Ilfracombe weekend

On friday, I went to Ilfracombe with my mum for two days to finish capturing images and sound for my film.

I followed my shot list (that I rewrote to make logistical sense) and used my tripod, 600D, and 18-55mm lens for the majority of the shots. We went into the Tunnels Beaches to shoot the coast (the Tunnels is one of Ilfracombe's biggest tourist activities), and this was the first time I had been there in all my years of going to Ilfracombe. The tide was out, meaning that the tidal pools were full, and I captured a great deal of the pools and coastline. I also made a few recordings of the sea there for my atmos tracks using the Tascam. After that, we carried on to film around the "front", and the harbour. In the early evening on the way back to the hotel I shot some shop fronts on the high street (it was quieter then and there weren't so many cars around to obstruct the frame). This was quite difficult as the high street is so narrow that you cannot capture the whole building in the frame when zoomed out at 18mm. When back at the hotel that night, I rewatched all that I had filmed that day and made notes of shots that needed to be reshot due to wonkiness.

On the saturday, I interviewed the owners of the hotel using the questions on my questionnaire as a basis (how long have you lived in Ilfracombe, what are your favourite parts, things that need improvement, thoughts on Verity), but I also picked up on subjects in their answers that I thought could be pulled out more as Shawn had suggested to me. After this, I shot some more of the high street including reshoots, and then went to see my dad's cousin and his wife (we had bumped into them at Tesco last week and told them about my project). I interviewed them separately to have their individual views. All of these interviews were conducted in quiet rooms using both the Tascam and my dictaphone so I would have choice in quality of audio (the Tascam recorded the beach noises with a hiss, so by recording with both systems I would have at least one good quality recording). I then went back to the harbour for reshoots and to film the "Verity photo bingo". My dad's cousin was unable to come with us for that, and we couldn't get a parking space close to film from within the car, so I filmed nearby with my camera on a tripod. I found this tricky, as people seemed to be wary of the tripod (I presume the "big camera" on a tripod is intimidating as they believe I'm shooting photos and don't want to disturb the shot) and wouldn't come into the frame when it was running. Most of the footage of this begins when I notice someone with their phone out, which is not what I wanted. When shooting shop fronts everyone and their mother comes into the frame when you don't want them to, and the only time you want people to come into the shot they don't! Sod's law!

I am happy with what I have got from this weekend and will upload the transcriptions and clips asap.