Ed Parsons- CV Video Shoot

Ed With his Badminton Racket

Today I have been shooting with Ed Parson again- this time we were working towards producing his video CV.  Before shooting we decided on the style he was wanting to produce- which resulted in us watching this video (to the right- from about 1 minute 5 in). Ed wanted to replicate the style that was created in this short clip- with him in the video alongside with his activities whilst in the activities.

So today we were shooting for his badminton shots- we shot in the Djanogly City Academy, using the sports hall as our backdrop. We were aiming today to shoot his "Badminton" activity, and had two shots in mind. After a little set back with timing (thought the sports hall was going to be relatively empty but apparently not!) we waited for a couple of hours for the space to become a bit more free and began to do the shoot. We used a court on the end of the sports hall, so then the backdrop would be a wall to make the hall look much less empty, Ed then used two of his friends from the group to help him with his shots. 

The first we tried was using the dolly and tracks and panning them outwards whilst Ed played badminton; we tried a few different takes with this shot- but the main plan was to have it close at first then to pan backwards to reveal the whole court. First we tried Ed serving the shot and then going back to "smash it" once  it was returned. The problem with this was that it was hard for Ed to first serve it everytime, (since he was a bit nervous on camera) but also it looked a bit rushed when he ran back. We then did it so then his friend served the first hit and then Ed returned it. And then we did the same as before but with Ed completely out of shot to then run into the shot and "smash it". Out of these shots the last worked best. As it kept the humour of the piece as well, as if Ed was running into their game and stealing a hit. 

The next shot we worked on, was the shot as shown in the first picture of Ed standing in front of the camera with the badminton backdrop behind him; this shot was relativly easy to work with (as much as we had to keep telling the badminton players to keep playing a lively game!) we shot the last shot twice as the first was a bit too far out, and dark, saying that when you're working with someone twice the height of you and you're trying to video their head and shoulders I think I did a pretty decent job. 

When we left and looked over the footage again we decided we liked the latter shot better, as it was still humourous and it was better shot than the first. It was also simple, which is the main thing when presenting his video CV.

Today has been a good break away from the usual shooting- which has just finished with "The Piano Man" which I will be updating this blog on soon!