25th September 2019 – Planning (Pre-Production)

As I hadn’t filmed a purely handheld documentary before and hadn’t been out with the equipment at all during the course up to this stage I decided to get familiar again with the equipment by borrowing it and taking it up to the 10^th floor of the collage.  This is where I practised using the same model of camera which would be available to film our documentary in October.  It was a model I were unfamiliar with so I printed off instructions from the My City page to help familiarise myself with its setting and various functions.  I was also able to use the shoulder mount and practice holding the camera steady for the interviews.  However it became quickly apparent this is an area which I must improve with as the shots I gathered weren’t the smoothest.  This was vital knowledge to gain prior to going out filming on location as it would have been disastrous to identify this as an area of weakness after recording important interview with contributors so I felt the best place to practice and improve my camera skills weren’t not during the filming stage of the documentary.  However even in the short time trying the camera I was much more confident with the buttons and the setting on the camera,  this highlights there is no substitute for borrowing a camera and simply practising.  Unquestionably in the further I will borrow the camera again to try and improve on one of my areas of weakness for any future projects. In further to I will consult various online tutorials before practicing to try and help improve my learning curve within this aspect of film making.