME EXTRA CLIPS FOR DAN INTERVIEW ETC] - Possible Interesting shots - Around Dartford tunnel, M25 Driving [As it can be used for both], Signs for Norwich, Signs for Snetterton Track, Driving into the venue
• UW/S of car going over main bridge to the paddock
• The iconography of Snetterton Circuit - Big signs, clocks, iconic buildings etc. A mixture of W/S and UC/U
• Shots of Abbi speaking with the team W/S & C/U
• Shots of Abbi putting the helmet on and getting in car & sitting in car W/S & C/U
• Shots of Abbi pulling out the garage
• Alex and Abbi walking between two interview segments

Interview - Walking Part

• Main Camera [Sony] - 2 SHOT [M/S] Alex and Abbi speaking as they walk down the pitlane [Towards the camera] 

Interview - Sit down Part

• Main Camera [Sony] W/S Abbi L.O.F, Alex R.O.F - A wide shot which is somewhat “Over the shoulder” of Alex. TRIPOD
• Second Camera [G7] C/U Abbi L.O.F - Eyeline to the right [Towards Alex] TRIPOD
• Third Camera [FZ] - MC/U Alex R.O.F - Eyeline to L.O.F 

On Track

• Shots from Pitwall [Alex]
• Shots from Nelson: Location 2+3 [Cailan]
• Shots from Bentley straight: Location 1 [Alex and Cailan]

After Interview

• Alex walking back to car - W/S Fixed camera in tripod
• Alex getting in car - M/S from the passenger seat
• W/S Car going back over the bridge to exit the venue
• M/S Alex driving 

PTC
Whats To Come to List:

• Already done my License Application ready for my Racing License Test 
• Then I need to put together the finances as motorsport is expensive
• I’ll need to buy all the safety equipment
• And learn the track on a simulator 
• Today I’m speaking to Abbi Pulling about how important fitness is in the world of motorsport

Interview Questions: 

1. Abbi Pulling Questions
2. Abbi, how did you get into motorsport?
3. How hard is motorsport outside the actual driving?
4. What has been the stand-out career moment for you so far?
5. What are your aims for 2019?
6. What is the ultimate career aim?
7. Before I race a car for the first time, how much should I be focusing on fitness?
8. Do you have a regime you follow weekly to ensure you’re in the right condition for each race?
9. What do you find the biggest challenge is when training and staying in shape?
10. In motorsport, what do you find are the areas which need the most work for a rookie driver such as myself?
11. In a similar way, mental strength seems to be really important in motorsport, can you train for that?
12. So when you’re in a wheel to wheel battle, how do you stay calm, making sure to do the right thing?
13. What would you say is one main bit of advice before I race for the first time?

The Shoot

The shoot took place at Snetterton race circuit in Norfolk and we arrived early to ensure we could make the 3-hour journey back to the studios in time for a meeting. As per George's call sheet, we arrived in plenty of time to see Abbi and greet her before she was out on track briefly before our interview.

My plan for the interview was to mix it up from the stereotypical sit-down interview and include elements of both this and the walk and talk that worked so well in the Dan Rowbottom interview. Therefore, my first 6 questions would be asked as we walked down the back of the pitlane before a few transition shots of us walking towards a nearby round-bench for the second half of the interview.

After discussing my plans with the team and speaking to Abbi about the documentary and what questions would be asked, we started filming. I was impressed with the professionalism of the team as well as Abbi's ability to give fantastic answers on the first take. We spoke about her career as well as what I should be doing before my first race, which will give us a lot of options in the edit. My initial plan after recording these segments was to use questions 1, 2, 7 and 10 as we have a limited amount of space in our documentary for this scene.

Saying this, we have a lot of content and need to ensure that it is given enough time to have meaning. I know that some of the points Abbi raised absolutely need to be in the edit, but after George writes up a transcript then we can fully understand what answers will work best in our timeframe.

The sheer volume of filming we have completed means that some really great content is going to have to be cut from this documentary which is a massive shame, as all of the sequences we have recorded deserve to be in our piece somewhere. Sadly we understand the situation and that we will have to figure out what actually moves the story along. At this stage, we have to be hyper-critical of our own work and the advice of others to ensure this documentary is as good as it can be.

After filming the interview with Abbi we went to film shots of her car out on track to have some footage to include in the interview if we feel it is needed. We split up into three planned locations from my camera card and got a wide range of footage in the 20 minutes we were trackside. This would be more than enough for our interview and would also be good to thank Abbi for her time by putting together an edit of the footage we captured.

Day Review
I was once again really impressed with the crew's conduct and professionalism throughout the day and the fact we managed to get back to university afterward is a testament to how much we want to receive feedback and improve the project. Both Simon's and Beth's feedback was positive and we only have a small number of things to do before the race to be in a good position.

The actual footage was good bar a shaky start to the walk and talk, which can easily be covered in an L cut in the edit. The reason for this was that Cailan was zoomed in too close and when we started walking towards him, we went out of frame. Luckily the shots of me driving on the way up as well as cutaways to iconic parts of Snetterton and Abbi in the car will be able to mask this small issue.

In terms of the answers to the interview, we got the content we needed. We paid close attention to the weather and ensured to use fluffy clip mics which ensured there was no wind noise. The audio was perfect and the multiple camera angles ensured we had a close up of both Abbi and me as well as a general wide that was focused more towards Abbi as she was the one giving the answers.

Even though I did not intend to leave a contributor interview so late on in the filming process, it did at least mean it was of a very high standard due to the learning process we have been on throughout this journey. The hard work with this particular interview will be locating the exact points that are intriguing to the viewer and that is something I will be focusing on in the edit with the team after we wrap filming.

I have really enjoyed today and I think this interview now completes all of the professional advice that I needed before my first race. Being a part of the edit and having to make crucial decisions about what needs to be cut is going to be the focus from this point going forward. I know there are a few scenes that we currently have which may need to go due to time. Saying this I have been working closely on the edit already and we have already reduced the Donington sequence to just over 3 minutes, rather than 3:40, so we are doing a great job as a team.

George will be ensuring he is up to date on the Bruno segment, fitness segment and South Downs which still need to be polished into a fine cut before Friday. Cailan will be focusing on editing clocks and countdowns for the stings which will transition between scenes. I will be focusing on the plans for Friday's shoot as well as Sunday. This, alongside getting prepared for the race, will be the main focus over the next few days. The crew has promised to help me this week as I am personally very nervous about it all and they accept that I may not be able to make some decisions this weekend so they will be passed on to them. We have said from the start that, for this week especially, I need to focus on being a contributor and the race ahead, as otherwise, this documentary may not have quite the authentic story which we have wanted from the start. I am sure the crew can cope with this as they have proved to be good in decision making throughout this unit.