Having contacting and arranging with Medway park, i managed to get access to use the race tracks in the evening after the triathlon club had finished at 8pm.
However, on the day of the shoot, we were severely delayed due to bad weather that spontaneously appeared on the evening of our shoot without no warning.
So the window of time we had to film which was in the evening, giving us two hours to get the shots that we needed including set up, was cut down to one hour, limiting what i was able to get, so the shoot day went kind of bad for me as i was only able to get very limited shots, as by the time i had set up, framed and exposed the footage, it was pretty much time to go
The only shots that i managed to get was mainly the ones of Oli sitting on the steps on amongst the tiered seating. When i went to film the jogging shots, unfortunately by that time after setting up and framing, i was not able to finish the sequence, which made the shots useless.
When i filmed Oli sitting on the tiered seating, the lenses that i used was the 35mm t1.5 at t2 to get the wide shot of Oli: Production stills plus behind the scenes
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| 35mm Production still |
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| Behind the scenes of me getting the shot |
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| Where the track was drenched, i had to place a plastic bag on the floor with a newspaper on top of it so i could change lenses quickly and safely. |
I then used the 80mm t1.5 on the crop mode making the lens a 120mm lens to give me the close up of Oli’s face whilst having the exposure set to t2 to give me a shallow DOF but also allow for the extra light so that i could turn down my ISO, as using high ISO in crop mode produces a lot of noise.
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| 120mm up production still |
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| Using the dolly to try a tracking shot, but also to keep the shot lined up for when i moved in closer |
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| As you can see, the track is completely drenched |
Equipment check list
Sony A7s
Rhode videomic pro
35mm t1.5
80mm t1.5
70-200mm f4
Tripod
Dolly Track - to keep the shot on the same line, plus to try out a tracking focus rack shot
Whilst structuring my script, i went along and filmed a training session of Oli training, so that i had coverage of some footage that i could use for the portrait.
Even though i had created a shot list, i only managed to get a selection of the shots that i wanted on that list during the shoot day. The shots on my list that i managed to get was:
Pad work
Bag work
Sparring
Wraps
Shadow boxing
With this shoot i was focusing mainly Oli training with Ray doing pad work inside the ring, plus Oli talking with his trainer Ray, as Ray is a main focus for the story. The shots that i got of Oli doing up his wraps did not work, as the shots looked to flat and was not following the shallow DOF style coverage that i wanted for this particular shoot. Plus the Shadow boxing did not work either as the shots did not have the shallow DOF that i desired.
The good thing i liked about this shoot is that, it showed Oli in more of a natural environment, as nothing was scripted or acted out, everything was authentic with him behaving normally as he would during his training sessions.
For the boxing inside the ring, i really focused on the sound, using the wireless mic to hook up to Ray so that we could hear the instructions that he was giving to Oli, plus Aaron was booming the sounds very close to the ring, hiding behind the wall out of the shot, crouched down in the corner to get a crisp sound.
To stabilise the shots i was using my shoulder ring to keep the camera ridged and steady
Equipment checklist
Shoulder Rig - to stabilises the shots
Fostex sound recorder and Rhode NTG-2 + boom pole for sound +
Sennhiser Wireless mic - wired up to the trainer Ray to pick up the vocals whilst he's training Oli
Sony A7s
Rhode videomic pro - for scratch audio to sync in post with the Fostex audio
35mm t1.5 for Shallow DOF shots and crisp footage
85mm t1.5 For zoomed in shots and shallow DOF
Here’s some production stills from the shoot day:
With these shots, i tried to get kind of a soft, milky, shallow DOF feel to them, similar to that shown in the Heather & dusky example, however, with more authenticity with Oli & Ray carrying out their normal training session.
Having had a brief meeting with Helen just before we broke up for the easter holidays, she looked over the structure of my portrait documentary and suggested that it would be easier for me to form it into a documentary script as it would give me a clearer idea of what i have, and what coverage i need to get, helping me to further structure my narrative structure.
So that i could have an idea of the order in which i’d like this portrait documentary to progress, i created a script that helped provide some form of order and structure to the narrative, plus to help guide me as to what i want to show and tell, plus what coverage i may need in order to bring the story to life.
Writing this script was kind of hard for me as i haven’t done it in a while, and took me longer than i had expected, as whilst i was writing it, i was trying to vision what locations Oli has got access to that we could film at. So, although i had the story in structured form, i had to kind of re-write it and place it into the script explaining to myself, what will be taking place as Oli is talking about specific instances within his story.
Some parts of the script is left blank, as with those particular shots, at the time of writing the script i was unsure as what to put there, however, as the script is a working progress, even though i have selected shots at the desired parts of the story - the story itself and the shots could change.
The script uploaded is just like a blueprint template to help guide me as to what i need to do. Even though i have selected shots down, anything on the script could change.
(insert script on scribbed)
Tag :// Final Major Project,
Tag :// Idea development,
Tag :// production prep work,
Tag :// Project Update,
Tag :// Research
Because the interviews that i’m conducting are of a sensitive nature, i have been doing some research on how to get good answers out of an interviewee during an interview and have came across some good important information as how to do so.
This website points out that a good way how to extract authentic original questions, is to look for contradictions during the interview. The methodology and reasoning behind this is explained in a quote taken from the website
"This method can be so effective because so often interviewees will say what they think we want to hear. They’ll say what they think “sounds good.” Or they’ll share only that which their employers would approve. If they’re not answering authentically and deeply—which is where the best interviews come from—then challenging them on these contradictions is a great way to get deeper, more thoughtful answers.
Now some of you might be worried that the interviewee might be offended by these challenges. However, if you’re genuinely engaged in the conversation and present the ideas in a fair and positive way, most people will happily engage in a debate and enjoy the challenge. This isn’t about catching the interviewee in a mistake. Rather, it’s about honestly finding and pointing out contradictions as a way of encouraging the person to be more introspective."
Further interview technique websites
From each of these websites that i read through and took notes out of, i’ve included an exert of the useful information that i found each website below.
Documentary interview question examples. This was just the basic, a sort of wake up reminder on getting giving me a reminder on how i should be structuring my questions. When looking at other examples, i would refer back to this website and see how the questions work off of this structure.
Don’t think you need to be an expert to conduct an interview (this mentally challenged me as i thought to much into my questions at times, often taking long to create them)
Ask simple questions
Try to be forthright and honest about your approach and what is expected of the subject in terms of answers and candidness. If there are sensitive or very personal issues at hand, discuss how those issues will be treated and why it’s important for them to share it with the audience. (took this on board, as the overall key theme of the portrait documentary is a young prospect who’s overcome a battle of being bullied, and is now fighting for acceptance on his path to success)
Interview people in there environment - Oli would be most comfortable within his own environment, especially with the information of such a sensitive nature that he will be telling me that he has not spoken about in such a long time.
Additional research stuff
How to Guide your Documentary interviewee
talks about styling, research, sit down interview
Blog interview set up
Interview spare notes
To help me with finding a style of how i would like my portrait documentary to look like, i took to vimeo to look at a load of examples of portrait documentaries, looking at how they’re shot, the questions asked, and how they’re structured.
A main thing that i noticed with most portraits, is that they were between 3 - 8 minutes long, which may pose a problem as my final major needs to be 10minutes minimum, however, theres still things that i could learn from watching them.
Whilst watching these portraits, i screen capturing the particular scenes that the cinematography and directing caught my attention, and would potentially like to incorporate within my portrait documentary.
Philip Bloom
Portrait of a boxer
Before i fully knew the story of Oli, when i was looking at portrait documentaries, this is what i had in mind, as i liked the way how this was produced. What i like about this portrait is that it does not have a linear structure to how the shots are provided. The editing technique is very fast at times, and the framing of the character, showing ECU’s of the hand wraps and the characters face, plus the snorricam . The sound design is particularly strong throughout this portrait as it helps to take you more into the story of the character and the action that is taking place inside of the gym.
Heather Hardy - Portrait of a professional boxer Heather “The Heat” Hardy
Directed by/ Anh Vu & Laurent Barthelemy
DP/ Ed David
This documentary out of all of the boxing portraits that i watched i particularly like, because the framing of the close up shots was really intimate, up close and personal, and even though Heather Hardy is a boxer, the way how this portrait portrays her is as a caring, un-intimidating, friendly lady, a complete polar opposite of the hard-man narrative shown in the Phillip Bloom example. The shots of Heather sparring inside of the boxing ring and also doing pad work i particularly like as well, as the DP actually moves around with Heather as she is doing her training. The overall narrative is fairly straight forward, in that the hook tells you about the character, the conflict and climax explains how heather was struggling for money etc.. before she found boxing, and the resolution tells you about how she took the leap of faith and went on her journey as a pro boxer, being taking into a good gym and new family and how she wants to try and have a successful career as a profighter.
Dusty + Buddy
Produced by/ Run Riot and Joshua Cogan
This portrait doc is about Dusty Harrison and his Farther, telling the story of their bond together and how his farther kept him away from trouble, bringing him up as a boxer. Before the portrait fully starts, it teases the story with a 45 second tracking shot introduction of Dusty Harrison walking to the ring walk entrance before it cuts to black, although, after teasing this shot, the portrait does not cut do fight again throughout the film.
This was beautifully shot, being that it was shot on a Red camera, but the framing was also very good, as the close up shots were sharp and crisp with a nice depth of field. The way how the documentary incorporated the use of slow motion also added more focus and emotion to those particular shots, such as Dusty and his Farther staring at the camera as they’re jogging / riding up the road, plus the slow motion shots of Dusty training, with the camera slowly circling around him. The use of the Ken burns effect was good as well, as the pictures took up the whole of the frame, and were not too sharp on screen, blending in with the grading of the portrait. One of the main things that i liked about this portrait is that, although we see Dusty and his Farther constantly throughout the portrait, not once do we see them doing a sit-down interview, we are just guided by action shots, pictures, and archive footage. Plus, how the archive footage is shown is very creative, as they have it shown on a tv in black and white. The titles towards the end was very creative as well, making use of the ken burns effect showing pictures, with a thin font in the lower middle region of the frame showing the credits.
Having looked through these examples, plus more examples that i've not shown, i aim to use some of the shot types and filmic techniques in my portrait documentary when filming Oli.
