Filming review

Following the recent filming of my mini documentary I have looked back over my work and reviewed what was successful and what is in need of improvement. Since I based my filming on my showing team's yard in North Yorkshire, which is a great distance from where I live, I completely my filming over a three day period within which I stayed there. Although this was beneficial in that I had an allocated time to focus and complete my production work, it was also a real challenge knowing that I did not have long to look back over my filming and retake everything a sufficient number of times in order to gain enough variety of the same shots. Thus despite my filming on the whole being successful, after reviewing my work I have had to schedule another stay with them to go back and shoot some of the shots that needed improvement.

I went there with a clear idea as to what I was aiming to create and detailed planning of the specific shots that I needed to produce. Therefore I managed to produce some good footage that I will be able to use, however after reviewing various shots it is clear that several shots will need to be redone. These are only really filler shots, as on a handful of occasions I had filmed without a tripod and thus these were a little shaky therefore not to the standard that I was aiming for. Although looking back now and realising that I should have done this differently, at the time when dealing with the fluctuating lighting and weather filming outdoors, sometimes I felt that there was not enough time to set up the tripod and simply just held the camera. However I have now learnt from this and on my next visit to film in a few weeks whether I am filming or not I will need to leave the tripod assembled somewhere so that it is at hand whenever I need it and will not have the same problem again.

Particular shots that I am certain to retake  are mainly my establishing shots, as after researching similar to products to what I aim to create these  play an important in establishing the mise-en-scene. I was especially pleased with the framing of some of the ones that I shot of the bridles and saddles in the tack room, however the shaking of the slight camera distracted from the content of the shot.

Despite the need for improvement with some of my filler and establishing shots, the filming that I felt was the most successful was my interviews. These were thoroughly planned and thought through, from the script to framing of my shots, thus I was able to shoot these quickly and efficiently. Moreover it was a great help that both of my interviewees were used to being questioned on camera and came across naturally and confidently. In addition to this since I had already practiced and experimented with different microphone devices there was no need to repeat these clips due to poor sound, which would be a very important aspect due to the fact that they would be filmed outside.