CAMERA WORKSHOP 4: ON LOCATION FILMING

In today's workshop we focused on filming on an exterior location. We were put into groups of 4 and given the task to create a short sequence about anything we wanted in our groups but we needed to consider the location we were working on which was the far car park behind the studios. The main points we were told about working on an outside location were:
- Considering the safety of the crew
- Wearing High visibility jackets to ensure we could be seen by the public and any vehicles
- Check the risks of the location (e.g. trip hazards, vehicles, any dangers to cast of crew, etc.)
- Consistently working at a professional standard in the eyes of the public

We were assigned a camera and sound kit and given our high visibility jackets and sent out to the location. When getting there we checked over the location and saw that the ground was covered with thorn branches and had many tripping hazards with small bushes around. After checking the location over we decided to create a sequence where someone is running away from something. Like in the classic horror films. I took the role of Director and while my team mates set up the camera and sound equipment, while this I walked Ethan (our actor) through the sequence and the different shots i wanted him to go through.

While shooting we made sure that the ground was as flat as possible and only made Ethan run during the recording of a scene. However, although we did walk and block through all the shots before the recording. Ethan did trip over and fall while running on a patch of ground which was very hazardous with bushes and thorns as trip hazards. Realistically we shouldn't have used this area due to the hazards and even though we walked through the scenes and did identify the hazards, they were too high of a risk and we should have changed location for this section of the sequence. After this we changed it so that the actor just turned around and looked at the camera in horror rather than running and risk him falling again.

This is our final edit for the video. I wanted it to be quick and snappy since it's a running sequence. From this workshop I've learnt I need to survey the location better next time to avoid any injuries or accidents and ensure I walk through the scenes and plan ahead before shooting.