Filming in the City Centre

On Wednesday the 7th of December I met Baily on West Street to film the city and train station shots. We were using the same equipment we used in the Peak District so all the shots would look similar. We decided to shoot in West Street as it offers vast views across the city towards the countryside from side streets leading off it. These would work as almost teasing shots before the Peak District Footage to show what was to come. West Street was also a good location as it is a very busy street with trams, cars, buses and pedestrians which we could use to frame up busy and claustrophobic shots. 

We also ventured down towards the canal as it is quite a gritty location that could act as some in-between shots as the video progresses from the busy city towards the countryside. 

We then went to the train station to film. As the audio ends with sounds of the train station we wanted to begin the video with footage from the train station. We took the camera off the tripod to get more handheld zoomed in footage to convey the claustrophobic feel of it. As we were filming a member of staff came up to us and asked if we had permission to film as it was private property owned by East Midlands. We were honest and told him we didn't at which point he told us to go to the managers office to ask. We went to the managers office and he gave us permission as long as we didn't cross the yellow lines, go down the platform ramps or film members of staff. After this we got a few last shots and then the filming was complete.

Baily filming in the train station

The Finished Product and Presentation

Links:

Video: https://vimeo.com/194732596

Audio: https://soundcloud.com/peter-simison/baily-pete-sound-project



We formally presented the finished film on Monday the 12th of December. We watched the video and then did a short 5 minute power point presentation on the creative process behind it.

The presentation slide show we used
All in all I was quite pleased with the overall film. However in hindsight I think it would have been better to put a bit more time in to actually coming up with the idea as I think our idea was quite generic and unoriginal. Especially after viewing other people's films and presentations I realised the true scope we had with this project.

Editing the Video & Feedback.

We edited the video on Avid Media Composer as this is the industry standard editing software so it is important for us to get used to cutting on it. As both me and Baily are used to using Adobe's Premiere Pro it took a bit longer than we anticipated to edit the video as we were still quite unfamiliar with Media Composer's layout.

We were both present at all times during the edit. We felt this was important as we wanted to share our opinions on how it should flow as we edited. The whole process was a fairly smooth procedure as it was just a case of cutting up the clips. We didn't really want to use any special effects or transitions as we didn't want to distract the audience from the images and sounds. 

We started by editing the first and last parts of the video first. Although this is not a very conventional way of doing it we wanted to focus on these parts most as they show the real juxtaposition against the audio track. They are also the most defining parts that convey the sense of space in the countryside scenes and also the lack of sense of space for the city shots. After we had successfully edited these shots we then went through the process of filling in the middle. I felt this was where our film lacked a bit as we were starting to run out of footage slightly here so the footage we did use was not our best.

After the video was edited we had an informal feedback session where we showed the film to our seminar group and everyone gave one piece of feedback. The feedback was generally positive. People noted how they liked the way we displayed footage of fountains over the sounds of water. Some people told us how they liked the contrast of shots from the beginning and the end. Others said they liked the variety of different locations. One person noted how they liked the use of a pull focus from a distant bridge to a close up of a dead rat by the canal. The most overwhelming feedback though was the appreciation of the contrast of the sounds and the image being shown over the top. 

Filming in the Peak District

I met with Baily on Monday the 28th to start shooting the footage for the countryside section. 

For equipment, we used:

Canon XF305

This films in HD and has an impressive zoom which would give us a lot of lee-way in terms of what shots we could get. It has 3 sensors which means it picks up colours very well.

Manfrotto Tripod

A standard reliable tripod with a fluid head for smooth pans. 

Zoom H5

A small and compact audio recorder capable of recording in 48Khz and 24bit for good sound quality. A very handy and reliable tool.

AT835ST Microphone

A highly directional stereo mic. This helped capture high quality stereo audio. Having this meant I could pick out sounds and minimise background noise.

I booked out the equipment for that morning and then travelled on tram with it to meet Baily in Hillsborough. From there we travelled in Baily's car to the peak district. Once we arrived, we pulled into numerous lay-bys, as we saw shots that stuck out to us, to film landscape and wildlife footage. It was a clear bright day with blue skies which was perfect to convey the sense of space we were looking for.

I drew inspiration for a few shots from Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1975) in which he will zoom out from what is a close up to a vast wide angle composition. I thought I would try this but zoom in instead. So for instance there is a shot that starts as a wide angle shot with a few sheep in the distance near a lake, the camera then slowly zoom in until the sheep are composed in the foreground with the lake in the background. To do this I picked out the shot in the distance, zoomed in fully and then positioned the camera so the shot was composed how i wanted it. Then I would zoom back out, leaving the camera in the same position and then finally record the camera zooming back in with the target shot positioned in the middle.

Baily operating the camera

Starting the Video Project

After presenting the sound project it was time to start the experimental 3 minute video that the sound project was a basis for. I met with Baily to discuss how we could use the video to incorporate a sense of space and relate to the audio. As the audio piece projected sounds of the countryside slowly transitioning towards the noisy city centre we decided to do the same with the video but reverse the sequence. So instead of starting with footage of the countryside we would start with shots of the city centre and train station which would then progress throughout the video towards shots of the countryside.

We were also careful to decide on the style of the filming and how it would provide the desired effect. As we would start with shots of the train station and the city we wanted to try and convey the noisiness of the setting through the video. To do this we would use some handheld shots to give it a shaky, almost jarring nature. We would also use a lot of telephoto shots just to emphasise how hectic and claustrophobic it was. As the video goes on the footage would progress to locked down, wide angle shots of the countryside. This would would convey the bigger sense of space you get there and the calmness and serenity of it all. All of this would be juxtapositioned against the audio which would be flowing in the opposite way.

We presented these ideas to the group on Monday the 21st. I presented a series of images that conveyed, in the right order, the look I was going for with the video.

A screengrab of our presentation showing the type of imagery we would use