Not a drop to drink

I got back nearly two weeks ago, which seems hard to believe. I’ve now captured all 6 hours of footage using our editing software, Avid – bear in mind that this documentary is only supposed to be 20 minutes long. At least, I didn’t shoot as much as my colleague Nina who returned from Uganda with more than 20 tapes, each with an hour of footage!

After reviewing my footage, I’ve found the following problems:

• I used the gun mic as the camera’s top mic most of time. The sound is great, but unfortunately the furry windshield appears in lots of my shots in the top righthand corner. This can be rectified in the edit suite, but is very annoying, especially because you don’t see it on the LCD and I’m pretty sure I didn’t see it through the viewfinder either.
• If you decide to film in Kenya during the rains, take an umbrella. The waterproof cover for the camera is cumbersome and impractical and the rain can damage the camera. A large golf umbrella is ideal for keeping the rain off.
• If you’re self-shooting and trying to do pieces to camera, ALWAYS use auto focus and auto white balance. They are there for a reason. Getting your very inexperienced driver to try to focus for you does not work, believe me. The light changes so often during the rains that it’s not practical to white balance every time – meaning I am going to have to do a lot of colour correction in post-production.
• Always get someone to translate for you as you go along during interviews. It will save so much time. I think I’m going to have to send audio files to contacts in Kenya to help translate where I only have a rough translation. Most people I interviewed spoke English thankfully. I can understand them fine, but I will be asking advice about whether they need to be subtitled for a UK audience.
• It’s a good idea to have a set of release forms for interviewees to sign. This is something I didn’t have and actually it didn’t really come up. If the film ends up being commissioned (unlikely at this point), I will have to negotiate with the NGOs I worked with to make sure I can release the footage.

I will be posting more about how the edit is going in the next few weeks.