Filming - Day 2

This morning I met Saul and Alex to collect our equipment. To make the most of our time, we booked out a camera each. We chose the 5D over the XF305 as we preferred its look from the first day of filming, and also it allowed us to get very close to the photos and objects around Ralph's house for cutaways. For this reason, the mobility of the smaller cameras was important, getting around the house quickly between setups.Without Jamie with the mixer, we decided to just record using the Zoom and the lapel microphone. We also brought a slider with us, and discussed beforehand the type of shots we wanted to get for the cutaways.

We arrived at Ralph's at around 10.30am, informed him of our plans for the day and then immediately began filming. I went upstairs and filmed the photos, paintings and clocks in Ralph's main bedroom. Downstairs, Alex and Saul filmed in the living room and the kitchen. Later on, we found the photos of the house we wanted to match with footage, and Alex went outside to shoot them.

Many of these cutaways were crucial in order to tell parts of the story. For example, we had been discussing a number of ways how to open the film: a montage of clocks in the house, Ralph talking about the brass angel on the side (which came before we started the interview) or reading out the framed letter on the wall. We made sure to get the shots needed to cover each potential opening.

After we'd finished shooting all the cutaways on our list, we found a suitable spot in the kitchen to do the interview. We set up two cameras in the doorway, tested the audio and began shooting. However, after a while the changing light from the window became too bright, and so we changed position and Ralph sat down at the table.

We still had to continually adjust the aperture as the lighting changed, and the light from the living room was very warm, but it can be corrected afterwards. At the end of the interview we asked Ralph to read out the framed letter to his wife on the wall as we'd like to use it in the film.

I'm happier with the way that today's shoot went, and I feel we got some good responses from Ralph to our more targeted questions. For the most part I think we have covered all the areas we wanted him to elaborate upon, and the time we had to spend on shooting cutaways was very valuable - giving us the coverage we need for the amount of editing required.

At the end of the meeting we took the photo albums to scan and I arranged to return them the following week. We met the rest of the group afterwards to transfer footage and sorted out a rough timeline for the editing. As we are aware that the editing suites are very busy, I offered to start a rough cut of the film at home using Sony Vegas. This way I will be able to share ideas with Elliot when he starts to edit, and hopefully speed up the process. However, the next step for me is to scan the photo albums and transcribe today's interview.