Filming can be a breeze if you’re organized. You bring your equipment, set up, follow your storyboard, and finish with little difficulty. Up to this point, all of our Maker video projects have been like this, but what do you do when you can’t plan what’s going to happen? Our latest assignment posed this question as we were tasked to record a live event. Using our iPads and mic’s, we would record unique angles, scenes, freeze frames, and interviews that we could use to tell the story of our event. Although b-roll footage was allowed, we still had to structure what we were planning on filming. How we did this was through our…

Action Plan

Live events differ from scripted filming as you can’t plan scenes or dialogue. You can however come up with a list of shots you would like to get, and that’s where the action plan comes in. My event was the fifth cross country race for North Shore Secondary Schools, and so I knew there would be a lot of running shots I could film. Some of the ones I knew I wanted included:

Although we couldn’t use a storyboard, we could still come up with a storytelling diagram. This would help us focus on which shots needed to be captured, and bring more life into our videos. I decided I wanted to tell the story of Seycove’s Journey as a small but resilient team who sticks together no matter what. Planning this story ahead of time was quite helpful for my interview as I could ask questions that would fit the narrative. When my action plan was completed, I was ready to take on my live event.

Filming

My Final Video Draft

When it actually came to filming, I realized that I would have to be very efficient with my time. The runners only crossed the finish line once; if you missed it there were no second chances. Audio was also a problem as a perfectly good interview could be ruined by background noise. I found it fun though to think on my feet, with some of my best shots being caught by chance. It was also fun to get some of the most unique angles I have used in a video so far. Here are some of the highlights:

Editing and Drafts  

Editing for this project was also a lot easier as little special effects or clip editing was needed. At first I had planned a voice over for the video, but after watching some of the clips on their own with music, I saw the potential of using the music to convey the message instead. When the clips show us going to the meet, the music is building up. When the first drop comes it is the starter pistol signalling the start of the race. When the music bridges it goes into the interview, and ends on the second drop after we had all completed our races. My pre planed interview questions also helped with this, as they related so well to the story that the coach who I was interviewing practically said everything that was in the original voice over.

My First Video Draft

One special effect I did use in my video was a freeze frame picture that showed some of the race’s highlights. As usual, I used iMovie transitions and Keynote to bring it to life (watch my tutorial on how to make Keynote freeze frames here). After a peer screening of our drafts, I noticed how most of the videos had long interview sections without any scene changes. This was a little boring to watch, so I decided to move my freeze frames to overlap with the interview’s audio. This made the video more interesting and have a better flow.

Reflection

Filming a live event is like a box of chocolates; you never know what your going to get. It takes great time management skills and the ability to work with what you’ve got. However, it can be one of the most rewarding types of video as when you can make it work, it looks phenomenal. I think next time using better equipment (camera, tripod, mic’s) would be a good choice, along with being prepared for some unexpected turns which includes having a backup plan. Overall, this was a fun assignment, and I hope we get a chance to do more live filming in the future.