PORTRAIT OF A LOCATION:
St.Munchin’s
Church and graveyard, King’s Island, Limerick.
Pre-production
After receiving the assignment, our group;
Caroline, Barry, Ciara and myself got together to discuss the project and
possible locations to shoot. The crew agreed that for this exercise, we should
pick a location close-by in case we needed to re-visit the site. As there were
a few ideas we decided to think about it overnight with the intention to make a
choice the following day and then go and scout it out.
The next morning we decided that we would
walk by the river heading towards the Villier’s Alms Houses area in King’s Island keeping an
open mind to what might inspire us on route. ie; the river itself, King John’s
Castle, St. Munchin’s Church and the Villier’s Alms Houses. After walking round the area a
couple of times, we decided to focus on St.
Munchin’s church and graveyard. While exploring the grounds we discussed
several themes; contrasts, life and death, life after death, cold grey
headstones and beauty of nature, peace and calm, etc. The lighting was perfect
that day as the sun was casting shadows and highlighting colour amidst the grey stone. We came up with ideas of where we might film our shots to convey
our theme. We discussed how the weather on the day of filming might also sway
our theme.
When we returned to the studio, we checked our
schedules and forecast for the following week and we made a plan to go filming
Tuesday, October 6th, with the possibility of more shooting on
Wednesday 7th as the weather was promising. It was decided that
Caroline would be director, Barry would be sound manager, Ciara would be
production manager and I would be director of photography. Later, I wrote some
notes and brainstormed some titles to go with our earlier thoughts.
Production
October 6th: When we arrived on
location, I shared my ideas with the crew. We
decided, rather than be morbid and dark we would try to show the beauty and
sense of calm within the graveyard and came up with words like Tranquility, Serenity and Peacefulness. We
had decided to film from the entrance of the graveyard and make our way inwards
to show the graveyard in context with the church. I set up the equipment but
had difficulty attaching the camera securely to the tripod, which caused the
camera to wobble. I realized that I should have practiced using the camera in
advance to become familiar with the functions and technicalities of shooting
beforehand. Ciara tried to hold the camera steady while I filmed. It was very
difficult as there were so many things to consider at one time.
We worked
as a group looking at camera angles and subject matter and making decisions
where to pan, tilt, whether to zoom in or out and take stills.
We planned
to take plenty of footage that could be edited later. When we returned to the
studio and downloaded the material we decided that we needed to redo some of
the shots. The footage was shaky, the lighting was dull and we had more time to
re-assess what we wanted to capture, i.e.: more close-up shots, slower takes,
better angles etc. The first clips helped us re-focus.
We
gathered again the next day, October 7th. This time the camera was
steady.
I worked
closely with Barry who also contributed footage as he had previous experience
with filming. I also asked the crew to give their input into the angle and shot
selections etc., while looking into the lens so that the crew was happy with my
choices. It was interesting to get different peoples takes on the same subject
matter.
Post-production
Back at the studio, the new shots were
downloaded and the crew discussed which clips we liked. The final clips chosen
were combined from both days filming and using both footage from myself and
Barry. We decided that Serenity was
the final title, initially having leaned towards Tranquility but both having similar meaning.
The crew edited the shots in Premier Pro
and chose music to accompany it.
We all briefly discussed and experimented
with type treatment for title and credits to accompany the video, which we
wanted to keep simple but not too sterile.
I feel I contributed a lot to this project
in terms of suggestions of locations, themes music and opinions but I mostly
learned a lot from working within a crew and seeing how each person contributed
their own thoughts and skills to the group.
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