When planning my documentary I knew that I wanted to include segments of my talking directly to the camera. When doing this I wanted to be on location, meaning that where I was talking was relevant to what I was talking about, for example when talking about Penshaw Monument, having it featured in the background while I was speaking.
August 2022:
I originally started filming some of my project (scenes that were at Herrington Colliery Memorial and Penshaw Monument) however had not finished filming all of the scenes in which I was presenting in front of the camera. Sadly the footage of this was lost before I had started to edit it and therefore it had to be rerecorded. Later I realised that I would have had to rerecord it anyway as it would have ruined the continuity of my documentary as when I had originally recorded those segments I had brown hair and died it red before finishing filming.
Monday 12th of September 2022:
On the first day of filming, I drove to Herrington Country Park at around 10am on a day that I knew was going to be sunny and have good weather. For this I planned to record two separate segments for my documentary, those scenes that were going to be about Penshaw Monument and some parts about the collieries and mining in Sunderland (specifically relating to the Herrington Colliery.
With Penshaw Monument and the Herrington Colliery Memorial being not far away from each other it made sense to film them both on the same day, make the most of the good weather and since I was already in the location anyway.
Because I was infant of the camera I needed to bring my tripod, however an issue that I ran into when filming for the Penshaw segment was that the hill was uneven and therefore difficult for my tripod and camera to balance on. To rectify this I had to get help from a third party and get them to hold my camera for me while recording, this made the video slightly shaky however overall good enough quality.
I recorded each scene around three or four times to make sure that I was able to have at least one good quality video, especially due to it being a little windy that day and I didn't want it to affect the sound quality.
I used my camera's microphone as well as a second audio recording through my phone to make sure that I had two options incase one didn't turn out as well.
Filming at the Herrington Colliery Memorial was much easier as it is not a very busy area, however filming at Penshaw was made a bit more difficult due to it being a little busy at the time that I was filming, meaning the soundscape included people talking. Because of this I moved where I was recording to off the path and onto the grass of the hill which was more uneven and made it even more difficult to use the tripod however made it so I was further away from the people and therefore made the background noise quieter.
Tuesday 13th September 2022:
I drove to St Peter's Church at around 12pm to record. This day was also a good day for weather and therefore I ran into no problems there. I recorded the same scene several different times in different areas of the Church ground and chose the one that turned out the best for my actual documentary footage.
I tried to position myself and the camera so that the church could easily be viewed in the background, a part that made this a little difficult was how big the church was, meaning it wasn't't easy to get the tower part within the shot. Another error that I ran into was the lighting, when filming from one side of the church it made everything very dim however when filming from the sunny side it was a little difficult for me to keep my eyes open as the sun was shining directly at me. To resolve this I got the church in the best shot I could from the side instead of the front and stood at an angle where the sun wasn't as directly staring it me.
Tuesday 20th September 2022:
After emailing with Steph Durkin (The Creative Learning Director at ATG Sunderland Empire) we agreed on this date for the best time to record for my documentary. I arrived at 9am and was there for roughly an hour and a half. Steph gave me a tour of the entire venue, including front and back of house. The only place I couldn't record was inside the main set of dressing rooms (the dressing rooms that were dedicated to famous people who had connections to the venue).
I simply just handheld my camera for when I was filming throughout the venue, it was not necessary for me to use a tripod at the venue as it would have just only got in the way and added more unnecessary time to being there. Some shots I had to stand in-between the rows of the chairs and therefore there would not have been enough room to stand a tripod.
Overall all of my filming went well and came out with good footage. the only part that I would change would be filming outside of a less windy day, especially for the Penshaw monument footage.
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