Production diary content

Role: Sound Recordist, Camera Assistant and Editor

 

Pre-Production:

Due to my role I was to  focus on planning on recording for sound. This involved both getting accustomed to all the equipment and figuring out with the rest of the team what needed to be record and with what equipment. It went like this radio mics for interviews, shotgun mic with boom pole for interviews and other general scenes with camera and the zoom recorder attachable mic for wild track. Next was visiting the location getting an idea of what to expect. I managed to assing an interview room and plan around possible thing that might interfere with the quality of sound I wanted to capture The final preparation was planning the schedule in which I would record in what order which was achieves with the production schedule (LINK). After all that preparation I fell confident in myself and the team were capable in completing the task in the schedule within the assigned time frame.

 

Production:

Summary – To give a brief idea of how the shoot went I can say we followed timeline for the most part I spent the first hour of the shoot just recording general wild track, next was an interview, the followed by three interview with the main contributors mother, then his trainer and finally the main contributor himself. This all took place within the gym.and occluded at 12:10pm. Afterwards we went to the main contributors house and finished the rest of the interview in his living room and wrapped around 2:00pm. The next day I mostly again just captured general wild track at the gym, which then followed by another interview with a older trainer and the founder of the organisation. This was all wrapped up bu 2pm that Sunday.

 

Throughout the production I worked most closely with my fellow sound recordist Amy Warnes. She was instrumental in helping me with the interviews as one of us had to record it while the other check the sound levels and sound mixed on the fly. But this cooperation only took place generally during the interviews for the most part as when for example I recorded general wild track she took on the role of camera assistant much more then I did, which to be fair it was mostly due to her higher experience with them.

Professionalism on set was impressively well maintained by I believe myself and from what I could tell the rest of the crew did the same. We did it by simply getting on with the job in the most efficient matter, which to further clarify I carried out my role the best of what I could and took ‘orders’ from the producer(Lauren) and director(Tara) to guide me on what to do. We also made sure to be respectable to the members of the gym and give them appropriate space and permission to film them and the contributors for the interview. This interaction with the rest of the crew taught me that a mixture of your own initiative and the guidance of other results in a level of progress that gets things in the best manner.

It was interesting learning how interconnected all the roles are on set .This was apparent in terms of the coordination with the sound operators trying to find the best capture points for audio while staying out the way of the camera operators shots while there being directed by the director. It was also easy to rely on the producers to find out about the schedule and helping to coordinate the effort on with the contributors. Because of all this the crew worked really well together and the interactions between each other was both friendly and constructive.

The pressures that came from working on this shoot were a mixed bag that gradually faded as my confidence grew throughout the shoot. The initial one was trying not to get in the way of the gym members activities, luckily thanks to the reassurance that they all signed permission slips I knew as long as I did not physically encroach too much I had the confidence to get the audio of them I wanted. The other pressure was staying quite as possible during interview which I managed to do by just occupying myself with my role and keeping aware of my surroundings. Another challenge was keeping in line with the schedule we set out with as interview were moved around on the time frame a bit it became difficulty in figuring how to adjust it on the fly which we the team managed to quickly shift the schedule without really interfering with the flow of the shoot.

I felt throughout the shoot that I fitted in to the crew like a cog in a machine, doing my job while keeping in line with the others. From working with my partnered sound opperator to coordinating with the camera operators and taking guidance from both the director and producers.

Audio Feedback –

I believe the feedback I given was both true and enlightening. I thought I for the most part I got on with the job I had to do while trying to keep interactions with the crew friendly and relying on my on initiative which team seemed to agree with. Though they revealed that what what I consider friendly conversation might come across as bit incentive, foe example I commented on the strange sound that was peaked up on the recorder when the interviewee was talking, luckily she wasn’t insulted but the crew afterwards commented on what I said and I took that information to heart.

When I came to the BFI I had decent experience of production due working on smaller production with friends and projects at college, but I had never done such a interview heavy documentary in the past which gave a unique experience and allowed me the use equipment I wasn’t all too familiar with. To give a specific example I had never used radio mics before which involved teaching the interviewees how to put them on and figuring out the best position on the person would be. While simultaneously setting up the boom pole with the shotgun mic for the a interview and communicating with the camera crew as to not be in shot.

Overall I feel the shoot for the most part went off without a hitch due to great planning, teamwork and vision we had for this documentary. To elaborate further on what went well, we managed to capture everything we set out for, there were no accidents or injuries thanks to our vigilance and risk assessment, we captured the gym in its most natural state due to giving gym members respect of there personal space, audio quality for all the interviews was captured is good quality and I felt like i gained a lot of relative experience for the interview I wish to develop in. But I also learned of needing to improve on professionalism when it comes to talking to contributors as what the rest of the crew may find to be ‘banter’ they might fing it a bit inconsiderate (luckily she didn’t) which the crew thankfully informed me of the possibility. Also on a final note I hope take these skills and utilise them in a bigger industry standard environment.