(MP3002) individual Project Log 18 23/12/08 - Shoot Journal

Filming went well today! I think both myself and Paul are learning very quickly. Last weeks shoot provided us with many lessons to learn and many questions to ask! This week we were much better organized and I felt we communicated really well. We have began to get over our initial trepidation around working with Brian, he was more than happy to pause whilst we framed a shot or changed angles - and boy can he talk! I had with me all the notes from the previous weeks filming and was able to pick up things that I'd either missed or needed to shoot again like wild track and noddy shots. Also in the notebook were plans for this weeks shoot, which i'd planned for winter solstice. Unfortunately due to illness the schedule has been pushed back by three weeks and the solstice ritual will be mocked up and not on the 21st as i'd hoped previously. This week we went to Compton Dundon on an expedition to collect material to make esoteric tools for the solstice ritual.


This week we made a change to the set up. Instead of using the boom mic we went for a clip mic on Brian and a shotgun mic on the front of the Z1. This allowed me to be in the film and direct Paul as to what shots and angles i required. It worked really well especially in the car where the engine noise was so loud.


Even though the shot gun mic volume had peaked the clip mic due to its proximity to brian, captured sound perfectly. We wrapped up the shoot with a drink in the local pub, a beautiful 17th century inn.


Whilst we were there I asked Paul to take some exterior shots because we could cut them together with the skittles scene i'd shot the week before. This way of working i think, is the advantage of a film maker who is editing as well as filming as he can shoot to edit. I recently had a 121 with Nic Jeune, who suggested I could include myself in the documentary as an interviewer and participant. I have been wrestling with this idea for a couple of weeks now as part of me can see the benefit of it. Having me in the documentary would certainly fill up time. But then, i'm not making this documentary to fill up time. I'm making this film to tell a story and after watching the rushes back with my brother who came home over xmas i have decided to keep my onscreen involvement down to a minimum. Most of my presents in the film will come from off screen. I will ask questions off camera. I wont be onscreen as an interviewer. This decision will mean I need to go back and re-shoot some stuff and spend much more time filming Brian. It will also free me up to operate the boom mic. I need to get under his skin and into his life! I am planning to spend the first two weeks of January following him around. I have also been planning the mock ceremony of which brian has enlisted the help of his druidic apprentice. Add him and Brian's wife Mary to the project and I now have a possible two more characters! That reminds me, I must print out two more contributer forms for them... I will post plans for the solstice ceremony as they develop.