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.

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/