On the first day of the filming we got our trains to Brentwood and were picked up at the station by Roy. He took us to a nearby cafe in Brentwood town centre and we discussed with Roy in more detail our brief for the shoot. He was very accommodating and even had a few ideas of his own to add which was very helpful. We mentioned the idea that we wanted to have a few establishing shots of Brentwood, and he agreed to take us on a tour and show us the all the local hotspots. We first went round Brentwood without the camera and this was really good as we were able to make notes of places we wanted to film and not waste any battery.
We then went back to the car and collected the camera and got some lovely shots of Fast cars, stereotypical 'Essex' looking people, Some of the famous Shops from The Only Way is Essex, Brentwood Cathedral and Brentwood School - Famous for its former Pupils including Frank Lampard and also one of the best in the country. Roy even managed to get us an interview with Gemma Collins from the show which was really good. Danny put me in charge of interview's and so it was my job to get Gemma to warm to us and also think of questions from the top of my head to interview her. I quickly thought of some and made a note on my iPad and had a brief chat with Gemma before our interview so she knew what the questions were going to be. This turned out to be great and although i don't think we can use her interview i'm sure that we can use footage of her when she isn't talking as part of our introduction to Essex. We were very lucky with our footage of Brentwood people as many locals would just come up to us as they thought were were a crew for TOWIE. After explaining what we were they still wanted to be in out film so we asked them to walk down the street - casual. Unfortunately most people were very OTT and this caused a bit of a problem as we would never be able to use that footage but some people were very good.
Roy then took us to his training centre. This was the first chance Danny and Chris had to see it, and they were very impressed. Roy gave us complete access to the centre and this gave us the opportunity to expand our shot list. Danny and Chris went round the centre getting some establishing shots and working from Danny's shot list.
As the dog handlers began to arrive, Roy asked if we wanted to do a couple of interview's before the class so the boy's set up the shot while i spoke to our interviewee's and made sure they were comfortable with the questions and had good answers ready. I think this was a good strategy as it didn't waste time. After both interview's went really well, we decided to go outside and film the dogs and handlers and this was a good opportunity to see each dog individually. As i went over and talked to the handler's, Chris and Danny again set up the shot's and got some nice footage of the dog's walking around and socialising. They also knew at this stage the 2 dogs we may focus on during our film - Ruby and Emily, as we interviewed their owners, so they knew to get some nice shots of them playing. I sent over each dog handler to do a little piece with the camera as this way it not only helped us to avoid any anger from a dog owner not picked, but also gave us a potential trailer idea.
Part of my job on the day's of the shoot it to make sure all contributors sign a consent form so before the class began Roy made it clear that we were filming the session and that anyone who wouldn't mind an interview to let me know. I asked all the parents and dog handlers to sign consent forms and if anyone didn't want to be filmed or have their child filmed to let me know and we would blur their faces out if they were in a shot we wanted to use. Luckily everyone was very happy to be a part of the film and this helped us amazingly. I got consent forms for every person we filmed that day.
As i spoke more with the families, Chris and Danny went outside to film the class. This gave me the opportunity to scout out a potential interview with a parent. This proved an issue but we managed to find one parent who agreed. So i told Danny and Chris to focus on his daughter for some of the session as we would need cutaways of her.
After the session we filmed the interview and again it was very good. The one problem we had was the Daughter summer spoke very softly and we immediately knew that any footage of her interview would be unusable even with a sound boost. We tried our best to get her to speak up but she was very shy and nervous and we didn't want to stress her out to much. She gave good reactions while her father was talking so overall we are pleased.
Roy then took us back to the station where we got the train to Stratford and we found out our train had been cancelled. Danny asked his dad if we could stay at his house in London and luckily we managed to make sure we would be safe for the night. We had to go back to film the next day in Brentwood anyway so this would save us a bit of money.
Overall a great day filming.
Stay safe,
Helen
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