I chose to do cinematography as I haven't done this on the course yet and I was keen to be able to use the skills I have learnt.
I researched in to the job of a documentary cinematographer and what it entails. I used this source: http://red-gecko-productions.com/redgecko/2010/07/29/the-skills-of-a-documentary-cinematographer/ which goes in to detail about the skills of a documentary cinematographer.
The source mentions the importance of "The collaboration between the documentary director and the cinematographer is one of the most important elements of the filmmaking process. Since the cinematographer’s task is to help realize the director’s vision" this made me realise how important it is to communicate with Phil (Director) so I can understand exactly what he wants from me as a cinematographer. I want to make sure i'm capturing what he is imagining and getting as much detail as he needs. I had many conversations with Phil along the way to fully understand his approach to the documentary.
The source talks about how it's a cinematographers responsibility in "taking care of all camera equipment needs. Order the camera equipment if it is hired, test and adjust it and master all its needs and working principles." It was my job to book out all the equipment for the documentary. I renewed the equipment three times so we could continue to use the same kit. It was also my job to make sure that everything was handled carefully and nothing was lost. The foam lapel mic windshields were almost lost multiple times and I had to constantly ask Nathan to make sure he had put it in the bag.
The source mentions that "A cinematographer should know his equipment inside-out". Since I hadn't used the XF100 on a project before I took the equipment out so that I could play around and get to know the camera before we started filming. I made sure all the settings were already setup a few days prior to shooting so that I was more confident. I also tested using the slider in my flat, because I've never used one before and it was key that we got slider shots of the vinyl racks. The video of me testing the slider can be found here
Next, the source mentions other things my job entails:
- Scouting locations to assess light and electricity supplies,
- Lighting aesthetics,
- Setting up lighting instruments,
I was in charge of lighting on set. I argued to the team that since we were filming in such small locations that using a three point lighting setup would be impossible. I told them we could use a DSLR LED light that clips on top of the camera, this would use up less space. It turned out that we didn't need the LED light because natural lighting was fairly good. Apart from in Rodger's interview where I had to think hard about where we placed him. I ended up having to set the chair for Rodger facing a window so we could use the natural light coming in. Apart from that lighting wasn't too much of a problem for me to think about.
The source goes on to mention two other key parts of a cinematographers job:
- Deciding camera positioning in collaboration with the director, and
- Making all camera movements.
On set I setup the camera, including setting it to 25fps, 1080p, turning the gain off, checking the camera was in manual, and taking a white balance. I also helped Nathan (Sound) by plugging the lapel mic into channel 1 and the shotgun mic in to channel 2. I made sure the settings for the external mics were setup properly and I looked at the audio levels as the interviews were taking place just to make sure they weren't peaking. For the interviews and cutaways, I filmed every shot seen in the documentary and I had the final say as to how we shot each interview and cutaway. I sometimes asked the director (Phil) how he wanted the interview framing as it was his vision, I also felt more confident walking around with Phil so I made sure I got what he wanted and didn't miss anything important.
Below are other things I did for the project:
Me and Josh worked together on producing the presentation and pitch for the Forge Masters documentary idea. We wanted to explore why Forge Masters had sacked 100 jobs recently and what was going on in the steel industry. This idea wasn't used but the presentation me and Josh produced can be found here:
http://www.slideshare.net/JoshFryer1/documentary-pitch-steel-city I believe we did a good job of the presentation but it was disappointing to find out that Forge Masters were not prepared to allow us to film at this current time.
As part of the research process I created a small document of research about the vinyl industries increase in sales and also a small look at LP Record Store. I didn't know much about the vinyl industry so researching into it helped me understand it better. I wanted to make sure I understood what the director was aiming at throughout this documentary and the document can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Dm7HtCrqgb3bSRwtMZiZPbdq2l1RFR4xJFYSWbTFPH0/edit?usp=sharing
As a group we went around three LP stores in Sheffield. LP Record Store, Vinyl Demand and Record Junkie. I looked around to make sure I had a sense of shot ideas and lighting availability. After the visit I created a shotlist for these five locations we planned on filming at. Three record stores and the two collectors homes. The shot list can be found here, and I referenced it throughout each recording session:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FST8XPyUrcgkn4do_jhB1DNstqVqXzB2nIouUeMNZL8/edit?usp=sharing
It was also my job to import the clips on to Avid ISIS for Josh to edit, and to make it easier for Josh to edit. I transcribed Mark Richardson's (LP Record Store) interview. The transcribe can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QQ5qConyeP4PEbvKlYvIrXLVp5E7znNHkPtD03bvhSA/edit?usp=sharing
However Josh only left 24 hours to edit the entire documentary and it came out badly and we were extremely disappointed. Thankfully we got a 4 day extension and I took over the edit and started from scratch. Phil (Director) sat a long side we throughout the whole edit and this made sure it was exactly how our director has envisioned it at the start of the project.
