Wednesday 20th February
The weather has finally brightened, enough to attempt some
outdoor filming. I headed straight out to Furbo to film exterior shots for the
boat building documentary. Getting the majority of the exterior shots would
mean that I wouldn’t have to worry too much about the weather when returning to
film. I spent the morning capturing every interesting filmable shot I could.
Perhaps a little too much as the excess footage is might make it difficult once
I get to the editing suite. Being over excited was probably partially to do
with the change of subject (and the fact that I was filming compliant and inanimate
objects..). I have filmed with a sequence of shots in mind but also I took some
extra in order to leave the pattern open, how the narrative unfolds is of course
dependant on the interview. I will have to prepare questions well for this interview
as he is pretty media conversant having been filmed so much before. I’m not
sure was there lots of interesting sailing objects lying around to film or if I
was buzzed from the sunshine but lets say I have lots of potential cutaway
footage if needs be. I intend to accost a fiddler and acquire some original
music, the boat builders tone is quite melancholic, his conversation pieces are
often tinged with regret and I would like to emphasize this somewhat using
music (without it becoming the overwhelming tone of the piece). Also I’m not
sure I have the skill to do it but; boats are made to be sailed and the
documentary is being filmed primarily on dry land, this feeling of separation from
purpose would be a good honest representation of what I have experienced in
visiting this boat builder. Managing to convey this impression in a short
documentary without betraying his trust is a difficult tightrope to walk.
Friday 22nd February.
Today I had arranged to meet with one of the Galway hurlers
to film some more for the sports documentary. It was a stark reminder of why I
am tired of filming the sports clubs and the athletes involved. It was arranged
with the aid of the secretary of the sports office a while in advance. On the
day it became quickly obvious that it was going to be the bare minimum effort,
I wish that apathy could be made visible with the movie camera. Twice they lost
the sliotar, the first time I have to get it out of a stream because neither of
them would go in for it and the second time I called it quits after a severely
lackluster effort to find it in some brambles. This calls into question the
balance of aspiration behind and in front of the camera. I have something to
gain from the working relationship but those featuring in the documentary can
have little interest beyond seeing themselves onscreen. It begs the question
how do you get the balance right between getting what I need from the
documentary subjects without taking advantage of what is essentially free content
to be edited as I wish.
Sunday 24th February
The good
weather continued today and although I had to work in the afternoon I decided
to anyway catch the rowing clubs training session. A lot of the filming for
this film is going to be a bit distant; I wont be sticking the camera into anyone’s
face as they train. I am intending to give equal billing to the river as well
as the rowers themselves. For this reason I have been looking forward to
filming this documentary as the river itself loans itself very well to being
framed. I began by filming the rowers setup from a distance, the boats are so
long that I wanted to catch the length. I filmed them entering the water before
jumping in the car to try and catch them upriver. Due to the brightness of the
day I was using the viewfinder to focus instead of the screen, whether this caused the footage to
capture out of focus or not I am not sure but basically the whole days filming
was out of focus. There is a bit of play on the camera where you can turn the
focus and nothing seems to happen, I now think that something does happen but
it is not visible to the eye. I will endeavor to film the club again this
coming weekend and perhaps bring a cloth to throw over the camera to block the
sunlight so I can use the screen. When I film I will again frame the rowers and the river the same way,
this could be a sign that I know what I want or it could be an indicator that I
am stuck in my ways.
No comments:
Post a Comment