Myself and Ruby agreed to film at Mind The Gap on the 7th and 8th June through Rio when she rang me up and confirmed our ideas and agreed to meet and allow us to film.
Ruby booked the equipment out for us to use on the Monday and Tuesday in advance so that we would be able to book the equipment out and use it; as the final end of year shows are happening at the moment in college, it would be difficult for us to book them out without doing so in advance.
FIRST DAY
We set off from college to Mind The Gap and had no problems getting there and settling in.
We arrived 15minutes early and settled down in the AllSpace area at Mind The Gap, where the actors sit and eat their lunch and socialise with each other. There is a kitchen area fully equipped with refreshment making facilities, which we were told to help ourselves to if we wanted.
We sat down with a coffee and awaited the arrival of the actors when they came out from their first session.
When they did come out, Rio introduced them to us as we stood up and then made our way around the actors, introducing ourselves and making them reassured with our filming and interaction with them for the interviews and filming in the studios and sessions.
As soon as we sat back down, some actors came over and started talking to us. We spent the whole of their lunch talking and asking them questions, and they didn't seem fazed that we were strangers with media equipment, just people who they could talk to and interact with.
Myself and Ruby felt very appreciated after their interaction with us, as we didn't want to intrude in their space and intimidate them.
We then planned out what we were going to do for each day that we were there in terms of filming so that we had a schedule we could stick to, and with the ideas fresh in our mind, we could complete the filming tasks with ease.
The camera work was split 50/50, with myself doing the intro shots and thinking of the ideas for how we could introduce ourselves in front of the camera.
I believe i have a knack for knowing what camera shots work, so i hope that the finished product looks very professional, after taking influence from news reports that i have seen and various other live and pre-produced television shows.
In Mind The Gap there are 3 studios, and in Studio 1 there is a balcony area above the floor where we set up the DV camera on the tripod and then left the camera for around half an hour so that we could capture lots of unconscious movement and then produce it in a way that would allow us to show a time lapse in the film, which i believe is a great effect in documentary style/fly on the wall filming.
After filming, myself and Ruby walked to the bus stop with our equipment and saw some of the actors there waiting for the bus. It was nice to talk to them outside of their work, as obviously we didn't want to intrude while they worked, but they also spoke to us at breaks and lunch, so it was great to see their personal side and have great informal chat with them. We also got on the bus with them on the second day.
We had so much fun on the first day, even though we were only there for around 3 hours.
We were warmly welcomed in to their studio and impressed by the talent and charisma the actors have.
SECOND DAY
We arrived at MTG for 10 o'clock and settled in with a coffee while chatting to the actors.
They then had a dance session which we filmed. They have this around once a week, which is useful as the actors can use these techniques to be flexible and graceful while acting.
They then continued their Interchange work.
On Monday, the actors will be performing in the Interchange, staging a still motion scene during the working scene of the Interchange, which would be very interesting to film and see, but due to permission we would not be able to film this.
They then worked on their MediaBox work, where they are learning to work with cameras and to film each other, which is why we wanted to film them at this particular time so show them interacting with cameras as we film them.
We were also hoping to get them to use our cameras for a day but due to our ideas and visions we would be unable to feature the footage in our film as we have so much footage already.
However, we did interview some of the actors and find out why they like coming to Mind The Gap. We also got some candid footage of the actors messing around and performing for us a little bit, which was great to see them being very spontaneous and really at ease with us filming them.
The second day didn't have the same buzz as the first day did, but maybe thats because we settled in and the adrenaline had worn off, as on the first day we were busy brain storming ideas and figuring out what we were going to do, but the second we just got straight on with it.
We had a chat with the whole group at the end of the day and they thanked us for coming down to film them as we thanked them for letting us film a day in the life of one of the actors.
They also invited us back for a screening of our film when we have completed it, which we are looking forward to and we sure Mind The Gap are too.
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