Individual Project - 'The Egg Theatre'

So I recently completed my Individual project. I decided to do a documentary on The Egg Theatre in Bath. Due to the performances we had filmed their before Easter, we had built up a relationship with the management and it seemed a secure idea to follow.

I decided to base my documentary on the workings of the theatre, keeping the style simple using a mixture of vox pop and interview setup styles. I was taken on a tour of the theatre so have interlaced the interviews with footage in and around the theatre to add depth and reinforce the content of the interviews.

I am pleased with the final result. I think one of the strongest features of the piece is the pace. I incorporated sped up footage of my tour round the theatre and though it is slightly overused, I believe it injects a youthful style and anchors the documentary to its youth based content.

One aspect I would definitely consider changing would be the sound mix. I know I did not spend enough time on the final mix and that is evident when interviewing Lyndsey. I would also change the soundtrack at some point or maybe lose music altogether for the main body of the piece so as to focus the audiences attention on what is being said by the people I am interviewing.

His Dark Materials at The Theatre Royal Bath

Similar to the last post really. Myself and a couple of peeps from my media course at Uni took three cameras to The Theatre Royal Bath to shoot a production of His Dark Materials, performed by the Bath Young People's Theatre group.

We brought with us two Sony Z1 cameras and a Panasonic. We used one Z1 to capture stage right and the other as a safety shot from the back of the auditorium. I was manning the Panasonic capturing stage left.

The performance was difficult to shoot as it was full of action that occurred throughout the show. It was difficult to decide whether or not to capture the dialog or the action going on behind.

A Midsummer Night's Dream at The Egg

Just before Easter, a few members of my course were invited by the Bath Theatre Royal to film a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at The Egg Theatre.

We used two hand-held Panasonic cameras to capture the action stage left and right an zoom in and out at relevant parts in the show. We also used a Sony Z1 camera set up at the back capturing the whole performance as a safety shot and to capture scenes where the action spread across the whole stage. We also took along a directional microphone which we angled directly at the stage which did a great job of picking up the voices and soundtrack.

The show was staged at the Egg Theatre, a children's theatre attached to the Bath Theatre Royal. There were only four cast members who all took on multiple roles and as a result, the show was quick and fun for young people being introduced to 'The Bard'.

After a little hassle pre-show regarding lighting levels and which white balance setting was best to use, the footage we shot looks great. We are currently in the process of editing the show using multi camera editing in Final Cut Pro.