Several emails and texts later we arranged for the first interview to be shot in the college studio. However, we still had virtually no input from the HE students as to the interview or general feel of the shoot so we decided to go into the studio the day before the shoot to set it up and attempt to light it as we thought it should. This however caused some amount of confusion as we had obviously got mixed messages as to what the general feel should be. One group had been told light and positive, the other group were told formal so we obviously were struggling to agree and so advice was sought from Brian, the media department technician who in his unique style took over everything and set it up how he thought it should be (no disrespect intended - he is an extremely talented man). At this point I made the decision to step out of the studio as I did not want to cause any conflict but in my mind I knew it just wasn't right. I do however wish that I had stood my ground, but being relatively new to the filming side of things I bowed to those who had the experience in this field.
The next morning we met up in the studio and quickly set it up but it was still niggling at the back of my mind that it just didn't feel right, it was far too dark and formal and I felt that as the intention was to focus on the positivity of the work done by CANW the whole atmosphere needed to be lighter, this time one of the other crew members agreed with me. At this point Brian entered the gallery and obviously catching part of this conversation asked us what was wrong. I decided that I had to speak my mind and explained that based on the limited information that I had got that I felt that the setup and lighting were all wrong and was basically told that I should have had the balls to say so the day before as Brian had been given the opposite information and had gone with that. At this point Jamie arrived Just as Brian was mid flow and asked what the problem was. We explained and Jamie advised us that if we weren't happy then it was up to us to sort it that is the nature of the business and that we had to be professional and take control. So a quick brainstorm later we decided to take it out of the studio and onto a more light and relaxed location - Scholars restaurant, after all it could still be a formal interview in a relaxed atmosphere. We quickly got the location kit over to the restaurant and rigged up ready for the guests to arrive, hospitality was organised,roles were decided and we were ready to go as they arrived. The shoot ran smoothly and it was commented that it was done very professionally all in all a good mornings shoot.
Lessons were also learned -
I need to go with my instincts and have the conviction to speak my mind.
We are training to be industry professionals, as such we need to BE professional and take control of the shoots so that they run the way WE want them to run. If it's not right, say so and change it
Don't be afraid to leave the studio behind and shoot on location - something we are working on for the next shoots.
After the shoot, two more were booked in and so we had a meeting to decide where to shoot them. I attempted to contact CANW to see about doing another test shoot at the old orphanage but this is not possible due to their workload over the Christmas period so we have decided to seek out locations on the College site. We finally decided on the 6th form common room for the shoot with a family of service users as it is more comfortable and the two interviews with the CANW staff will be shot in one of the college offices at the suggestion of Jamie.
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