Shoot 2: Support Worker/Estate Agent Interview

Shoot 2: Support Worker/Estate Agent Interview

Saturday 17^th March 2012

2.30pm – 5.30pm

Cast: Lewis Marks (Support Worker) & Sally Bartram (Estate Agent)

Crew: Finian Pye & Myself

Equipment: HMC camera, Panasonic HDC SD900 camera, 2 x shot gun mics, 2 x tripods, Red Head Lighting kit.

Location: Towry Law Offices, Bristol City Centre

What we did:

The aim of this shoot was to conduct the same interview as with the homeless man and the support worker, but with the support worker and an estate agent. The idea is that the support worker is collecting the keys for a new house and is asked by the estate agent to answer a few ‘routine questions’ which then leads on to the same set of questions being asked as in the night shelter. The only difference in this scene is that rather than going through the risk assessment form, the estate agent talks the support worker through the rules and regulations, which are again those that apply to the night shelter.

This is another relatively static sequence in which both actors are sat at a desk the entire time. The aim was to capture similar shots to those in the initial homeless man/support worker interview.

What went well?

Having an extra crewmember to help out worked really well in terms of being able to change the set up of cameras and lights quicker. My mum (playing the estate agent) did a fantastic job. She is a financial advisor and is used to conducting interviews with clients and just acted in a similar, professional way as she would for her paid job. This also really helped Lewis get into character as he admitted afterwards to feeling quite intimidated. He hadn’t actually read the terms and conditions before so was hearing them for the first time on camera in the first shot captured making his reactions much more real as well as some of the rules weren’t what he was expecting.

What didn’t go well?

Despite having been to my mum’s office many times in the past, I hadn’t come down to access it in terms of a potential film set, this meant that the layout was quite new to me. I the choice of three potential meeting rooms to film in one was simply too large and would’ve looked strange with only two people in it, and the other one’s, despite being a much more appropriate size, had a very large table in the middle of the room which was too big to move and became quite awkward in terms of setting up equipment in order to achieve the best angles. As a result, I wasn’t able to recreate the same shots I had captured in the earlier shoot and had to become slightly more creative with the positioning and angling of the camera.

There was also a large white board behind my actors, which caused a major glare when the lights were turned on, this again meant I had to work really hard when positioning the equipment as unfortunately I was unable to move it.