Bel’s shot reflection 5.7.24 

*Capture from PMA of plan made before our shoot *

On Friday 5th of July, us as a team met in preparation of our shoot with our next interviewee. At the beginning of the morning we then looked over our plan and grabbed all of our equipment to help stage our shoot, this was difficult for me as the panel lights were very heavy therefore meaning that they weren’t the easiest to transport. Sticking to the schedule however as a group was relatively straightforward, we worked well together, ironed out different problems and made sure that our setup was nice for our interviewee as planned. Working with the panel lamps however was the biggest challenge that I as a cinematographer and also gaffer had faced. This was because due to us being in the lightroom and not the darkroom we had a lot of shadows and it was hard to make our colours not contrast. In the end we managed to get the lamps to a yellowy orange tint for this interview as I wanted a nice discreet warm contrast, some of the lamps however were from the photography studio, therefore meaning that we had to adjust the lighting from the back with the help from Rin as my best boy. With a bit of tweaking we did in the end manage to get this somewhat better, but in the end we ended up altering the brightness on my phone and moving the lamps more toward our table and chair setting, the end result was this. 

We as a group made sure that our setup also was perfectly safe and all the risks were removed such as wires and tripping hazards, we then checked that our lights were not too bright by putting a crew member in the setup. After our prep we then went to collect Rosie as followed by our PMA, we made sure that she was comfortable and did basic introductions and discussed what her role would be in our documentary. By roughly about 9am we had positioned everything together, the tripod was framed up properly at a wide angle and Izzy was holding the boom whilst Rin focused on recording sound, Rosie made sure she spoke clearly and after a few tests we were ready to go for our interview. Our interview consisted of a five questions and these were:

• What does Guernsey folklore tell us about witches?
• In terms of animals, which are usually associated with witches and why?
• Do you believe that the people accused of witchcraft actually thought they had magical powers?
• Could you tell us what the most interesting fact or story was that you found in relation to witches when writing your book?
• What is the significance of Le Trepied within Guernsey folklore? 

For each question we also made sure that we did a new shoot meaning that it was easier for the editor to piece the footage together, Rin our sound designer also paused each recording after each question just like I did. Overall despite difficulties this shoot was a good experience as it meant that we got to find out an awful lot about Guernsey folklore, Rosie also helped us as she mentioned an awful lot about the Trepied which was useful as we can use her as a voiceover for our shoot perhaps. This shoot helped my confidence as a cinematographer as it helped me learn more about lighting techniques and it also gave me a bit of an experience as to how I could perhaps help direct in the future, I had never used a panel lamp before therefore meaning that it was an extremely helpful experience as it helped teach me how to use these in the future.

Once our shoot had ended all of us checked that we had the correct sound,lighting and framing just in case Rosie needed to repeat any other shoots. In the end we were okay but as Rosie had mentioned in a previous clip about witches who were wrongly convicted, we got some extra clips of her speaking more about women who were falsely convicted, this was significant as it meant that we not only got to learn more but also we managed to get some sound to record toward our poetic element. Overall this shoot was in my opinion better than the Priaulx shoot as we all learned a significant amount of information from our expert, Rosie focused more on animals and also significantly on the Trepied which was a huge help to us for our future shoots. Having a PMA also helped us as we had a strict schedule as to what we had to do and where we needed to be, not only did it help acknowledge risks but also it helped us work really well with Rosie on the specific elements we needed to talk about. In future I now know to make sure that I produce a schedule for my shoots, this will be helpful as it will mean that for the Trepied it will be structured and well prepared which works well for all of us. Overall I was very happy with this shoot and I think it was an excellent way of developing my confidence and also a good way for us all to overcome challenges as a group.