So after filming a couple of scenes I have decisions to make:
1. How “cinematic” do I want to make the images?
I shot the new year eve scene at Brighton Railway club on the DJI Osmo 3. It has a low profile but it does has a few draw backs; the fixed lens is very wide so you have to get very close, not great in low light and the sound is crap. I’m a bit disappointed about how it turned out from a technical point of view. From a idea and content point it is better than I thought it was going to be. I will try shooting with A7cR with a 24-70 and see how I like it but I don’t want to loose the idea over making something look nice.
2. Audio
This is something I’m going to have to work out sooner rather than later. I didn’t create any rules around audio other than it needs to happen within the scene. I think I’m going to mic people up and capture the audio within that scene. I think audio could really make this film; the contrast between loud and quite, sound bites I could get within the shot, music, poetry. There are a lot of ideas I could throw in to it.
3. Confrontational shooting
This is going to be difficult. When I first came up with the idea, the fact that I had my camera on a tripod in an odd place and that people would stare at it was part of the film. There is some old footage of New York where people are walking past and staring at the camera, as my film is supposed to get back to purely documenting, a tripod with a fixed lens, I envisaged images like this. It doesn’t matter if people are looking at the camera. The camera itself should be confrontational but it means that I have to be brave. I have to stick the camera in difficult positions.
4. How much production?
There are going to scenes that I come across on a day to day basis but over that last couple of days I realised I need to target and produce a lot of scenes. Some are going to be difficult to get and some are going to be easy. I think I’m going to have to ask forgiveness rather than permission if I’m going to get my 90 shots. However, if I want to get good audio I will have to get permission and get people mic’d up.