Sunday 30 November 2014
On arrival to the boxing venue, because i had arrange before hand with Grant's promoter i collected my press pass at reception, which gave me access to all areas within the boxing venue which was:
- The balcony overlooking the boxing ring
- Vip seating area next to the boxing ring
- The judges table at the side of the boxing ring, where they ring the bell from
- The changing rooms where the fighters were preparing themselves mentally for the fight
Pretty much anywhere that i wanted to go, because of my press pass i was allowed to.
Because of this, and where Grants fight was 3rd till last, i utilised the time opportunity to explore the venue, testing out the various lighting scenarios and using the boxers fights before Grants to test out what type of shots i could get, and how the framing looked from various angles throughout different locations within the boxing arena, to then determine what i could achieve during Grants fight
Here's some examples below with Stills and Footage of from York Hall Leisure centre
With this shot, where the lighting was on at first i adjusted my camera for the lighting condition, i chose to film at the side of the ring to see how the framing would look, and also where i was using a shallow depth of field, i'd constantly be able to rack focus to give it that gritty feel as they were boxing
With this shot, i tried out some different angles, dirty framing from behind the audience, making the boxing in the background, this is a good shot as it would be used as a set up shot to crop in on the action, but also we're getting the audience perspective to the fight. Because the fight was long, i moved to a different location, however, ideally to pull this off i'd need to have two camera men as i couldn't risk taking the chance filming Grants fight.
These are some random stills, the first is a close up of the ring girl, the second is a looking up MCU of a fighter in his corner during the rounds intermission and the last two is another dirty frame angle but a bit closer to the ring, still having the audience within frame.
I was asked to film this fight by the boxing promoter who made it possible for me to film, so during the fight, i used the opportunity to get more close ups of Mustafa in the corner with his cornermen during the intermission, to see how the footage would look, and confirm what angles i want to go for whilst filming Grants fight.
I thought i'd try and get a close up of the ring lady, using the lights above as a haze/flare effect to softly shine over the ring women softening the overall tone of the footage. Even though these were test shots, ill most likely end up using them if i need to.
This fight at first i was filming to test out the angle, but because it was interesting i continued to film it, and i was luck because i captured a brilliant knockout!! Later i then found out that the fighter was part of the same promotion team that i came there with. So it ended up being useful, however i decided not to film from this angle for my short as it would break the visual framing of my narrative as this angle is non cinematic with the selection of lens that I'm using.
