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. 

Production - Adapting To Crew Issues [RESEARCH]

On a recent shoot date, we had the issue of a crew member not showing up, when we had planned for a multi-camera setup. This left us in a bad situation as we needed to understand how we would fulfil my shot list, with only 2/3 of the crew available. This research was prompted by this event and it will allow me to plan going forward so that if we ever have this issue again, we know how to work and prioritise areas of the shoot date.

My research quickly led me to a number of websites which shared their opinions through personal experiences of having a similar problem. Getting real-world feedback was essential to me as it would allow me to assess our situation and draw as many parallels as possible. Larry Brody's article on stareable.com stated: "Always, always already have a backup plan, especially for people you don’t know very well. When shooting the pilot for my web series, Brains, my cameraman didn’t show up after the first day, because he lost his camera and all of the first day’s footage. Thankfully, I had brought my simple camcorder to set to record behind-the-scenes videos, and we ended up using that camera for the rest of the season." (stareable.com, 2017) The person who never showed up on our shoot was a first year none of us bar George had ever met. We all trusted that he would turn up and be professional, like the rest of the students I have worked with on this unit. This research leaves me to assess myself and realise I did not take into consideration that we could have a no-show and leave us with issues. I never made plans for what we would do if someone did not show up. Thankfully, this was not a shoot date in which the extra crew would be an essential part of the production (on a secondary camera getting on track shots) but nonetheless, I should have made further plans as this could have happened on a day in which the extras were essential.

It had crossed my mind that the crew member who no-showed may have been considering if this was worth their time after they had agreed. George had pitched our idea to the first years and we had a great amount of interest, and George chose the person who seemed most interested. I also believe that we have a very good policy within our group. Of course, we do not have the financials to pay every crew member that helps, but we provide a quality lunch and travel expenses for each member who could not be picked up by the producer. This alongside working on an exciting 3rd-year production made me feel that there was no reason to question if this was wasting their time. I fully believe that George did all he could to show our project for what it was and explain what was expected of any crew. As every shoot day was important to us I was disappointed to be let down. However, I could not let this affect me as I was out on track and could not be worrying about the crew issues at the time. I got on with my day and only after, when writing my blogs, was I able to think about the issue we had. Thankfully, on the day George did a fantastic job of getting on the extra camera and capturing a wide range of great b-roll, but in reality, we have already learned that he should not be doing this because of his role as producer. George stepped in on the day, but this should only ever be a last resort unless already decided upon before we arrive. I have complete faith in George as camera operator, but he needs extra time and plans to make sure he is happy, especially when his producer roles have greater importance.

This advice was drawn directly from the television industry, but further research into this subject had to be conducted into other areas of work due to the nature of my problem. The issue of no-showing is that it affects the rest of the crew, not just the one who has to cover the missing person. It stretches the crew beyond what they expect to be doing, meaning they enjoy the day less and also may come away with a lower quality product. My research into other industries demonstrated that no-showing is a wide problem, one which is seen across the job-spectrum.

At the time, I was not annoyed at the no-show as I was confident in the team and their ability to process accordingly. It was actually in hindsight where I found myself being frustrated, as I would never leave someone in the cold like this. Thankfully I was calm after understanding the situation and we made some great decisions on the spot to ensure the day was still productive. When researching into staff not turning up, I came across various websites which stressed the importance of staying calm in the moment: "Resist the urge to get angry right away. Remember, your employee knows the rules, so there may be a legitimate reason that they couldn’t make it to work or call to let you know. Don’t jump to conclusions and assume that they’re just doing it to be spiteful or that they’re a bad employee. That’s just a recipe for disaster. Instead, stay calm, think positive, and focus." (getsling.com, 2018) . I like to feel I am level headed and when the news was given to me I did not get angry and simply tried to understand the situation and what the crew would have to do to ensure it would not matter throughout the day. I spoke with the team at the time and we came up with a short term fix to the issue, but it is certainly one we do not want to repeat in the future. Overall, however, I am happy that I did not get angry about something I could not control, the best way to move on was to understand how the day would run and I decided on the spot how we would proceed and the day was still very successful.

A lot of the fixes that I researched had a direct correlation to someone in a job missing a day, therefore a lot of what was in my research had no impact as we could not benefit in any way from quizzing the crew member who did not show up. My best method was to think about what I would do in the future if we came across the same scenario. We have a large number of shoot dates and will undoubtedly need help so I would be silly to think we would not be needing any external help going forward.

After understanding the situation we were in, I think I did the only thing we could have at the time which was asking George to go on the camera, showing him my plans to ensure he knew he was up to speed. However, we may have been able to avoid this situation in the first place if we had asked someone closer to us to come and help. "Direct contacts you may have made in school, try to think about who might be able to help you, or who may know people who may be able to help you. For example, asking producers who hire crew often may be a good start" (pond5.com, 2016). While not always feasible, it certainly helps as a director, knowing the crew members on set. I personally feel we should have contacted people in our year before the first years, as this would have allowed us to know the personalities and decide upon who would be the best person for the job. George possibly made it more complicated for himself, but he did so to try and reach a larger number of people. In hindsight, and going forward, we will be typically using people within our year group for our project as well as friends who have video production skills if absolutely needed.

"Hiring" people we know, as well as working on detailed plans, will be my focus going forward. As a producer, George has agreed that if we ever get into a similar situation, he will be happy to be on a secondary camera as long as he gets time to read all of the plans beforehand. I feel like I've been doing a good job with my pre-shoot plans and I will continue with these and try to go into greater detail to ensure the camera operator is sure of their role. I have also suggested to George that he take a more thorough look at the plans going forward to ensure he knows exactly what would be required of him or any operators on the shoot date. This means that if George does go onto a camera in an emergency, he will at least know what he is doing. This means there is a requirement for me to make my plans slightly further in advance to ensure all crew, including George, know their roles and what shots they need to complete.

We know this is not ideal, as a producer should be able to focus on their role. But at the same time, we do not have unlimited resources and have to be realistic about the number of shoot days we have as well as the times that certain people can help us. This does mean that it is almost inevitable that George will have to help on camera at times because we will be short staffed on a few days. However, as long as my planning is done beforehand and we act in a professional manner on the day, I do not think there is an issue. Part of the challenge of this project has been helping each other with our different roles and while it has been a hard process to grasp, we are doing so in a professional way on the majority of shoots.  I am happy I conducted this research as it allows me to have a good understanding of how we proceed going forward, as well as understanding the approaches needed on the day to ensure we do not let issues like these affect us. I hope this won't happen again, but further knowledge on an issue like this will benefit the whole team.

References
stareable.com, 2017 https://blog.stareable.com/solutions-to-common-on-set-problems-9250871edc90
pond5.com, 2016 https://blog.pond5.com/6343-how-to-find-the-perfect-crew-for-your-film-or-video-production/
getsling.com, 2018 https://getsling.com/blog/no-call-no-show/

Production - SHOOT DAY 6 Ford Puma Test

The "Puma Test" was not a sequence we had originally planned. but, as the project evolved over the past couple of weeks, a few unique opportunities became available to me as a contributor. Along with the Formula Ford test next week, I have had the opportunity to drive a race-prepared Ford Puma. This will not feature heavily in our University version of the film as we only have 20 minutes to work with and it will be cut into a 60-second montage on the build-up to the race. As a team, we intend to produce a longer cut when finishing University to show off all the experiences I went through on the build-up to my first ever race. Therefore, as much planning went into this shoot like the rest of my sequences.

Puma Trackday Shotlist:

• Shots (in car) entering the track. Signs, road signs etc. 
• Alex walking to pitlane (M/S from in front) (M/S from behind)
• Alex walking through the tunnel (W/S)
• M/S - Alex greeting the race team
• C/U Alex putting on helmet + equipment 
• M/S - As Alex speaks to the team 
• M/S (In car - Looking out the front windscreen)
• C/U (In car - Looking towards Alex)
• Trackside shots (In detailed plan)
• M/S Alex speaking to team when in pitlane
• M/S (From side) Alex walking to car, reflecting thoughts to “behind” the camera. 
• M/S Alex in car reflecting on the day

George had also asked around at University for help on this shoot date as we were low on numbers. He found the help of Gilead from the first year and had rented out a Sony 4k Camera from an exterior website so we would have enough cameras. George would not be on a camera, as we had learned from the license day that he should not be taking time away from his role as producer. George would help the first year understand what was needed and would be free to communicate to the rest of the camera crew when needed. Below is where the camera operators would be placed around the track. We would be using the camera cards I produced for the license day (but didn't end up using because we didn't have the right access). George had secured trackside access today so we could see if my plans from the license day were good. 

Unfortunately, we had an issue when the 1st year who had promised to help us, never showed up at the station where George was collecting him. Once we had resolved the issue of how George would operate today, the crew signed on as official media (Which was great as we were disappointed when we could not do this for the license) and I went up to the drivers briefing. Cailan filmed me as I went about my business which will all add up to some amazing coverage of this day. As we did not have this access on the license day, it was great to understand what we would be able to do going forward. The better access meant we had a much better view of the track for camera operators. Cailan was able to follow me throughout the day instead of running into the issues he faced with the race license (Things such as not being allowed in certain areas of the track).

After the crew had signed on and I had my briefing, the crew went to set up trackside as Cailan followed me while I was run through the process of how the day would work. Part of this was how we could securely mount the cameras into the car. I did have to switch on my director's brain while setting these cameras up, as I wanted to ensure the angle captured would be interesting for the viewer. When we came to set up the cameras, we realised that we did not have all of the correct mounts and joints to get the desired shots. Thankfully, the team I was driving for had some spares and saved us from having far from optimal in-car shots. An example of the in-car shot can be seen, I am really happy with how this looks, with some slight colour correction it will be an immersive shot that will excite the viewer. This was also a good opportunity to test in-car camera locations as we would not have much time to decide these locations on the actual car in April. Small things such as camera placement will make a big difference in the final film, so it was worth spending the time setting them up correctly and testing them today.

Cailan did a fantastic job in the pitlane to secure both actuality of my day, plus shots of me on the track when I was out there. Cailan's intuition allowed us to secure vital extra coverage from various angles around the track which will be fantastic for the edit. I was pleased to see my shotlist and camera plan were helpful as they allowed the crew to have a target of every shot needed to make this sequence work. Going into every shoot we need to prioritise these key shots, as without them it could mean the sequence does not make sense. Outside my shotlist I want the crew to test their skills and pick up extra angles so we have the best coverage possible. Reviewing Cailan's footage, I was very impressed with his work today. He had picked up on a few of his mistakes from the license day and was able to film a much better timeline of my day. You can see the quality of his shots below, these will enable us to have a very stylistic and interesting montage sequence in the University cut. Cailan also filmed my reflection on the day which will be useful for the extended cut and the behind the scenes videos we are creating for our donators on Kickstarter.

As for the on-track cameras, Nick and George did a great job under the circumstances. After the no-show from the first year, the team pulled together to create some fantastic shots that would look incredible in a montage. On future track days (and the race day!) we will have more crew meaning even more camera angles will be captured. The issue with mid-week shoots is that some of our camera operators are not available. One small issue that was communicated by Nick was that the walkie talkie communication could have been better at times. This is something the team is continually working on, as clear communication through this new method won't be perfect straight away. It's important to pick up on these small details so that we can learn from them and create a good working environment within our film crew, where everyone speaks about any issues they have. As for the footage on track, it will enable us to mix them with inboard shots to create an epic montage. I am really looking forward to seeing this footage in a timeline, which will also allow me to understand if we need to adjust any camera angles now the team have experienced the trackside access.

Considering I have been struggling with food poisoning the past week, I am very pleased with how the team helped me get through it and worked extra hard to ensure today was a success. We captured some amazing footage which will look great in a montage in the sequence where today will be featured. Even though today will only be in our main documentary for 10-20 seconds, we planned as thoroughly as we will for the biggest sequence. This planning and detail allows the whole documentary to have a very consistent tone throughout, allowing our documentary not to dip in quality. I was very impressed with the whole team today, it certainly shows we have learned from previous mistakes and are now in a much better place. I am excited about our next shoot on Thursday, which will be various interviews with disabled drivers at Silverstone. I am looking forward to seeing how people allow nothing to get in the way of their dream.

Production - Why Should Interviews All Be Unique? & Assessing Our First Interviews [RESEARCH]

After our two recent interviews, I wanted to research further the importance of our interviews all being unique in terms of both their filmic style and location. This research blog will look into what I should be doing before our next interview and looking at the different styles I could adopt for those that we have going forward. It will also be looking at the styles we have already used and understand if they could have been improved in any way.

Currently, our interviews have been set in two very different locations. One at a motorsport workshop and the other at a house in the driver's bedroom. While both are different, I certainly see the workshop sequence being more visually interesting. I say this because we are involving ourselves in the environment of motorsport much more than when in Jamie's room.  Jamie's room still gave us a nice backdrop thanks to the trophies and motorsport memorabilia, but it is not as engaging to the viewer as an interview which is more dynamic in its movement.

The problem is that we cannot have all of our interviews looking the same because then it would take away the special nature of the walk and talk style of the Dan interview, so my challenge is to make all of our interviews unique in some way. "Audiences may not remember the background, but they will remember the impression it gave them. Bookshelves can make an interviewee look educated; computers can make them seem tech-savvy." (www.vidyard.com, 2019) This extract shows that we have done a good job so far at ensuring the viewer knows where we are and that the context of the interview is not lost within the surroundings. We have certainly done a great job with the mise en scene in our interviews so far because, as a viewer, I know exactly where we are thanks to the background which helps emphasise the points made. This is backed up by Steve Stockman who says "The same interview with a hedge-fund manager communicates different information if it’s in his marble and polished wood office vs. the floor of a working factory. An interview against the wrong background is an accidental miscommunication." (tubularinsights.com, 2011) The interviews we have conducted have been placed in the right area, without a doubt, which gives me confidence that our upcoming interviews will be visually as interesting. My challenge going forward is to ensure they look different in their visual style.

Aside from the point of making our interviews visually different, it is important to note how we have maximised the use of our contributors so far. Steve Stockman also says: "In a normal conversation, you respond to what the other person says. A good interview works exactly the same way. Listen well and allow your natural curiosity to guide your questions even if it leads you to something you weren’t planning on asking." (tubularinsights.com, 2011). This is especially the case for the Dan interview as you see both of us on-screen and it really looks like a genuine conversation, even though I have pre-planned answers. This is obviously thanks to Dan as a contributor who made it easy to go about these questions as if they were part of a normal conversation. Jamie was also good to have a back and forth conversation with, but that may have been slightly lost in the fact that you don't see me on screen, which is still a decision by Cailan that I disagree with. It did not allow the conversation to feel natural in the same way it did with Dan. Without seeing me on screen it looks like I am the interviewer and he's there to answer questions. It didn't feel as natural when looking back at this in the edit and I know going forward that we should not conduct an interview in this way because it loses the personal touch we have been aiming for throughout this documentary.

The walk and talk and interview styles, which are similar, allow both myself and the person of interest to be on screen, seem to be the most visually interesting in a documentary like this. "Having both the subject and the host in the shot doesn't have to be "talk show" style, it can be two people walking down a road, or sitting on a bench. This style of interview is often used when the host is part of the interview's selling point because of their position or reputation." (http://schoolvideonews.com, 2019) While I do not see myself as the host, I am the person that this story revolves around, which means I am the one who is guiding this documentary along through my various challenges. I am, therefore, a part of the selling point because the viewer is seeing me going on a journey. This means that an interview without me being on screen does feel strange, as the viewer is following my journey.  If we had more than 20 minutes to work with in terms of documentary length, we may be able to learn more about the contributors we are involving, but sadly we cannot afford to do this.

Having understood all of this research I am in a position to understand what style of interview works and how I go about filming the last two (possibly three) interviews that we propose. I think it is important that both myself and the fellow contributor are on screen at all times to ensure that the "interview" looks and feels like a conversation."Since television, specifically, is a visual medium, the client’s physical demeanor and the style of his or her presentation are just as important—if not more so—than what he or she says." (prnewsonline.com, 2016) Doing this will allow the viewer to further connect to my story as well as getting to know the fellow contributors personalities through interviews which are much more natural than the typical, question/answer format.

This leads me to believe that all our interviews should be unique as it allows the four or five contributors to be clearly different, hopefully using the filmic style to their advantage to ensure the interview is as natural as possible. Allowing all the interviews to have their own style will also show that we have been creative with this documentary and not just stuck to a method that we know works. I want to challenge myself in this unit and part of that is allowing new ideas to be tried to ensure the documentary has variety.

Therefore my initial plans for the upcoming interviews are as followed:

• For the Bobby interview with Team BRIT, it will be a sit-down conversation, but we will have the garage and car in the background, with Bobby and I both on screen with clear eye contact between us. This interview will certainly be a challenge with the unpredictable background and people walking in and out of shot behind us, but I know it will work with the anticipated multi-camera setup. One close up on myself and Bobby and a wide showing us both and the backdrop. It is certainly bold to attempt an interview with so many variables, but I know it will work having got to know Bobby and his personality.
• The Bruno interview will be standing up outside his motorhome at the BMW garage. There will be an interesting backdrop with the pitlane and a lot of motorsport equipment, which will allow the viewer to be very aware of where we are. As the Dan interview worked well, I think the Bruno interview will be interesting as we are standing up and having what appears to be a normal conversation allowing this scene to feel very natural. 
• For the interview with a female driver speaking about fitness, my plan is to do a mix between the walk and talk seen in the Dan interview as well as a sit-down interview as was seen in my research a few days back, where both myself and the contributor are on screen. The questions will be separated into two slots to enable a cut between the two to be natural. The importance of B-ROLL to cover a section like this will be very important.

Overall I feel I am in a good place to go ahead and fully plan these interviews after understanding the best way to engage the viewer and also what we could have improved in our first interviews. We have taken on board our little mistakes in both interviews to ensure the coming ones will be of an even higher quality. This research has also shown me there are various options when completing interviews which are closer to an actuality interview. This knowledge has allowed me to appreciate the importance that all of our interviews should be unique in some way. It allows the documentary to move on a continuous journey, rather than using the same format for every interview. I am very excited to plan these interviews fully now I have the research in place, and I expect these new ones to be of an even higher quality than the last two. These plans should allow us to extract the best information from our contributors, meaning our documentary is the best version possible. 

References 
www.vidyard.com, 2019 https://www.vidyard.com/blog/5-tips-make-interview-style-videos-engaging/
tubularinsights.com, 2011 https://tubularinsights.com/shoot-video-interview-doesnt-suck-10-tips-ignore/
http://schoolvideonews.com, 2019 http://schoolvideonews.com/Broadcast-Journalism/Interview-Styles
prnewsonline.com, 2016 https://www.prnewsonline.com/tv-radio-interview-step-step-guide-prepare-success/

Production - How To Effectively Use Lighting in Actuality Sequences [RESEARCH]

One of the biggest challenges we have faced so far is the lighting in our actuality sequences. For instance, the interview with Dan is grainy because we did not expect the lighting inside the workshop to be as bad as it was and we had not prepared an option if this was the case. The sequence we shot is in no way bad, we can use it and solve the majority of issues with the lighting through subtle editing, but I need to look into this topic further as I want to avoid any issues like this in the future.

One thing that encouraged me when looking into lighting and how we could improve were the words of Daniel Haggett who is a professional Lighting Cameraman and DoP "Don't be too precious of filming something in a considered and beautiful way, if you see something happening that you know will make a good story, shoot it. You might see something that is a bit far away, and handheld, on the long end of the lens, it won't be too stable, shoot it anyway. Sometimes you might need to run and the camera will be wobbling all over the place, shoot it anyway."( www.danielhaggett.com, 2019). Knowing this makes me realise that I made the right decision when realising we had an issue with lighting at the Dan interview. I thought about the possibilities but the only realistic one was to record it with what we had available to us. Thankfully, on this occasion, it worked as the content of the interview was fantastic and we obtained a number of fantastic responses for our documentary. If we had got stressed over the lighting after arriving we may have decided to film in a different area of the garage with less character. Thankfully we filmed it as planned and we got a great sequence out of it. But it is certainly worth noting how we could improve our lighting in these scenarios in the future.

General advice on shooting interviews was helpful but would not have helped in the scenario we were in on our shoot. The advice from lightsfilmschool.com was: "If you’re shooting indoors or in a studio, the basic 3 point lighting technique is a favourite amongst filmmakers. It fully exposes the facial expression and emotions of your subject as well as isolates them from the background and hides unwanted shadows." (lightsfilmschool.com, 2017). The problem for us was that in this sequence we were moving and any fixed lighting would have most likely been a hindrance to our shoot and also made every part of this sequence feel very staged due to perfect lighting. This research actually really helped me though, when understanding what we do with the Jamie interview which we filmed yesterday. I started this research directly after the Dan interview and found this advice particularly important when planning for Jamie. In Jamie's interview, we took his room into consideration and realised lighting was needed to ensure we maximized the mise en scene. We set up a few smaller LED's in this shoot to balance out the light on his face and I think this allowed the shots, especially the widest one, to have a fantastic dynamic range between the foreground and background. The lighting certainly allowed us to make the Jamie interview look more professional and this was thanks to this research as well as understanding the issues from the previous interview a few days beforehand.

After this, I was still a little unsure about to how we light scenes like that with Dan in the future. We have a planned interview with Team BRIT [A disabled racing team] coming up in the next few weeks which will probably take place in a similar environment to Dan's. As I plan for this scene to be sitting down I can take advice from the previous paragraph, but lighting actuality still remains a problem. A quote that struck me when compiling this research was from Jane Chapman: "Filmmakers will choose almost instinctively to shoot in eye-catching places; they will study the available light for the best position, think and look around the action, and consider shooting higher or lower, using shots involving windows, door, reflections or mirrors for instance."(Chapman 2006: 87). The whole reason for the Dan interview to be filmed in the walk and talk style that it was, was to be different and capture the viewer's attention thanks to it being unique. The fact that I made the right decision even though we had bad lighting was a relief as I was under pressure to make a decision at the time. The interview is much more dynamic than if we decided to film it at a desk or wholly inside the car that was shown towards the end of the scene. Still, this does not solve my issue if we were to conduct something similar in the future.

After reading an article on Premiumbeat, it seemed that the answer to my worries was underneath our noses all the time. When speaking about small LED lights, writer Noam Kroll said: "They are so light and portable and can effectively allow you to shoot well in nearly any situation." (Premiumbeat.com, 2015). We had access to fantastic LED lights at University as well as multiple smaller ones that George personally had. We had used the latter for the sequence with Jamie but they still did not give the power range that the ones at University had. It may sound silly but none of us thought we would need lighting of this nature in a scene where we expected good lighting. Therefore, the issue of not scouting beforehand (because it was located north of Manchester) along with the bad assumption it would be well lit led to our issues. If we had asked Dan beforehand what the conditions were like we may have been able to avoid this issue. Alas, we still came out of that shoot with a great and very unique interview which we are all proud of, but understand the steps we can take in the future to ensure the lighting is perfect.

Our rule going forward is that if we even have a small suspicion that we may need lights, we should bring them just in case. "Even if a camera is good at getting a shot in low light, adding light will absolutely improve the shot." (desktop-documentaries.com, 2013) Even if they are just the ones that George has personally, it will allow every scene to have an increase in lighting to improve the shot. We doubt there will be many scenarios where these will be needed, but we are learning from the mistakes we had at the Dan interview and taking them forward to ensure it does not happen again. This research has allowed me to realise the importance of taking lights, even if we may not need them, along with understanding the importance of capturing the key moments of a documentary, even if it means the lighting is not perfect. I certainly hope we don't run into the same issue once again with lighting, but I doubt we will after key findings in this research and not just ones about lighting. I am very happy to have conducted this research, as it will allow the documentary to look much more professional throughout.

References

• www.danielhaggett.com, 2019 - https://www.danielhaggett.com/blog/182-how-to-shoot-reality-or-observational-documentary
• lightsfilmschool.com, 2017 - https://www.lightsfilmschool.com/blog/light-documentary-interview
• Chapman, J. (2006), Documentary in Practice Filmmakers and Production Choices, Cambridge: Polity.
• Premiumbeat.com, 2015 https://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/filmmaking-tips-lighting-with-led-panels/ 
• desktop-documentaries.com, 2013 https://www.desktop-documentaries.com/video-lighting-techniques.html

Production - SHOOT DAY 5 Jamie Caroline Interview + Fitness Test

Our 5th shoot day comprised of an Interview with Formula 4 and Ginetta champion Jamie Caroline and a fitness test shoot in the afternoon. Jamie's interview had been arranged by me as I had been speaking to Jamie for a number of months. George had done a great job in securing a gym which would allow us to film and also give us free training and advice.

Jamie Caroline Interview

In the morning we headed to Jamie's house where our interview was to be filmed. In our Billy Monger reference footage, Jamie appeared and this was also filmed in his room. This meant we had a good idea of how the room was going to be laid out and how we could make our scene different to that in the Billy Monger documentary. I had planned a three-camera setup with Cailan. We initially had different ideas, but we came up with a compromise which allowed us all to be happy. This interview was very different from the one we filmed on Tuesday. Cailan had stated that I should not be on screen when this interview is taking place, as it may make this scene awkward. At first, I was against this, but after reviewing the footage I think this was a great decision by Cailan. If I were to be on screen, sitting next to Jamie, it would have been very awkward and not had the tone we have followed throughout this documentary. Instead of this, I will be sitting behind the camera asking Jamie the questions. Jamie would be looking toward me as he answers them. The compromise I found with Cailan was the three shots to be as followed:

1. W/S with Jamie COF as he looks towards me. (Tripod)
2. M/S with Jamie LOF as he looks towards me. (Tripod)
3. Camera capturing various C/U of Jamie. (Speaking, hands etc) (Handheld - Connor)

Before the interview, we also filmed the actuality where I knocked on the door and followed Jamie up to his room. This allows the viewer to see that I still have a presence in this scene. The difference is that I won't appear on the screen when the interviews start. As stated, I did not think this would work at first. However, after reviewing the footage I think it worked better as Cailan planned. This also gives me a lot of confidence going forward, that Cailan will be making the correct decisions when needed. The actuality sequence was filmed and will allow us to use voiceover to introduce this segment. I had wanted to capture drone shots in the hour prior to this, but the drone was not available on the day so we will have to go back to the location just to get drone shots.

The interview itself went much better than expected. I say this because I was under less pressure as I was not on screen. This allowed me to focus on the questions while taking in what Jamie was saying. If I was sitting next to Jamie, it would have created a strange dynamic, one that would have been hard to edit around. The three shots we filmed will give us a lot of options in the edit. Something we had to account for was the lights. Therefore I switched the cameras into an FPS that would not show the flickering on the screen. It took some time to find the correct frame rate, but it was a worthwhile exercise as we would have not been able to use any footage with this issue. The three shots can be seen below. 

The three angles are as different as they could be in the area we could film. These will allow us to switch between the three in the edit, using the one that gives the most impact. Something that I have been focusing on before we film is the white balance. In the past, it could have been an afterthought, but now I am making sure things like that do not get forgotten. This time spent before will mean less time required on grading in the edit. As we have a lot of things to piece together, any extra time on unneeded grading would be a big waste of the edit teams time. 

Like Tuesday, I was happy with the questions asked and we managed to obtain the right answers for our story. The time spent crafting the right questions before our shoot allowed us to get these answers and not worry about if we missed the point. Jamie gave fantastic, well-rounded answers which allowed us to understand more about him and his journey, while still giving me advice on what I should be doing. As the interview was going so well, I even asked some extra questions that I thought could be of interest. This scene will be edited down to a much smaller sequence, but we managed to get enough answers to cut a really interesting segment. 

George did capture some 4k shots from his phone which meant there is a possibility these could be used as a cutaway shot, but I fear this may interrupt the flow of the interview. Nonetheless, it was useful and we can see how these small clips work in a draft cut. We had learnt from the issue on Tuesday and lit this scene accordingly. We did not have a massive LED, but a small external light source allowed this scene to have less grain and better depth. Like Tuesday, both I and the interviewee had a clip mic which ensured great audio quality. This shows we have learned from the mistakes in past shoot dates. 

In a later blog post, I will research the importance of interviews being different. This is because I came to the realisation that if every one of our interviews looked the same, it would not be great for our documentary. A variety of styles would allow this documentary to flex both visually pleasing sequences and allow the documentary to not feel so rigid. If the documentary kept going back to the same style, it would feel much more like a "How to" documentary, an approach which we are avoiding. 

I was very happy with how this whole sequence looked. After reviewing the footage, I think this was definitely the best shoot date we have had so far. I am really looking forward to seeing how this sequence looks. We have definitely learned from some of the previous mistakes in this process. Things such as sound, lighting and following a shotlist. George and Cailan along with Connor did a great job today, I am really happy that they managed to capture the vision I had for this scene. The fact we have distinct interview segments will mean the viewer does not lose interest. The fact that they are not typical sit-down interviews will allow the camera operators to create visually pleasing scenes which engage the viewer. Overall, a great interview and I am proud of the whole team. This is the first shoot date in which we have had no issues.

Fitness Test Sequence

In the afternoon we head to the gym to practice the fitness sequence. I am currently suffering from food poisoning and a painful stomach, and I thought it would be best if I didn't make it worse. This situation meant that Connor had to step into my role while I also took over his role and became the secondary camera operator. This actually worked well as I could frame up the camera exactly how I wanted, which would be a great reference for when Connor has to actually film this sequence in a couple of weeks time. 

We worked through my shotlist and quickly realised that we should run with multiple lights in this sequence. We tried without lights, with one then two lights. We know that lighting will be particularly important as our shoot takes place at 4pm, and the light may be fading by the end of our actual shoot. This was in the back of the minds while filming, which led us to test lights and we found multiple lights would be needed, no matter the light outside. 

After this discovery, we went down the shot list that I had prepared for this segment. This went well and we proceeded to spend two hours capturing these shots. Our biggest issue was overexposing the backdrop, as we filmed on a sunny day and in some areas of the gym, the light was coming directly at the camera which meant we had to adjust our angles accordingly. 

Using two cameras allowed us to capture an abundance of B-Roll footage, which will be similar on the actual shoot date. This means we will have a lot of choice in the edit, and the time we have at this gym will allow the camera operators to obtain extra shots, not on my shot list. As with a lot of our sequences, we will have a lot of extra footage which will be helpful in the edit. We must ensure, however, that the quality of this is consistent throughout, so these clips are all usable.

Both cameras being handheld allowed the operators to be quick thinking and adjust with the contributors. Being on a tripod would only really work for the establishing shots that I have planned before I enter the gym. I filmed these shots outside which looked good but, was wary of the reflection in the glass entrance. I managed to find a way to get the shot I wanted, without being in the reflection.

Overall, we managed to get all of the shots I wanted. These along with a good idea of the location will allow me to create an in-depth plan for this sequence when I will be in front of the camera. Looking at the footage, the one thing that Cailan forgot to do was white balance his camera. This gym is a great location and I now have all the experience and information needed to craft a plan for the 28th Feb, when I will do this sequence for real. 

This test shoot has allowed us to understand what issues we may face on the day and the best way to work around these. For example, changing the angle of the shots slightly so there is not overexposure through the windows. Things like multiple lights will also be important in ensuring both myself and the trainer are lit and not grainy in the footage was also important points we picked up. We learned a lot through this test shoot and it's great that we have allowed ourselves room for test shoots in our schedule. These allow us to be much better prepared for the actual shoot dates, meaning we do not run into issues we might be unaware of. 

Production - SHOOT DAY 4 Dan Rowbottom Interview in Accrington

Tuesday's shoot was one of the most complicated ones to arrange logistically. We had to be in Accrington (North of Manchester) by 11am, meaning to ensure we got there on time we would have to leave my home around 4am. Thinking clearly about how this could affect us, we decided to drive halfway the night before, allowing us to have a 3-hour journey in the morning, rather than a 6 hour+ journey. I had suggested this plan to George quite late as he had wanted to drive up in the morning, but I was being realistic, thinking that we would probably hit traffic, and doing a journey that long before an interview could have led to some oversights. In the end, we stayed halfway in Birmingham which worked out well and we arrived in Accrington 30 minutes early. I was happy that we had found a solution to this issue, as it meant we could go into the interview with the right mindset, one which would allow us all to focus on our roles.

After we arrived, we introduced ourselves to Dan and the rest of the team and proceeded to observe the space we had available to us. This was very important as we had not been able to do a location scout beforehand. We actually had more space than expected, which allowed me to make some directorial decisions before I was in front of the camera.

Firstly, I wanted to utilise some dolly wheels we had bought for this project on the flat showroom floor. This would be the first part of the "walk and talk" interview as it leads nicely from the shot before where I walk through the door after meeting Dan for the first time. These dolly wheels along with the SteadyShot in the camera allowed for a hyper-smooth shot which looked both professional and natural. My main concern when reviewing this footage, however, was that it was more grainy than I would have liked. I would have expected, after the issues we have faced in the past, for a light to be fitted to the camera. This was something I could have mentioned, but I was also in the mindset of being the contributor, and that would have broken that immersion. This issue was present in the diary room test shoot and happened again in a low-light scenario. Therefore, one of my next blog posts will be looking into how we can effectively use lighting on-the-go and create natural shots without the grain. I was a little disappointed when reviewing the footage, that this issue had not been picked up on when filming, but it was something I could do little about as I was immersed in the role of the contributor. Saying this, the actual shot itself looked cinematically very nice. The smoothness of the dolly and SteadyShot allowed this scene to be very pleasing visually. One issue Cailan had which he noted was that there was a crack in the floor, meaning there were 1-2 seconds of unstable footage. I thought an effective solution to this would be filming a UW/S from up above, as both Dan and I walk over the area in which the camera had issues. This means we have options in the edit, as we might be able to fix the subtle movement as the camera goes over the crack. This showed effective issue solving as a team, as we understood the problem we faced and found a solution quickly. This showed we had learned from some of the mistakes of our prior shoot, which allowed us to move on quickly after the issue was resolved.

After we had filmed part 1 of 3, the second part of the interview took place on the upper level of the workshop. There was space for both Dan and myself to walk around the spares section of this level, which allowed us to have a visually interesting backdrop to our conversation. As a part of our mini-recce before the filming started, I envisioned three different areas for this interview to take place. 1- Ground level 2- Upper level 3- Car workshop. I also wanted the interview to feel natural and come off like a conversation, this meant the "walk and talk" technique I have mentioned previously has been implemented for part 1 and 2. Part 2 went smoothly bar George knocking something over and creating a loud noise in the middle of one take. Both of the first two parts of this interview did take a couple of attempts as we wanted to ensure both the camera operation and the conversation was smooth. Once again the shoot looked great. This time Cailan was using the handheld rig as the dolly could not fit but, a similar level of smoothness was seen. This smoothness is an incredible benefit of using this camera, it is not as stable as a purpose-built stabiliser. But, it is much smoother than a regular DSLR meaning we do not have micro-movements which can throw the viewer off. The equipment and its operation during today's shoot were exactly what I expected. However, as with the scene before it, we did have some grain due to the lack of light. After reviewing the footage I mentioned to the team that while the shots are great, the lack of lighting will mean this scene is not as good as it could have been. Going forward, I have told the team to carry lights on every shoot. If we are unsure about lighting, attaching a portable LED will typically make any scene less grainy. This was my only real issue with the whole of the day's shoot. 

The last part of the interview took place inside Dan's car. This was probably the worst shot in terms of lighting, as we were inside the car which meant outside lighting was less. I suggested to George that he hop on a camera for this one segment to capture a second angle of me sitting in the car. I am slightly disappointed with the amount of grain seen in these shots, but as the contributor, I don't feel I really could or should have done anything on the day. I feel this is the responsibility of the camera operator, as all my directorial decisions were made before I was in front of the camera. I feel that the interview as a whole went well and we got some lovely footage, the grain, however, was our main nemesis today. The secondary shot George captured was not exactly what I expected, but we may be able to use it to cut around the lack of light on my face inside the car. It was worth having a secondary camera for this scene as we were sitting still, so I will see how this looks when George gives us a test edit. A lesson for our next shoot would certainly be the lighting, as mentioned earlier we should not have left this shoot with grainy footage. It was avoidable, but that is something we may have to solve in the edit, as we cannot reshoot this interview.

As a contributor, I definitely relaxed into my role today. The conversation with Dan was very natural and once in front of the camera, I was completely immersed within my role and duties. So, when reviewing the footage, I was happy to see how natural these conversations were and I was impressed that it was filmed in the style I was expecting. After the actuality interview had been filmed, Cailan filmed the pickup shots of me entering the building, shaking hands with Dan as well as transitions (walking up/down stairs) and beauty shots of the car. This was as planned in my shotlist, so will give us a lot of options when in the edit. As a team we effectively solved the minor issues we found when shooting, meaning that we have covered ourselves for the edit. As mentioned, the lighting was the only issue we need to look at going forward, and a future blog post will delve into this issue and how we can use different forms of lighting. 

This day went very smoothly, which was thanks to all of our individual planning as a team, as well as having great access and a fantastic contributor in Dan. I am happy that this interview also tied in nicely with a sponsor we have got for this project. It means we can subtly include their brand without it feeling forced upon the viewer. I am looking forward to seeing a rough cut of this scene as it will allow us to understand any issues we may not have noticed at the time and when reviewing clips singularly. Overall, I feel this interview went better than I honestly expected. The footage we ended up with was of good quality and gives us things to think about going forward. I am happy we managed to pull together as a team and produce a fantastic interview segment, one that feels natural and honest, while staying professional at the same time.