Practical Skills
I will experiment with using my drone and practising flying techniques such as pano shots and follow shots to prepare for shooting. I will use a reflector when filming so what I will need to do is find ways to use it. I haven't used one before so this will be a great learning experience for me so, I need to learn how to use it properly by searching on the internet. Another thing that I need to learn how to use is audio. Getting the audio right for this project especially is crucial. The noises of the car/cars and obviously me talking while doing the stand-up and voice-overs are going to need to be good obviously. I already have experience with using a dead cat and making foley as well. For me, in this project, it won't be foley so much as a real sound that needs to be captured at that moment.
In this video, I learned that I need to use the sun to bounce light off of the reflector. It is typically used outside and when you are filming in daylight. If you have lights then you can bounce off of them but the sun is usually more reliable since it is pure light. I need to do this in the right place and time if I am using the sun because it has to be opposite the light source so for me opposite the sun If I am shooting a moving car in a moving car. To create perfect light you have to move it on and off the object, you are trying to brighten. I know that in editing I can brighten the video which will be used but it is better to have a clean and well-lit shot rather than rely on the computer to do it for you.
When I am doing my stand up part, I shouldn't put the reflector below my face I have to have it above my head. I don't want to have a weird shadow coming up from underneath, I also don't want to be blinded. I think that I'd need a gold reflector to match the sun and to not make myself too bright by using a white one. A white one is great for the car but the gold one will be much better for the colour of my skin so that the lighting is a lot more natural. If I use my white reflector, however, I can warm the image up in editing.
I learned that I have to fly fast and close, crop in post-production, speed up footage in post-production, zoom in post-production and plan my shoot. I have to fly close to make the car look like it is going fast and zoom in as well on the footage in post-production because with a drone you have a fixed wide angle field of view. If I zoom I it will look like I am flying much closer than I actually am. I also will be able to do this because I have a 1080p quality on my drone so I won't need to worry about zooming in especially because I'm not shooting in 4K. If I speed up the footage then I will be able to make it look like the car is going a lot faster than it actually is. If I film slowly I can be more exact with the position of the camera making it look a lot better when speeded up. I have to make sure there is no-one walking as well so that it won't give away the fact that I have speeded it up.
In audio, I will have to get the sound of the car, me talking in voice-overs and stand up, also I will need to record people in interviews as well. I will record fill noises, for example, people talking in a crowd and other cars on the road and birds in the background when filming in the countryside to make the image of peace. Music is a different thing altogether since this could also be used as fill noise. I want to be accurate with the noises that I record. I don't want to record the car speeding up and the find out that the sound climaxed when it had already gone past me. With this tip, I can record it the whole way around with or without me standing by the car waiting for to around the corner for example. I find this useful and I am sure of trying it. If it works it will be a valuable asset to the making of this film and will play a huge part in impressive audio. I how to get this right and I will put a lot of effort into getting this trick to work. If it doesn't because the Caterham has the exhaust next to the driver then I will have to go back to recording it by the car and in the car which could still work.
Car photography is new to me so watching this video from a professional car photographer definitely helped. I plan to do some standing shots of the Caterham so learning these helped. Apart from the fact that it is open wheeled and a different shape of a usual car I can learn from this video and get tips like I have done. I learned that I have to have the outer rim facing me and getting both high and low shots are important. I need to capture the racing element as well as the good looking side of the Caterham. What I will do to achieve this is, get close-ups of the suspension at the from as well as the grill and the racing crossbars. I will also show the doors as they are optional so two shots with them on and off. I think that this is possible because I have a lot of time in this film because I have to make it 25-30 minutes which gives me a lot of time to put these standing artistic shots in. I know that if I use slow camera panoramic close-up shots I will be able to speed it up just like the drone footage.
Directors Roundtable
When I saw this concept created by Hollywood Reporter about having A-list directors who are Oscar Nominees sit around the table and talk about film and movies, I was instantly intrigued. In 34:07 David. O. Russel talks about Documentary which is what I am doing and what he says it; "It opens up worlds within worlds" which is true. The same can be said about my idea. I think that the best thing about my documentary is that there is so much about Caterham that people don't know. You could make an entirely different Documentary about Colin Chapman and his life leading to Lotus and Caterham. I think you could also do another whole Documentary just focusing on the Caterham Community or the Caterham Racing and many more things that will be covered in the course of my film. I think that this is not only true but also very informative to me if I were to take this a step further and make another or a series of Caterham Documentaries. This supports what he later said; "Good movies have many movies within them" causing everyone at the table to agree. This is basically the same thing but what he means is that there are potential franchises within any good idea.
Vox pop tips
I studied how to get vox pops shot and recorded right to go into my shoot with confidence. I will ask them their name so I can put it on the screen next to them, which is another thing that the video suggested since this will also be a good audio test. Watching this, I learned that I must switch up the perspective so that means changing which side of the screen the person you are interviewing is on (cross axis). This helps keep the audience concentrated and intrigued because the subject is moving. This is different, however, to Batman: The Dark Knight when Batman is interrogating the Joker and the right over shoulder shot represents good and left means that they are in the wrong. Having this front facing over shoulder shot could mean a lot of things. I won't be biased and put them on the right if I think their answer is wrong or unrelated because that isn't for me to decide. I think that I will do it depending on the previous shot and where they were then. I have to pick a decently quiet and interesting background for the viewers' effect but I think finding a quiet place will be the most difficult considering that I will only be interviewing people based on who I can find to interview, this may result in me having to put the mic a little bit closer to block out the background noise and focus on what the person is saying.
What will I ask for the vox pops/interviews?
It is simple, I will ask the person who I interview 'What do you love about Caterham' Now this question begs many answers as I know most people will say the cars and the community. If you own one of these cars (which will be most people at the event) they would say that, so would I. I think that these people wouldn't know a lot about things like the academy and F1 since some of them could be new to the community but no one will ever say that about F1 since it was embarrassing for Caterham since they couldn't afford it so no one ever brings it up. I have come up with a few questions not just the one so that I can specify what my point is in my film which is teaching people about Caterham since they aren't a very well heard of brand. I will also ask, 'What makes Caterham unique and why has a Super-Car like this slipped under the radar?'. The answers will be very interesting since I couldn't predict what people are going to say. This will be valid to the point of my film and they will be expressing that through this question since it is the topic. I know that a lot of people who have Caterhams don't think of them as Super-Cars but the stats are there to show. They could be confused and just say something like 'It's a Sunday car' in which they are absolutely right but that depends on the version you get so this tells me that I will have to pick my targets to ask these questions to. When or if I ask a worker they will give me a more expansive and informational answer and I will also ask them 'Why do you love Caterham and what makes it so great?' which is similar to my last question to the public 'Why do you have a Caterham, what made you get drawn to it?'. This is the icing on the cake since this will enable me not just to find what the community love about it but what the actual workers think. That is a valuable thing since it is forcing them to love the cars and give a good answer but it will also help prove my point and show the audience what Caterham is about and why peole have them.
Directors Roundtable
When I saw this concept created by Hollywood Reporter about having A-list directors who are Oscar Nominees sit around the table and talk about film and movies, I was instantly intrigued. In 34:07 David. O. Russel talks about Documentary which is what I am doing and what he says it; "It opens up worlds within worlds" which is true. The same can be said about my idea. I think that the best thing about my documentary is that there is so much about Caterham that people don't know. You could make an entirely different Documentary about Colin Chapman and his life leading to Lotus and Caterham. I think you could also do another whole Documentary just focusing on the Caterham Community or the Caterham Racing and many more things that will be covered in the course of my film. I think that this is not only true but also very informative to me if I were to take this a step further and make another or a series of Caterham Documentaries. This supports what he later said; "Good movies have many movies within them" causing everyone at the table to agree. This is basically the same thing but what he means is that there are potential franchises within any good idea.
Vox pop tips
I studied how to get vox pops shot and recorded right to go into my shoot with confidence. I will ask them their name so I can put it on the screen next to them, which is another thing that the video suggested since this will also be a good audio test. Watching this, I learned that I must switch up the perspective so that means changing which side of the screen the person you are interviewing is on (cross axis). This helps keep the audience concentrated and intrigued because the subject is moving. This is different, however, to Batman: The Dark Knight when Batman is interrogating the Joker and the right over shoulder shot represents good and left means that they are in the wrong. Having this front facing over shoulder shot could mean a lot of things. I won't be biased and put them on the right if I think their answer is wrong or unrelated because that isn't for me to decide. I think that I will do it depending on the previous shot and where they were then. I have to pick a decently quiet and interesting background for the viewers' effect but I think finding a quiet place will be the most difficult considering that I will only be interviewing people based on who I can find to interview, this may result in me having to put the mic a little bit closer to block out the background noise and focus on what the person is saying.
What will I ask for the vox pops/interviews?
It is simple, I will ask the person who I interview 'What do you love about Caterham' Now this question begs many answers as I know most people will say the cars and the community. If you own one of these cars (which will be most people at the event) they would say that, so would I. I think that these people wouldn't know a lot about things like the academy and F1 since some of them could be new to the community but no one will ever say that about F1 since it was embarrassing for Caterham since they couldn't afford it so no one ever brings it up. I have come up with a few questions not just the one so that I can specify what my point is in my film which is teaching people about Caterham since they aren't a very well heard of brand. I will also ask, 'What makes Caterham unique and why has a Super-Car like this slipped under the radar?'. The answers will be very interesting since I couldn't predict what people are going to say. This will be valid to the point of my film and they will be expressing that through this question since it is the topic. I know that a lot of people who have Caterhams don't think of them as Super-Cars but the stats are there to show. They could be confused and just say something like 'It's a Sunday car' in which they are absolutely right but that depends on the version you get so this tells me that I will have to pick my targets to ask these questions to. When or if I ask a worker they will give me a more expansive and informational answer and I will also ask them 'Why do you love Caterham and what makes it so great?' which is similar to my last question to the public 'Why do you have a Caterham, what made you get drawn to it?'. This is the icing on the cake since this will enable me not just to find what the community love about it but what the actual workers think. That is a valuable thing since it is forcing them to love the cars and give a good answer but it will also help prove my point and show the audience what Caterham is about and why peole have them.
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