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.

Dissertation Approaches

Module 150 is not only research it is also the start of preparation for my dissertation. The dissertation is closely linked to your working practise within the final major projects which at first I was very unhappy with as I felt this was just a critical review.
I wanted to focus my dissertation on natural history programming, specifically the dumbing down of narration and content over the last decade. This isn't possible because of the link to your current working practises on the final major projects and the course doesn't cater for natural history within its briefs.

Filming in Borneo with Dale (DSLR)

With this in mind I developed new ideas with my dissertation tutor and have slowly etched out a plan to still be able to use the dissertation to speak to industry professionals within natural history filmmaking.
My dissertation is focusing on new technology within the industry, specifically the introduction of digital SLR cameras that shot high definition footage. Are they a fad or a serious contender for the next generation of cameraman?

This has allowed me to draw on my background of filming with my own digital SLR and to approach directors, cameramen and production houses to help me research my dissertation.
Overall Iam much more positive about this dissertation and looking forward to contacting professionals in the coming weeks.

Pitching Day

Today was the final pitch session to see what documentary and drama ideas were going to get green-lit.
I was actively involved in four ideas so pretty confident that at least two of those would get the go ahead.
The ideas were
Hoodies to Heroes  - A documentary about BMX riding and its inclusion in the Olympics
Britains Bionic Man - The story of David Follett who was paralysed in a car accident
Mutilations, The Unthinkable Truth - A Documentary about the APFU and the investigation work they              
do surrounding animal mutilations.
On the Cusp of Madness - A documentary charting the rise to fame of Ryan Keen with madness drummer 'Woody"

All the pitches were really good and most had a strong story and interesting subject matter but there were going to be some that wouldn't get made because we don't have the resources and time to make them all.

In the end Hoodies to Heroes and Mutilations, The Unthinkable Truth got the green light so I will be directing one and cameraman on another which Im very happy about.

Look out for more updates in the coming weeks about how we progress!

We are in

Today I had an email form Tobias Fredrich at the UCI Union Cycliste Internationale giving us filming rights for two cameras at the BMX world championships!
This is a massive step forward for the documentary because it gives us the access to the biggest competition in the BMX calendar.

http://www.bmxworldchamps.co.uk/

BMX Doc

The BMX Documentary is proving to be a very challenge piece to bring together.
We have a great initial contributor, Robert Reed, who has given us a massive list of ideas and contributors but the story is to broad for a 10 minute piece.
The list of contacts is from all areas of cycling so firstly we have focused on just BMX riding and then developed the story from there. At the moment we are trying to get the top athletes in this sport to contribute as this will give a great element to the story.

Rob Reed ©timhuntphotography

So far we are looking to make the story about how much BMX riding has changed from its early grass routes in the wastelands of inner cities right through to its inclusion in the Olympics.
As director on this piece I am trying to get us access to the UCI World Championships at the end of May in Birmingham. This is the top competition for BMX riders and showcases the talent from all over the world, over 200 riders will compete for four days for the ultimate prize to be the world number one!

We are also contacting young riders as well to showcase the up and coming future of the sport and look at who the next generation of Olympic and world champions might be.

I will update soon on how we get on and the contributors we have.

http://www.bmxworldchamps.co.uk/

Another Idea comes together

I have lots of ideas for television programmes but many of them don't always fit the specific briefs of our modules at uni. For module 150/160 I had two ideas that did fit the briefs and I'm very pleased that today my contributor agreed to be part of my documentary idea.

The brief is BBC3 Extraordinary Me and David is definitely that. He is one of only three people in the country who is testing the EKSO an exoskeleton suit. As well as that he is a world class badminton player and a torch bearer for the Olympics.
He story is very inspirational and his determination and spirit is a credit to him.

I look forward to pitching this idea and hopefully seeing it made in the coming weeks

For david story see the daily mail article written earlier this year.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2132059/Britains-bionic-man-Robot-suit-allows-Olympic-torch-bearer-22-walk-again.html

The search for the unexplained!

Unit 150 is the development stage of the final major projects of my Masters in Television Production.
Im directing a project about BMX riding and its inclusion within the Olympics but we have to do two roles so I'm developing other ideas that I have an interest in.

UFO Hunters surrounds the mystery of animal mutilations throughout the U.K. It focuses on a group called the APFU who research the mystery and try to work out what or who is doing this to animals, some farm cattle others wild, all over the country. I have been in contact with one of their founding members who has been very helpful and informative.

The more I have researched this subject the more fascinating it becomes and I think it fits the Channel 4 brief for First Cut series very well.
The Producer from the strip Doc has also been very involved in developing this idea, so much so that she has decided that she wants to have her directorial debut! Im going to do the role of cameraman and i'm very much looking forward to the challenge of filming this documentary if it is greenlit in the coming weeks.

For more information check out the link below

http://www.apfu.org/