Group Project - Film day - Somerset Legion House

So we're on to filming, the first location we went to film was the Somerset legion house, in the Weston-Super-Mare. The filming for this location was carried out during the Easter holidays. This first part of any filming day is making sure that you arrive at your location well prepared, as things don’t always go to plan.



So on the film day, Monish and I had to carry out all the filming duties, as Dan was unable to get the day off work, and we were unable to arrange a different date with the staff. From the start this made the ordeal twice as hard, as one of us would have to do two things at once.



So Monish and I planned to meet an hour before our expected arrival (we arranged to be there for 2pm) so in the morning I eagerly awaited for Monish to arrive and pick me, and the equipment up from my house. Then we packed the equipment in the car, and just before we drove off, I decided to check the camera. From the word go, things were off to a bad start, due to age ware of the camera, the eject button fell off, therefore making it unusable. Monish and I we’re in a state of panic.



The only option was had was to get the second camera from Dan’s house, and as we was at work, we had a 50/50 chance of his dad being at home to let us in and give us the equipment. Luckily he was there to give us the equipment, and took a little bit of weight off our shoulders.

With time running out, we still had to correct some issues, we had spare DV tapes to use for the interviews, but unsure if we had enough tape to film on, we decided to pick up three more DV tapes from the local Tesco super-store. Fortunately it was only a two minute drive from Dan’s house. However the parking proved a problem, we were left waiting for a space for some while. In the end we managed to purchase the tapes and get to the Somerset legion house bang on 2pm.



So we were introduced the people staying at the legion house, we were then made aware of the people who were interested in being interviewed. We were quite happy to have a good handful of people happy to take part. Today I had two roles; to be the camera operator, as well as being the interviewer.

I spoke to each interviewee making sure they knew what was going to happen, giving them an overlook of the questions we were going to ask. I also made it clear to them that if they are any questions they feel uncomfortable to answer; they are to inform us and will respect their decision. While I was talking them through, Monish was setting up the interview locations ready to start.



The interviews went well, but of course, there were some good and bad ones, but that’s always going to happen. The positive was that we gained interviews, which we knew would be usable to the documentary. All in all, a good day’s work in the field. Although without Dan, it was slightly difficulty controlling the camera while interviewing.