MTV?! Sweet! Well done, Ollie! Awesome cause, awesomely shot.
It's also really cool to see the hard work of an ITer pay off with some higher profile gigs.
On a non-filmmaking note, how long did you get to spend in these locations? How did you find it? Any interesting stories?
Thank you! Was my first proper documentary shoot so I'm really happy they came together so nicely.
We had two and a half shooting days in each location which was plenty in terms of the length of the finished film and more time was spent getting B-roll than on shooting interviews/events, which I think shows in the edit - director was very keen on getting across the feel of the place and you can never really have too much B-roll.
I've visited less-developed countries before (but not for work) so I had some expectations but was bowled over by how beautiful and buzzing both Kisumu and Varanasi were. I did sometimes have to remind myself I was there to work and not as a tourist…
Two of my personal highlights were
eating tilapia on the shores of Lake Victoria and
seeing the Ganges at night.
Those are both great – really fantastic looking and really good projects. I don't think I ever actually asked what you were filming in Kenya or India, but those were really good, positive promos for those charities. I imagine there's a lot of darker stuff as well, but in terms of presenting their cause in an appealing way, those were top notch.
I think I have a slight preference for the India one, mainly because the country is so damn beautiful and visually interesting. The shots on the street all seem to pick up so much incidental detail and there's that kind of languid haze that hovers over those shots. Really cracking stuff.
Cheers, Nick! I do think some of the darker stuff didn't make it to the final cut, which I suppose is fairly inevitable given the length of the films and the need to sell the projects - the interview with Victor and Lily alone was ~90 minutes long.
Ah interesting, I do think the India one is stronger visually but prefer the storytelling in the Kenya one!
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If anyone's interested in the kit list…
- C300
- 5D II
- 24-70mm f/4 IS (my main walkabout lens)
- 16-35mm f/2.8
- 24-70mm f/2.8 (for the 5D)
- 70-200mm f/2.8 IS
- 28mm f/1.8
- 50mm f/1.4
- 85mm f/1.8
- Circular polarisers
- Sennheiser G3
- Batteries, media etc.
Both sound recordists used Sound Devices recorders and sent a feed to the camera wirelessly, with that feed on one channel and the camera top mic on the other. Most interviews were simultaneously lav miced and boomed.
Shot in C-log at 50mbps with the C300 usually at ISO 850; pushed to ISO 20,000 for a few shots and while it's not super clean it is very useful.
