It's a wrap!!

I must say after the first two days being pretty straight forward I found the last two stressful. But then the pressure starts to build because you're trying to concentrate on what to film? have I missed any shots? and keeping an eye on the story.

Tuesday was the night shoot which made me uneasy before I had even got there which didn't help. On the way there me and the editor/sound sat in with Phil and his son whilst driving to try and record them just chatting casually as Phil always sticks to talking about his work when the camera is on and I wanted him to relax more. The more we filmed the more I got to see the real Phil. The journey took much longer than he had told us so before we started filming the light was disappearing. We did an interview with Matt sanders, which started off really well but after my questions I was ready to pick up the pace and get the actuality of them setting up before it was too dark. The producer and me disagreed on this situation, she wanted to continue the interview but I knew I needed this scene and we didn't have the time before it got too dark to film. In an ideal world we would have done the interview again or gone back to do it but we didn't have time on our side. The night shoot was tiring and we didn't get back until quite late, I have noticed more so than on other shoots, that being on location is tiring.

Wednesday was our last day, after feeling very tense from the night before I wasn't at first looking forward to filming. We had a break in the day where I could work out what was left to shoot before we met up with Phil  in the early evening to finish the shoot. I got the producer to ask some final questions we wanted to get out of Phil and then headed off for our final interview with a guy who used to work in the military. This felt all secretive as we have to blur out his face and distort his voice to keep him from being identified. I was thrown  off by his answers of "no comment" and "can we move on to another question" as what I had prepared were going to get the same response. I had to re think and got the producer to help as he had thrown me off track.

I have definitely found this role very difficult and can now understand why when I worked on the strip doc the director was panicking and I couldn't see why. Even when things are going well there is always in the back of your mind the pressure is on the director to deliver. At times I found it hard but have felt I have been given a great opportunity to try a new role, which at first I was surprised I convinced myself to do it but if you don't push yourself now, then going into the industry you will just sink!

Rob skype

This doc has been quite hard to work on, mainly with the crew not knowing what role they were going to do, the camera man was going to maybe direct which shifted everyone's roles. This put me a little bit uneasy, because I couldn't see a role for me in this crew and have now started to re think what I'm working on and have started to look for ideas for my second role, rather than just doing a camera skills portfolio because I feel I have more to offer.

After the crewing going back to the original team, we had our first Skype call with Rob. This call went well with lots of contacts given to us. My main concern is that they don't really link to the story we are going for, we have a lot of contacts for cycling which is great but not helpful when we want to concentrate on BMXing. He is our way in, which seems he has some contacts but not as strong as I had previously expected after him having calls with the director. I thought we had links to the GB team which doesn't seem to be the case now after the call, Rob is a fanatic about cycling and BMXing but I'm worried he's concentrating too much on nice visuals and not what's television but we shall see what happens.

Crit time, once again.

Again, crit screening approaches and time to hear feedback on the two projects I've been part of.

Firstly, Stripping for a living looked good on the big screen and it was nice to see it on a screen which isn't in a tiny edit room. Waiting for feedback was tense because of the huge effort the group has put in as a whole. Feedback felt more personal as we had so many let downs when making this documentary and seeing it into an edit felt like an amazing payoff. The feedback from the crit included positive comments about the shots used and general good consensus of it being a strong piece. The downfalls were about the contributors stories. I must admit I felt I needed to defend this as gaining access into a club to film is hard. Twofour did this over months with lawyers and for me and the director to gain access in 3 weeks and being students was a massive achievement. When we heard that home life would have made it better, I agree it would have made it more into a documentary as it is something that would probably be a taster tape in the industry but due to time constraints and lack of trust we made the best use of our time.

Finally, Young and Pissed didn't give the audience enough to make full comments as we only had the opening  sequence. The feedback was again positive and constructive, it said it looked promising which is good because I have wondered what the outcome would be like due to time. However, some comments and questions threw the director as the storyline still doesn't seem set. Working on the edit with the team after the crit finally started to see something come together, we had to be more decisive as we are still way behind of schedule. Hopefully, tomorrow will bring something stronger to the table.

London, first day filming not as we expected.

Today, we were meant to be filming, with previous contributors pushing our filming schedule back the heat was on. For instance, the manager from Central chambers went away on holiday so we had to re organise for Sunday 11th, and Gigi had re arranged due to mishap with hair extensions.

However, just a case of bad luck, Gigi has gone to a + e, due to pain she has been getting from her breast implants. Even with all the pre production we have done, me and the director had not been prepared for something we had no control over. We just hope Gigi gets better and that we can get to interview her as soon as she is fit and well. As well as that Paige who we previously hoped to interview hasn't got back to me after numerous calls, texts and voicemails. Will just have to keep trying!!!

Set back to filming

One bit of advice that we were given by Sophie Alcock, assistant producer for Twofour, was that lap dancers can sometimes be unreliable.

We have found that out today, when I went to double check that filming on Tuesday in Bristol was OK I got a reply from the manager saying she was in Greece. Definitely something I didn't expect to hear when I emailed her. So, we've got a slight set back on  that part but will try and film them asap.

On the plus side we managed to get in contact with Gigi and Paige from Table Dancing Diaries who are willing to talk to us on camera about their lives, so in one way we've hit jackpot and only put ourselves back a bit. Just need to make sure we keep in contact with them all to make we get the footage needed!!!

Ring round!

Your probably wondering how we're doing for contributors for the stripping project...well...
 after having meetings for the project 'young and pissed' we are all feeling confident about finding bars, restaurants and people that drink to be part of our documentary. My worries are  around 'Stripping for the kids'!

Researching around the subject is easy but after calling many most seem to not answer their phones, which makes it more tense for the director and I. Some however, are polite to say they're not interested, and on one occasion one lady was very rude but I think that's expected when asking a huge amount for such a difficult topic. But there is a silver lining, Rachel from Platinum Club in Bristol sounded intrigued and seems to really like the idea so we shall see!

On the plus side, I managed to get in contact with the assistant producer from 'Table dancing diaries' BBC3, TwoFour, who is happy to talk to me about the series and has always mentioned this to the director who is also willing to help with advice. Just looking forward to asking some questions when it comes to gaining trust, tackling a difficult topic and about whether they had access prior to filming.

Here's a link to information about 'table dancing diaries'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01b1y1n

New module, new projects!

New module started with a great result back from our previous documentary, looking forward to starting the next projects!

This time round we are asked to work on two productions, working on one was hard enough, trying to organise ourselves and work in difficult situations. But this time we're stepping it up, always ready for a new challenge.

In continuation with improving my camera skills, I've taken on the role of camera operator for a project called 'Young and Pissed' , yes I will be filming drunk people! This again will push my boundaries as you see on programmes like 'Party Paramedics' CH 4 and 'Sun, Sex and Suspicious parents' BBC3, filming people that are drunk isn't easy. This will require me to use hand held techniques and on camera lighting for night filming as well as avoiding violence and vomit.

The hardest role I've taken, which is new to me, is to be the producer on a project called 'Stripping for the kids'. This was influenced by the programme 'Table dancing diaries' BBC3 by TwoFour. This is the most challenging subject matter to tackle so we shall see if we can find some contributors!! wish me good luck!

That's a wrap!

Final day of shooting has approached and the footage is all in the bag.

Throughout this process of getting the shots needed for the script, I have learnt alot. Not just about how to shoot in certain situations but I have become more aware of why we are making this documentary.

The 2012 Olympics is approaching and swimming is more than just a life skill, its something to do for fitness and fun and brings people a lot confidence. I feel that our documentary fits the 'why now?' question as it will challenge the statistic of  '1 in 5 children can't swim in the UK' and not everyone may have known this before, bringing awareness to the audience.

To find out more about how to get involved go to:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sportrelief/bigsplash/