Jessie and I returned to The Level skate park today to film a few extra shots for the documentary. I felt that it was lacking visuals that demonstrate skateboarding communities, therefore our aim was to film the skateboarders as they hang out together.
Overall I think it was quite a successful shoot. When I originally checked the weather, it said that it was going to rain from around 12/1 pm. Therefore we got to the skate park at 11:30 am to try and shoot before it rained. However the weather actually held up all afternoon, giving us more opportunities to film.
It was reasonably empty at the skate park, which meant we weren't able to get any long pan shots. On the other hand, the emptiness worked to our advantage, as it was less intimidating to confront the small groups of skaters. We firstly approached a friendly looking group of skaters who appeared to be in their late twenties/early thirties. A member of the group said that he wasn't comfortable with being filmed and the rest of the group didn't seem up for it either. We then decided to ask another group of boys, who appeared to be teenagers. They said they were fine with being filmed. This worked well as they allowed us to film quite close up, without paying much attention to us. This gave us the observational style we wanted, whilst also showing the skateboarders as a community.
Jessie also filmed some more fill shots of skateboarders performing tricks, as the ones we currently have in the documentary are quite repetitive, due to being filmed at the same angle. Because the skate park was quite empty, and since there was only two of us on shoot, it was easier for us to get closer to the skaters without interfering too much. We were able to get shots closer to the skate bowl, and close up of the ramps.
After we returned from shooting, I placed the new shots we had onto the timeline. I think that they work much better than what we had, as they relate more closely to what the subjects are saying.
I cut all of the shots which I thought were most usable. I was particularly fond of the close up shots framed behind the skaters (which was inspired by the Levi's Skateboarding documentary).
I think this worked quite well as it gave context to the location we were filming in. I placed this as a cutaway when Sam 2 says "I moved late into the town when I was about 10 or 11". By using this shot, this foreshadows the part when he says he gravitated toward the skate park.
This shot was used when Sam mentions how he was drawn to the skate park due to there being lots of people around his age. I also think this shot works well because it demonstrates how they skateboard in a group, progressing from the beginning of the narrative in which Sam 1 claims for it to be quite isolated.
Overall I think by having these new shots, our narrative fits together much more nicely, as is more engaging for the audience.
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