Documentary Unit: Location Workshop

We went to Canterbury to film the stonemasons as they shaped the stones that would be used to repair one of the windows on the Canterbury Cathedral.

Mike was director, Ren was sound operator and I was camera operator.




The experience was very useful as it got me in the mindset of keeping an eye out for cutaway opportunities and to work in an environment where I had no control in what happens.

A problem we had was trying to get sound without getting in the frame, so we used a boom pole to extend the microphones' reach without ending up in the shot.

We opted for a lot of angled close-ups to show in great detail what the stonemason was doing, the difficulty of this was trying not to get in the stonemason's way as he was still working regardless of us being there or not. We also had to make sure we are abiding to the safety rules that were stated before we started as there was a crane that can lift heavy stones and sharp tools and other machinery around.

Getting the shot was key as, this being actuality, we couldn't say "Oh sorry, could you re-carve that bit of stone again?"if we ruined or lost the shot, that was it: no re-takes.

Being the camera operator was interesting: I enjoyed doing it but I had issues with getting shots from a lower angle where a tripod was too tall and so had to crouch down: adding a slow rocking motion to some of the shots. I could combat this by setting up a makeshift tripod using items I have such as the camera bag or something else.

Overall a good day.