Beyond the Boundaries 14: Day of Shoot

The day of the shoot began by meeting at Roman Way and getting a taxi unfortunately it was late however we managed to get the 11:30am train on time. We arrived around 1:30pm, later than expected, and started setting up. After a few chats with Mike, introducing myself and chatting about my project. We began setting up and people starting turning up. The issues around the time was sorting out the sound situation and finding individual ex-members to interview. Unfortunately we could only conduct one interview due to soundcheck's lasting over an hour, meaning by the time everything was set up and we interviewed Buffalo Fish (Guitarist was the ex-member of Iron Maiden), we needed to move the cameras and equipment to near the stage, to film the performance. What also took time was to get the band to sign appearance forms, which was signed via Thomas' tablet, as unfortunately I misplaced the permission forms. The sound of the performance was a short-lasting issue, which was resolved by the sound tech, Chris, who connected the Zoom recorder via 2 1/4 jack connections to a normal jack, going straight into the Zoom to get the best professional sound from the instruments.

We then began to film the first act, however the first act was not 'Maiden related, but we filmed parts of their performance as reference in relation to the events taking place during the day. After each performance, we had a 10-15 minute break to check over footage, check the camera settings i.e. battery life and memory capacity and so on. During this time Thomas also filmed other aspects of the event, such as the crowd of die-hard fans, memorabilia and instruments and some of the ex-members interacting with fans. This allowed me to have a variation of images, rather than just live music performances and interviews.

 'Buffalo Fish' performing their set at the Plough and Harrow. 

 Thomas and Lauren shooting the event. 

The filming of the performances was effective, following the necessary schedule and using both handheld and static camera techniques, to give a fluidity and variation of shots to work with. Throughout the day the battery of the EX3 lasted, however the EX1 battery needed replacing once.The batteries on the zoom however needed replacing almost every 45 minutes, so I decided to check frequently the battery life left, and between performances I changed batteries. This was done 3 times. After the last performance at 9:30pm I called up a taxi to pick us up for 10:00pm and during that 30 minute gap we packed up efficiently and quickly and I said my goodbye's to everyone I had met. We then travelled back to farnham and got a taxi back from the station.

I feel the shoot was a success, however I feel I need to do a more detailed plan of action next time. For my first directorial shoot, I feel I did well in giving instructions to the crew in relation to the shots I would like and the image I am going for, in addition to speaking to several people about my idea and getting contacts. Next time I would also dedicate 10-15 minute slots for each interview and arrange specific times, rather than having to round up the band members to conduct an interview. I also feel I should've thought more on the spot and acted quicker in some instances, for instance it took a while to sort the sound of the performances out because I was busy trying to conduct interviews and brief my crew. This may have been prevented by perhaps working with a bigger crew. The experience for me was very helpful, and gave me an insight into where my project could progress to and how I should go about approaching certain things.

 Panoramic view of the event.