Leicester Recording Trip

Planned Location Shoot - Leicester

We were tasked to go out and get some footage that could be used in our own New Wave short. In the beginning there was a plan for us all to travel to Oxford one Wednesday on a trip to gather the footage but that fell through. To do this task now, in small groups we went to different places to get this footage. Me and fellow HNCer Connor Stinton, decided that we would go out and film in Leicester and its town centre. The three reasons we decided to do this were: It would be easy and relatively inexpensive to travel there (48 bus trip) ; there are two universities in the city so the to capture people of a similar age to us would be higher; it has a large pedestrian centre too which would be great to capture.
We chose to go on the same day as the original Wednesday as the planned Oxford trip but keeping an eye on the weather leading up to it. Equipment was to be collected in part the day before as people involved in the equipment were still headed to Oxford. The equipment which we wanted to borrow was: Cannon 5D, Zoom Mic and Fluid head tripod. We were to meet at the college for 9am and be on the Bus to Leicester by 10am to be in the town before midday and we would record until the memory and battery ran out as the last bus wouldn't be until 9pm and we knew that wouldn't be our main factor for leaving. Set up and ready to record scenes of non actors getting on with modern life, we awaited our project trip to Leicester.

 This is a map view and satellite view of Leicester.

Health and Safety

Camera and personal safety will be an issue that must be looked into and followed. To operate the camera correctly and with safety you must know where the key elements of the camera are and to treat them carefully. The cameras lens is a sensitive piece of equipment so you must be carful of bashing or damage through accident or neglect. The lens on the Cannon D5 DSLR is a zoom lens with focusing capabilities in both auto and manual. When manually operating the zoom and focus be carful as not to be too forceful to damage the internal components. The camera is electronic so you will have to be weary of water and the weather, in particular, the rain as the internal components may be damaged. The camera is a weighty piece of equipment and if not kept on its strap or held securely either on a tripod or in hand could cause injury to persons. When cameras are set in a tripod it must be secure and the tripod must be stable on the surface it is on in case of damage to the tripod or camera due being to incorrectly set up.

There are other problems that may occur when we are out recording in Leicester. Working in a public space there is a possibility of having equipment broken or stolen by members of the public. You must always know where your equipment is when at a location and at all times when possible have it in eyesight incase of loss. If recording on the edge of or in roads be very weary of approaching vehicles and make sure you can be seen and can see a fair distance down the road so you or the vehicles can stop. If recording inside be aware of your surroundings and any fire escapes incase of emergency and always think that getting your self to safety is a higher priority than collecting any equipment.