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Filming Day 1: The Skatepark

The Skatepark.

Our first shoot for the project was on 9th October. We went to the skate park to film an interview with the owner Kathy, and 2 people who attend the park, both called Jack.
When we first arrived, we set up the equipment, checked that all the sound equipment was working properly, and took GVs and a buzz track of outside the park.
We then took the equipment inside and started setting up for the first interview with Kathy. Alan arrived so I stood with Alan helping him practice what he was going to say and going through the cue cards with him while Ebony and Harvey set up the shot with the guidance of Esme. This was easy enough, as I stood in for Kathy during the practice so that we weren't wasting too much of her time, and this helped to check the lighting on the subjects. We ended up only needing one of the aperture lights, as the lighting in the room was pretty bright already.
Once everyone was happy with the setup and Alan felt practiced enough, we brought Kathy in for the interview. We wanted to get the interview in 1 shot (so that it was more like a real live interview) and we managed to do so. The length of the interview was about 1.40 which gave us 20 seconds to do the live introduction of the skateboarding package, which worked out well.
 I created a model of how our interview with Kathy was set up, as we were able to put our workshops into action by using what we had learned for lighting and interviews. We put a lot of space behind the subjects so that a slightly more shallow depth of field could be created. This also gave room in the other direction so that Ebony, the camera operator, could move the camera into positions that would get the best angles on both Alan and Kathy. We also used our knowledge of lighting, partly from the green-screen workshop, to make sure that the subjects were lit properly but quickly, to imitate a live interview.
Once we had filmed Kathy's introduction we interviewed the first Jack in a vox pop style for the package, asking him questions such as why he goes to the skatepark and what he enjoys about it. This also went smoothly. We then interviewed the second Jack upstairs in a quieter area of the park. Jack was very shy which made this interview a bit more difficult. We did 2 takes where Jack was looking down or away a lot and I could see he was uncomfortable with eye contact so for the 3rd take, I asked him to look at the back of my chair when answering the questions. This worked a bit better as he raised his head slightly more and after 3 tries of asking the same questions I think he felt slightly more comfortable answering as he knew what to expect. We settled for the 3rd take as I didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable for too long and we moved onto GVs.
The shoot lasted about 2 hours. We arrived early so we had plenty of time for setting up outside. We got everything that we needed but we will still be returning to the skatepark for the last time on 16/10 to shoot some more GVs at the park and ensure that we have everything we need. This will be a much more relaxed shoot with no scripts to be shooting.

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