Diary of a film school student - Shooting a doc

It's been a while since I last posted an entry on this filmmaking blog, so I decided it would be a good time now to share the recent experience I had shooting my first short documentary. Granted, shooting a short doc doesn't necessarily require too much preparation, but the endless possibilities of organizing footage can be challenging.

Anyway, let me back up a little. As part of my year at the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking, I had to head out and shoot a short documentary. Because time is limited and we basically only have one or two days to shoot the whole thing, I decided to do mine on Anne-Sophie Dutoit (pictured in the ungraded still above), a young filmmaker who directed and starred in her first feature film at the age of 16.

Though very busy, Anne-Sophie agreed to be the main subject of my doc, and I really appreciate it. Considering she lives in the Los Angeles area right now, I had to head down there for the shoot, and to be honest, I've been wanting to travel for a shoot for quite a while now.

The result? It was a blast. I asked two of my colleagues from school to join me on the trip, and they jumped on board expecting to learn about shooting a piece away from home. As the director I had to cover all travel expenses for the three of us, but looking back, I admit it was all worth it. I really learned a lot.

One of the challenges this time was the fact that I was not really sure what to expect upon our arrival in Los Angeles. I had never met Anne-Sophie in person, and I had no clear idea of the locations we would shoot at. In that sense, it was quite an adventure, for sure. Luckily, it all turned out very well, and even the weather was on our side for the most part.

I met Anne-Sophie at one of the locations in her feature film "Faded Memories," and we kicked off the shoot on the first day with some B-Roll. After that we headed to Santa Monica, where we shot the main interview in a small, lovely garden. After breaking for lunch and recharging, we headed to the beach and pier to capture some more B-Roll.

(Pictured above is my DP Deepa Pathak. I'm hiding behind the monitor in the back of the photo.)

Day two took us to Orange County and Anaheim, where we shot some footage in downtown Disney. I wanted to take that afternoon to get numerous shots of Los Angeles for a opening montage, but we got back to the city too late to get what I wanted. Things like these happen on such shoots, however, and that's fine.

This was also the first project I shot entirely and solely with the Canon 7D, a wonderful beast of a camera that can give you the best results in HD picture quality. We recorded sound with the equally wonderful Zoom H4n recorder, and I am very happy with how it turned out.

However, traveling requires patience, especially when it's in a big city like L.A. All in all though, we mastered these little obstacles really well, and now I am ready to jump into editing before I move on to my next project, another short documentary.

I am glad I did a whole bunch of research on my subject before heading out, because that enabled me to focus on shots and take the time to review footage, reshoot a bit, and... believe it or not... rest a bit as well. Shooting for hours two days in a row can be tiring indeed.

That said, I consider my first out-of-town shoot a big success. I don't know yet how the doc will turn out, but I know I have all it takes now to make it as good as I can. Traveling and filming go together well, and it also enables you to bond with your crew and even have some fun when the cameras are not rolling. In other words, I can't wait to do it again.

Stay tuned for the doc, which I will post on here as soon as it's done. Hopefully, I'll get around to writing more about my experiences on here.

Comments

[Las Vegas]

Thanks for sharing! Well written.