In this blog I’ll cover some of the challenges and best bits of filming SpOILt – a documentary about the tar sands developments in Alberta, Canada and their effect on the Beaver Lake Cree indigenous community. The film was made with pupils from Ysgol Bro Ddyfi. They generated brilliant ideas for the film and got involved in the production, researching, interviewing, doing pieces to camera, acting and helping me out by holding the boom mic! They were true pros and I never once heard any one of them complain – even after doing 15 takes.
The film was shot on a Sony EX3 and Canon 5D Mark II HD-DSLR. The EX3 was my main camera and I used the 5D for storyboarded setpieces that needed a more filmic look. The first big shoot was at the Barbican Centre in London at a satellite meeting of Shell’s AGM. It was a bit of a run and gun situation. We did three interviews in quick succession. From a filming point of view, the venue was a bit of nightmare – a very public place and lots of noisy fountains, not to mention the numerous planes flying over – always a problem in London.
Barbican Shoot.
Despite the fact that Sarah our ‘producer’ had sweet talked all the security and management staff at the Barbican, I got into a sticky situation with the Barbican’s manager. She came over and said, ‘We’ve been watching you from upstairs and you’ve been focused on that security guard for over 5 minutes. I want you to stop filming.’ Oh dear – we’d been clocked as environmental activists! I didn’t take kindly to her aggressive attitude and the conversation was going rapidly downhill until my colleague Nic intervened and neutralised the situation.
Shell Security Guard
Our main task of the day was to film and conduct an exit poll on Shell’s shareholders. This was done guerilla style with the camera mounted on a monopod (Tiffen Steady Stick). We managed to get someone who worked for Shell on camera saying what a great job they think they’re doing of ‘managing the environmental aspects of tar sands operations’. What a load of greenwash!
Shell Representative (I couldn’t resist Photoshopping him!)
The sequence I enjoyed filming most was ‘The Ugly Truth’ a mood film, where a girl puts on makeup and eventually realises that it’s oil – metaphor – oil is used to make everything from cosmetics to toothbrushes. I really went to town using the Canon 5D to give it a filmic look. The main interior location was a bathroom with 2 mirrors – which I tried to use in an interesting way to tell the story. I made use of the 5D’s ability to get shallow depth of field (knocking the background out to focus on the foreground subject) and used the monopod to get shots from tight positions. I also got a couple of really low level tracking shots using a toy trolley and the results were suprisingly smooth! For the extreme close-ups, I used a telephoto lens with a macro adaptor, as I didn’t have a macro lens available. This was extremely tricky as the slightlest movement from the actress would put the focus out and it was difficult to keep the shots steady. Overall I was very happy with the shots and Heini, the actress was more than patient with me. Oh and Nic managed to break a loo seat whilst taking a still of me filming – definitely the funniest moment on set.
The Ugly Truth Shoot.
One of the other setpieces I filmed on the Canon5D proved to be quite challenging. The water filter sequence – we see water poured in and dirty black oil coming out. Having no separate mixer for this production meant I needed to find another way of recording dual system sound. The answer was right in front of me – I decided to use the EX3 to record separate sound. After this eureka moment I used this technique for all the Canon5D shoots. Anyway back to the filter – we used 4, yes 4 tins of treacle for the oil and I have to say it looked very realistic, beautiful even. The problem was we had to capture the treacle coming through in one take. The first take was a disaster the weight of the treacle pulled off our fake filter. Trying to set the shot up without treacle seeping through the filter was nearly impossible, but in the end with the help of some trusty gaffer tape, we did it.
Water Filter Shoot.
A central part of the film was a SKYPE session between the 12 pupils at Ysgol Bro Ddyfi and Myron Lameman, a tar sands activist and member of the Beaver Lake Cree community. From a filmmaking point of view I was presented with another problem. I installed some great software called Call Recorder on my Macbook to record SKYPE calls, but the highest video resolution it records at is 640×480. Now, as an experienced editor I knew that that would not look good if it was upscaled to 1920×1080 – full HD size, which is what I shot the film in. I could use it screen in screen, but that makes it tricky to edit. What do other people do with SKYPE in films? In the end I decided to record it on the Macbook anyway as a backup and for use on the film’s blog.
For the main setup though, we had him projected on a screen and I filmed off this. The image off the projector wasn’t fantastically sharp, but I felt this was our best option. In the first setup I had the camera equidistant between the kids and the screen, so I could maintain focus and pan between them asking questions and him answering. The second time we filmed, we changed the setup, so that the kids sat in front of the screen, to get both reactions in one shot. This just about worked, although it was hard to squeeze everyone into the shot, especially as the screen was fixed low on the wall.
So what other filming challenges were there? There were lots, but filming the kids individually reciting the Beaver Lake Cree’s declaration was tough – more so for them, as it is written in legal language and they had to learn it by heart. I chose the beautiful backdrop of the Dyfi Osprey Project to film this – a nature reserve with hills on the horizon, reeds rustling in the wind, ponds, boardwalks and even water buffalo. Each person had to say their piece to camera. I wanted to film this in a documentary narrator style (in my head!) where I’d track back with them. Now creaky, uneven boardwalks and tracking back just don’t go together easily. Add to that trying to steady the Tiffen ‘Steady Stick’ monopod with the camera and I suddenly became painfully aware why people do courses in operating steady cams/shoulder mounted rigs etc. It was really hard, especially on the bends. On one take I walked backwards straight into a ditch.
I was also trying to keep one eye on making sure the boom mic didn’t come into shot. The most annoying thing of all was that there were people there. I thought it would be pretty quiet on a Sunday morning, but how wrong could I be. The place was teaming with birdwatchers and other nature lovers. We did our best to keep them at bay. Number of takes? I lost count after the first fifty or so. It was a bit of slog, I have to admit, but once again everyone proved how good natured and patient they were.
It was very enjoyable shooting a film with a great bunch of young people and they conducted themselves like true pros. Everyone worked hard and made it happen. There was one phrase I used again and again throughout the production though, which I feel like I used a million times – ‘Can we do that once more for luck?’
Be sure to check out the The Beaver Lake Cree v Tar Sands Facebook Page.
October 6th, 2010 - 18:44
Thank you for another fantastic blog. Where else could I get this kind of information written in such an incite full way? I have a project that I am just now working on, and I have been looking for such information… Regards…
December 17th, 2010 - 11:20
Great post, well done! I don’t like your blog layout so much though – I found a new one for my own blog recently, from the wordpress theme site here – maybe there are some you’ll like too. Anyway, I’ll be bookmarking your blog to read another time!