The Beginning and the End

The first parts of the film have started to take shape and I must say I am pretty pleased with the look. I went to see Tasha today to have a look at what she had got so far, she had made a start on the intro and the ending and a rough cut of some of the Tregothnan footage. I got her to cut down the spinning cups to make it a lot faster and to slow down the charlottes tea house shots to make them look more cinematic with fades to black inbetween. Tasha is going to continue editing over the christmas break with the instructions I have given her. We decided the 3 questions that would work best for the piece were:
1) Why does Britain love tea?
2) What are your earliest memories of drinking tea?
3) What feeling do you associate with tea?
I think these will give a good selection and diversity of answers. I have every faith in Tasha's editing skills so I'm sure I will like what I see next time.

Now time for a break... or perhaps not!

Edit Nightmare - Glad That's Over

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So maybe that Tregothnan message wasn't such a quick side project as I had first anticipated! Tasha and I spent days locked in the edit suite and carried on at home once we'd been kicked out. It was the colour that was the main problem, as I have said before I shot this piece with the settings on flat as 'everyone' says it is best to do so and you get the 'best' results. What I didn't know is that you should only do it if you are very confident that you can colour grade it. The flat footage straight from the camera looks terrible, especially with the fact that it was a miserably grey day anyway, poor Jonathon looked dead! 

After hours of pulling our hair out trying to sort it out I decided to email Philip Bloom not expecting a reply at all but to my amazement he emailed me back almost straight away. It definitely brightened up what was shaping out to be a quite a catastrophe of a day. He was extremely helpful and even had a go at editing a short piece of the video and then told us how he did it. What a legend! After this Tasha then graded it using his tips and it ended up looking much better than the original. He also told us how to get the sharpness back in it, I think in hindsight I won't shoot with the sharpness all taken out of the video, but I guess you don't know these things until you try them.

Tregothnan were very pleased with the film and said it was exactly what they were looking for. I think it turned out well and I believe I played my roles to the best of my abilities. This is the first client film I have made and it feels really good to have done something that was not to do with my course. I hope I get more clients in the future. Fingers crossed the video is well received in India.

Now on to the 3 Minute Wonder edit... Lets hope this is not as painful!

We're interviewin' in the rain... Just interviewin' in the rain... What a glorious feelin'...

The Tregothnan shoot went really well :) We were faced with a slight problem when it started to rain, but I had gone prepared as I had purchased some tarpaulin earlier that morning. We were able to wrap the equipment up so nothing got ruined. I had one umbrella with me which I gave to Jonathon to use while he answered the questions and I used a reflector to keep the camera dry. I had Natasha use the LED light from the side and had Jamie use a reflector on the other to try and get some half decent light on Jonathon's face as it was a generally drab day and lighting was not helped by the black umbrella.

Originally I was really annoyed that it was raining but in the end I actually really like the effect it created. You can't get much more British than rain and after all the video is about Britain's Relationship with Tea. We also filmed a message for Jonathon to send to the Indian Tea Forum in Darjeeling, I'm really excited at the prospect of my work being seen in another country! I can't wait to get stuck in to editing it now, I hope it's not too stressful for us.

It's where the Witches was filmed didn't you know...

Today we had a shoot at the Headland Hotel in Newquay, I am really pleased with how it went. We interviewed the restaurant manager and the head pastry chef. They both gave us great answers which I am sure will make it to the final cut!

The hotel is surrounded by beautiful scenery and I tried to get some nice cutaways but it was very windy so I don't know how well they will come out in the end! 

The hotel were really accommodating to us, they showed us around the hotel and said we could film where ever we wanted. I really like the room we chose, it had a long table, huge windows, big plants and luxurious wallpaper. We set the interview chair up with the table running down the side, glasses all lined up in a row. Using the natural light from the window and a reflector we practise the lighting before the contributors turned up. 

They made us an afternoon tea which looked amazing and made a great prop for cutaways and worked well in the interviews too.

I am really pleased with how we are working as a team even if there was a slight disagreement today I think it was resolved well. As the director I tried to diffuse the situation to the best of my abilities, I'd like to think I helped but I'm not very good when it comes to confrontation.

I am really happy with the footage we have captured so far and the variety of contributors we have got on board! The only problem being the fact that we have so much footage and lots of that is really good! I am not very great at being ruthless and cutting clips I like, lets hope the rest of my team will be better at it than I am. 

New Beginning

We re-shot the beginning sequence today, I am happy with the final outcome, I prefer the setting compared to the first attempt. I think the colours are much better and the items in the background make much more sense. Have a look at some of the stills below. It did prove pretty fiddly to set up but well worth it in the end.

Tea Party with Teddies

We went to Pete's house today to film his daughter and her friend having a tea party! It was great fun and the girls were so cute, they just did as we asked and ignored the fact that we were there. They set up the tea party with all their teddies and gave them cups of tea and cakes. 

Heres some pictures of me filming the girls and having a cup of 'tea' with them. I think the footage came out really well, I especially like the still below. I like the depth of field and with the girls out of focus drinking tea in the background. I think it is going to look beautiful once it is edited. I think the shoot went well and I am really happy with the progress we are making as a team! Everyone is working well and I think this is a key part of producing a great final piece.

Natasha and I also attempted to film the beginning sequence again but we ended up running out of time because we had to leave for Pete's. I was glad that she got to see how much work went in to it though, it is surprising how fiddly it is! I like the new composition and colours better than the first lot of footage.

There was a bit of bad news today, the audio for the footballer interview is non existent! It's really annoying because I was so happy with the visuals, it was so different to any of the others with it being at night and I liked the footballers in the background out of focus. But never mind we may be able to use some of the footage without audio, we did get a shot of him drinking tea from a thermos. It's all part of the learning curve, I should have checked that Mike was ok with the equipment as I am director but I was distracted by trying to keep the camera dry! It was a last minute shoot, which is why Jamie could not make it and we did the best we could.

Afternoon tea with the ladies at the WI

Well this was fun! Along with all the team I spent this afternoon at the Womens Institute in Falmouth! I used a dolly for the first time and I think it worked really well, I like how it adds such depth to the shot and makes it look cinematic. Can't wait to see what the edit will look like. I attempted to use the dolly while we asked the ladies questions about tea but I am not sure if it will actually work for the final piece as it was difficult to keep the camera on the person that was speaking most. I do however really like the track I did around the ladies while they were drinking tea and this may work with the audio overlaid. 

Later Michael and I interviewed a guy who had just played football in the pouring rain. I really like how it looks with the rain and the people playing football in the background. The lighting is not  great and could have done with a reflector as well as the LED light, but we did the best we could with one of the other footballers holding an umbrella over me and the camera while Mike asked the questions and recorded the sound as the rain poured down on us. I like how this vox pop is very different to rest, I love how it is at night, I think it will work well in the final edit.

Charlottes Tea House

Such a quaint little place is Charlottes Tea House in Truro and the perfect place to end the documentary! Today I shot the final sequence... well at least I hope I did. Using a waitress and a willing customer I played out tea being served, made and drunk through different camera angles. The lady that was contributor for this part was really televisual and gave us a great final shot of her smiling to camera. I think it will work well but we will have to see how the edit comes out. 

Vox Pops - The better shoot!

Today the vox pops went much better. Watching through the footage yesterday helped me immensely, I knew now what I needed to do to get a better vox pop and looking at the footage I think they have definitely  improved... I'm not going to say they are perfect because there is always room for improvement. We visited The Essence of Tea in Falmouth which is a lovely little Chinese tea shop. I am pleased with the footage captured the people who run it (Pictured below) are lovely people and had genuine passion for tea which was amazing to see! I got some nice cut aways, finally! I made myself take the time to do close ups, to try not to feel uncomfortable asking them to re-do stuff and take up their time and it paid off! The footage looks good but I do need to practise with the focus pulling, I am still getting used to this filming and 5D malarky! 

We also got some great vox pops with the owner of Loading gaming bar, a maintenance man from campus and the owner of Cribbs Caribbean Restaurant in Falmouth. They all had some great input and provided us with a very varied answers. We are off to Charlottes Tea House tomorrow, fingers crossed all goes well! 

Vox Pops = Not as easy as they look

Yesterday we went to Truro to start vox popping people in cafes. Mike had arranged with the Bambu cafe that we were going to film some of their customers and maybe the owners if they weren't too busy, but after that we were just going to wing it. 


We encountered a number of problems, one of the biggest being lighting. Most of the places we went into were tiny and it was not really viable to plug in dedos just to film them. Luckily I brought along an LED light that fits on the top of the 5D but it ran out of power during our first interviews! With the light not working we decided to go to the shop and buy some more batteries. There was a 3 for 2 offer on the batteries so I bought 3 backs of AAA batteries because I thought that was what we needed, but I was wrong so after paying £5 for batteries that were useless we used the AAs we already had! I felt like such an idiot!


Once we were armed with some AAs we set of for some other venues. We went to another couple of cafes and we managed to get this quirky burger van I really wanted to get in, I thought that it would look great on camera! :) I was so happy we managed to, when we had asked the ladies before neither of them wanted to be filmed, but we filmed a man buying a cup of tea instead. Below are some stills from the footage. They still need to be colour graded and Natasha is going to do a great job I'm sure. I think we are also going to go with the cinematic aspect ratio, I really like how it looks in the pieces by Philip Bloom that I have mentioned before. 

Today I met up before lecture with Natasha to start logging. Looking through the footage was slightly disheartening, I could see quite a lot that was wrong and this really annoyed me. Quite a lot of the people moved out of focus, I had not realised as I had stepped away from behind the camera for Mike to stand to ask questions. I thought this would have been a good technique to get the contributor to look down the lens a bit more comfortably, but I had not taken into consideration the fact that I may have to change the focus. Never mind, there is still some great footage from interesting contributors and I can only learn from my mistakes. I am glad that I decided to watch the footage back because I may have continued making the same mistakes through the whole thing.

Another thing that seems to be a big problem with the down the lens vox pops in particular is that people seem to find it very hard to look straight into camera and keep looking there. In a lot of the shots the contributors eyes are darting all over the place and this makes them look really uncomfortable. I think I just need to not be shy at prompting them to look at the lens. This is actually something Mike is very good at doing and I am always very grateful when he does. When it works, the down the lens technique looks amazing. It makes you feel as though they are looking straight at you, I think this makes the viewer become more captured by the piece and drawn in. 

Time for Tea...

This morning I started the filming process and shot the footage for the intro. I used a go pro to achieve 2 shots I wanted, these were the opening shot of the tea being poured onto camera and stirring with a spoon. I would not have been able to get these shots with any other camera and looking at them on my laptop they look good, but I will only be able to see the full effect once they are in the edit.


All the other footage I shot was with the 5D markii. Using a lab stand to keep the teapot in place, I poured hot tea in so it went into the cup below through the spout. Each time the cup was changed I had to make sure it was in the exact same place, but with the handle turned slightly to be able to achieve the spinning effect I want. I used backlighting to show up the steam and highlight the flow of tea which looking at it back works really well. There was a lot to consider while setting up and shooting but I think I have done everything I needed to. I am meeting with Natasha tomorrow to look at the footage once we are back from our first contributor shoot. I am looking forward to that, we are going to the Bambu Cafe in Truro.


I think this intro will prove to be quite a tricky edit, but I am sure Natasha is up to the task. She is going to need to blend the steam and tea flow in each clip so it isn't so obvious when they change. I want the cuts between the cups to look sharp and almost jolty but I don't want it to look like the teapot or tea pouring is changing. There is also another couple of things I need to her to mask out as I could not get them out of shot, such as the lab stand clamp left in shot when the teapot is removed from frame. I also want her to colour grade it all, I have shot it flat so it will be easier to manipulate, I will definitely be keeping her busy...

Green Screen

Today in camera workshop with Pete we learnt about green screen, it was so much fun! I pretended to be a weather girl and looked like a right idiot. Will be good to see what the edit class come out with...
Here are some pictures from the class, note me attempting to do the forecast.

Afterwards I had a group meeting with Michael and Natasha which went really well, along with their help I pretty much finalised the script. They both gave some great input, I think this is a crucial part of working as a team. Yes, everyone has their roles but I want the other people in my production team to be as involved as possible in the creative development. At the end I hope to  have produced a piece that everyone is proud of and feel like it is 'theirs'. I am quite enjoying the role of being director at the moment, I think it is good for me to have a role of authority, I believe if I were left up to my own devices I wouldn't be very forward with in a production group. Whether I will continue to enjoy it as time goes by and pressure builds is a whole other story...

Tips and Tregothnan

We had our first feedback session with Mel today which went pretty well. She seemed to like my idea and gave me some good pointers which have really helped. Mel and my group helped me decide how to end the piece. I knew I wanted to finish at Charlottes Tea House, with someone drinking Tregothnan tea, but they said that if it were to look cinematic and stylistic like the beginning that will make it work better. So I just need to think a little more about how exactly to do it. We also screened our show reels and ours got quite a good review, I think it was a very insightful assignment and helped me come up with ideas for the 3MW.


Michael and I finally go to go to Tregothnan today. As I drove down the twisting country lanes the views were incredible, I could tell this was going to be good. Once we arrived we found Abby, she was lovely and extremely helpful, no request was too much. She informed us that ITV West Cornwall had been filming there earlier that day. They were doing a story on how Tregothnan, due to the warm weather, are still picking tea past the usual season. We also met Jonathon Jones who is the director at Tregothnan, he was very accommodating and also couldn't do enough for us. He showed us another tea crop which was fully mature and this is where I have decided to do the majority of the shoot, I was unable to do any test footage because it had gotten too dark by this time. Jonathon also showed us where they dry the tea and the machine that makes the tea bags (see the stills from my videos below). 

Jonathon has been interviewed many times on camera and as I have seen first hand and on the ITV piece he is very confident on camera. I think he will be a great contributor and will be the vital glue to bind this piece together. Jonathon also mentioned another possible film for us to do, Tregothnan has recently twinned with Darjeeling in India and they want him to go over to give a speech but he is too busy to make the trip. He would like to do a short speech to be sent over there telling them how excited he is about this new business move and sorry that he can't be there. I immediately jumped at the opportunity and said that we could film it at the same time as we film for the 3MW, I think this impressed him because it means less of his time taken up. There is also a prospect of us producing a promo video for Tregothnan using footage captured on the same day. Fingers crossed it all goes well. I really enjoyed my trip to Tregothnan and I found it such a stunning and inspiring place. I am really excited to see how it comes out on film, it has potential to look absolutely beautiful. Lets hope we do it justice...