Final major projects are done!

A couple of days ago I finally handed in my final major projects. it was a massive push right up to the last few minutes of the hand in window and I don't mind saying, a stressful experience.

I have been very fortunate to have worked with some very gifted people on the two projects I have been involved with for this module. looking back over the last 5 weeks I think we have done incredibly well and produced to very different but engaging documentaries.

As a director on this course you have to be a bit of a 'jack of all trades'  filling the gaps on shoots and within the edit because you work in small teams and as the director the ultimate responsibility to bring the documentary home relies on you. For the BMX documentary "Living the dream" I was the director, sound engineer and dubbing mixer and found it hard to juggle all the roles and find time to do dissertation and production paperwork. Its a learning curve though and overall I am very happy with the outcome and look forward to hearing the feedback from the contributors.

All thats left is to write my dissertation then my Masters is over, its amazing to think that in a few weeks time I will be handing in my dissertation and thats it! It only seems like yesterday that we were all working in small groups producing little one minute films week by week - how time flies........

My First Camera Role

The unthinkable truth, a documentary about the APFU was my first camera role since embarking on my Masters back in October. I have quite a bit of experience of filming but I wanted this piece of work to really stand out and emulate television as much as possible, to give me something great to show potential employers and add to my showreel.

I used two cameras for this shoot, the Panasonic P2 and the Canon 1D Mk1V, the combination of these cameras allowed me to film the different shots I needed and be able to include timelapse as well.

I had a lot of experience of using these two cameras from a three month expedition to Borneo where I documented the expedition through film and photography. From this I knew that the footage from both cameras can be matched. With a little colour work the Panasonic P2 footage can look as nice as the Canon 1D Mk1V.

In the edit I was really pleased to see the documentary come together, on this project I was really fortunate to work with a very gifted Director and Editor and I think it shows in the final piece how well we worked together. One thing that I did suffer from was a dust spot on the sensor of the Canon camera. on the screen shots, above, you can see it just above the contributors head.
This is one of the many pitfalls of shooting on a digital SLR camera, having to change lenses frequently exposes you to dust getting into the body of the camera and causing these types of issues.

In a future blog I will be writing a feature on problems with DSLR shooting so take a look if you are a keen DSLR user!

Crit Screening

Crit screening time came around quickly but it was great to see all the projects in their various states.
The BMX documentary that Im directing wasn't quite complete, it was at a very good stage but still required an opening sequence and credits. The UFO Documentary was a finished piece and both were received very well with only minor and specific comments from the course leaders.

We can take those comments and implement them in the coming days before the final hand in. I think the team are positive that we have worked hard, the editor, directors and camera operators have all stayed available in the edit to make sure these projects stay on time and have the the necessary support to help the editor bring two large projects together.

Keep your eye out on here for the links to watch these documentaries through my vimeo page!

Doc two filmed, we are ready for the edit....

Another crazy drive around the country has ended and the second of the two documentaries I'm working on has finished filming. We drove to manchester to film the olympic development programmes BMX riders which was an amazing experience and they were all great on camera and very good in the interviews. There coach Marcus Bloomfield was very kind and allowed us access for two days which gave us ample opportunities to film their training and gain some great cutaways and actuality. As the Director I'm really thankful to British Cycling for allowing us to film and visit there amazing facility so close to the Olympics.
After two days in Manchester we travelled down to London for the next leg of the filming, we visited the Peckham BMX club which has development and trained two of England's brightest talents, Quillan Isidore and Tre Whyte. and then travelled to Mitcham and Sheen to film with a very talented young rider called Flo who had her first World Championships experience this year in the 12-14 category.
Finally on sunday we filmed with Rob Reed who was one of our earliest contributors and very instrumental in helping me to develop this story, we filmed him training at his local track, Hayes Hawks, and then filmed a master interview. before driving back to Cornwall!

 Filming with Quillan and CK Flash at Peckham

Michaela Rose filming Flo at their home in London

 This documentary has been a Fantastic experience, we have filmed at the biggest event on the BMX calendar, filmed with the coach and riders of the Olympic development team, meet and worked with CK flash the coach of Quillan Isidore the world number one rider in his class and young talent such as Flo. Throughout the filming we have meet a great many people and I have become completely hooked by BMX riding and I look forward to cheering on our Olympic riders Shanaze Reade and Liam Phillips 
in the up coming weeks at the 2012 Olympic Games here in London.

1000 miles and were home, Doc one done!

At 4am yesterday we finally made it back to Falmouth after filming for the last four days for the documentary - The Unthinkable Truth 

It has been a great experience, working with the contributors and travelling around the Shropshire/Welsh boarders on the hunt for UFO's. 

I have filmed in a variety of locations including a night-shoot in the welsh valleys and again picked up great experience in filming for the television industry. It has been difficult at times because ninety percent of the filming has been on location and the weather has, for once, been incredibly sunny. This made it difficult to film because of harsh shadows, ever changing light conditions and changes in colour temperature throughout the shoots and to make things worse we didn't have a light because the store don't have any portable camera lights, to overcome some of the problems I took a reflector which was an essential and I could not have filmed without it.

I used a mixture of Canon 1D and Panasonic P2 cameras to film this piece. to help the narrative along I filmed a couple of time-lapse's to use in the edit to give the sense of moving through time and to take us from day through to night as well. Because of mixing two camera types I will have to work with the editor and colour grade the footage to help the two combine well and for it not to be too noticeable.

This documentary has been a fun project and I have enjoyed working on it, the main contributor was fantastic to work with and I'm sure we will work again with him in the future.

Day of rest today after a 20 hour working day yesterday and then its straight back into it with the BMX Doc - Hoodies to Heroes early next week.......

Filming on DSLR

Anybody that has tried their hand at filming with a digital SLR camera will know there limitations. One of the biggest challenges is the LCD screen on the back of the camera. they are small, poorly placed and impossible to see in bright sunlight. 

The answer to this problem is to use a LCD viewfinder, or loupe as they are sometimes called, but with so many available and prices ranging from £20 to £299 its hard to know which one to buy.

I have used the Zacuto Z-finder PRO for a while now on my Canon 1D and it is an excellent piece of kit but its £279 price tag is a lot when starting out and trying to purchase lenses, rigs and various other pieces of kit. Also when used on a Canon 1D you don't get the use of the fantastic machined bracket as found on the 5D. 

I previously purchased a cheap alternative (£20) which used an elastic strap to hold it in place. This was  useable but only just, the viewfinder optics were poor and the stability that is offered from having a eyepiece is lost because the strength and structure of the viewfinder is limited. Add to this the elastic straps getting in the way of buttons and the poor optics means for me it isn't really a viable option.

I decided to research a little more and try and find a happy middle ground and after some internet trawling I found an interesting option with a more acceptable price tag - The seagull LCD Viewfinder 

At £79.99 or thereabouts, it a serious contender. I ordered one and was very surprised with its optics, quality and fitment. It comes complete with a stick on mount for your LCD screen and a carry bag to keep it safe when not in use. It is modelled very closely to the Zacuto - in fact the images on the box it comes in are of a a 5D with a Zacuto viewfinder and it fits perfectly onto the Zacuto mount as well!

Having it all set up I tested it at the UCI World Championships and I can really find no fault with it. The lens of the viewfinder does fog up in hot conditions but thats the same as most but all in all for the price I think it is hard to beat!

BMX World Championships

We have just returned from, what was, one of the most intense filming schedules I have done to date. We were filming for the 2012 BMX World Championships at the Birmingham NIA. It had taken many weeks of emailing and phone calls to gain access to this event but it was worth it in the end.

The track on the first day 

It was very hard to co-ordinate the three of us because we all had to film to give us full track coverage and the information from the organisers was less than adequate but after a few hours on the first day we all settled into a good routine and the following days were far more successful.

Michaela and Tim in the press meeting!

Due to the documentary still being in the development stages I decided to have coverage of all the GB BMX riders so this has resulted in a large amount of footage at this point. Across the four days we shot nearly 200Gb from two panasonic P2's and three Digital SLR's (1x Canon 5D and 2x Canon 1D's). This is an excessive amount of footage for a ten minute documentary but a large proportion wont make it into the edit once we have fully established who we have as contributors on the doc.
The Director, producer and D.O.P all shot this weekend and enjoyed practising our skills of following the action and trying to capture riders as they whizz past at speeds of 35 mph. it was a tough weekend but also a very rewarding experience and I hope that the end result we be able to get across some of the action, drama and excitement of the events.

As the director on this documentary, it has always been a hard idea to get into a script for a ten minute piece, the fear is with an extreme sports subject that you end up making a promotional film and not a televisual programme. With that in mind I'am glad that I have a strong team which worked so well on the previous documentary.