Bel’s film writeup 21.06.24

For our day of filming we predominantly focused on gathering a range of shot sequences for our Priaulx interview. Due to unforeseen circumstances it was difficult as we were unsure if we would be able to do the shot due to me being injured, however after a group discussion we were able to arrange transport both there and back. For this shoot we had much more preparation than the first due to the fact we met over lunchtimes and also had thorough communication on our group chat, by the time we got there it was 9.45 so we worked on getting some of our retakes of our establishing shots and I made sure that they were perfectly framed up with the help of our editor Izzy for the lower angles.  

Regarding our establishing shots, originally on the shot list we had planned to do the shot on the right, however due to lighting and also the colour grading we established that the shot on the left was significantly better, which is why I’m glad we framed so many different shots.

attached here is the original shot list, in the end however, our storyboard ended up quite different to it as we had to make sure we covered different scenarios and angles.

For the Priaulx shot,perhaps it went wrong  due to the equipment. For filming these shots we primarily used the tripod with a phone mount attached in order to achieve steady footage. However, for a couple of shots, we instead chose to use the shoulder mount fitted with a phone one of which being the shot on the right, we thought that this would be better as it meant that we could easily go from the bottom of the sign to the top, but in the end due to the weather it just drained the footage and made it too bright, therefore we ended up using the shot on the left for the establishing.

After this we then entered the Priaulx library and were greeted by all the staff and our interviewee who was named Sarah Ferbrache. Sarah and all of us discussed how to sort out our shots and also the environment in which we were going to film in, Sarah was very understanding as all of us managed to adapt to making sure I could move around without hurting my injury. We then looked over our shot list and started unpacking our equipment and began framing up our shot angles with both of our tripods. In order to make sure we had the best quality for the interview we all had to cooperate together to get all of our equipment ready, Izzy and Rin were practising using the boom and sound recorder as we hadn’t used it for our previous shoot, we therefore then checked everything was okay and started our shoot.

 

 Looking back at the footage we did however end up having some difficulties, especially with background noises such as traffic. Whilst filming on Rin’s camera it was difficult as when we looked back at the footage it was extremely grainy and was unable to be fixed which was a shame as the angle it was filmed at was really nice and helped establish the environment the interviewee was in. 

With my footage also, it was difficult for Izzy to export onto Adobe as the colours on premiere ended up being strange,however with a bit of TLC and experimenting with tools we all fixed it together. With our different interview shots we did a few as testers but then once we got into the groove of it our interviewee was wonderful, I enjoyed this experience as a cinematographer as I learned many different things which I could do with a tripod, experimented with pedding and also made sure I listened back to see if any of our shots were useable. 

After we had finished our interview we had a chat with our interviewee and looked over our shots to see if we had to retake any but in the end they were all wonderful. We then looked at different environments in Priaulx and redid our stained glass window shots using a shoulder mount and also filmed different artefacts that the library had. The grimoires however were the highlight of our visit, the grimoires were wonderful as they were from around the 1600s and we got lots of high angle shots and also close up shots of the drawings which I found fascinating and fun, doing our interview helped us with our knowledge and also helped us establish lots of ideas for shots which I will be filming at the trepied. 

As we wanted to get as much shots as we could, the interviewee then took us into the grimoire room which is a restricted room full of old books. This was great to go to as it helped me add lots of different shots, one of my favourite ones being when we entered the room and had to unlock the door, which gave it more of a spooky vibe. I also managed to get some different shots of the different types of books in the Grimoire room and all of us found this interesting as it definitely fitted the vibe of our documentary. 

In the end we then eventually went out of the library and filmed a couple of our shots, we had inspiration from the BBC and got a shot of Izzy and Rin both walking into the Priaulx, we also got our establishing shots of the Priaulx and then headed back to upload our footage to our drive folder. Overall our Priaulx visit was really beneficial and a wonderful experience for me to develop my confidence as a cinematographer.