Blog #7 Location, Location and Location.

As some of you know that I am an avid fan of BrewDog, I am very grateful that it's just down the road from my accommodation. Also, I even got a discount because by buying an equity in BrewDog! I get 5% off. I feel very proud of it, and in my opinion a good investment!

So while I was doing the filming with Tom, for my assignment in December, I thought it would be a good interpretation of the concept to start experimenting with different locations and do an off the cuff documentary. Other than his own home, I thought it would be a good idea to do some filming in my favourite place... Brewdog! Because I love the set up of the venue, like the decor and the backgrounds and it was a perfect environment. Other than the decor, the lighting in there included tungsten lamps and natural light coming through the windows, which makes a better balance of lighting with a mixture of the two, natural versus electric light.

I have thought about using the big camera, the Canon C100 with a tripod, at the time I was very unfamiliar with the camera but I changed my mind and used the Panasonic, gorilla pod and a rode microphone to have easier mobility and accessibility in a small and busy environment. I was also worried about asking permission to film or get complaints from the manager or customers.

It was a Sunday, lunchtime and being very optimistic I thought everything was going to be fine. Unfortunately, I was wrong and my optimism of expecting not to be noisy was a complete mistake. When we turned up to BrewDog, it was a very busy and popular place to go to. So I took note that if we happen to be filming again in BrewDog it would have to be at a much quieter time. In my planning for next time would be sensible to discuss with the manager for the best time to do some filming and if he was happy with me filming on their premises.

I did try to film, but it was very difficult. Firstly the noisy environment, even though the microphone was directly at Tom but still picked up all the background noise. It was also difficult to get the angles and composition correct. Also at the time, I had a massive lack of understanding how to get the colour of the picture correct, as now knowing that the white balance was out of place so the footage looked very blue instead of a warmer colour and looks better on the skin tone. The lighting was absolutely fine other than when we were sitting at the window, which made the background more distracting and didn’t use any indoor lighting.

Other than that, the positive side of things, it gave me the confidence to bring the camera in any environment, and I got to recognise the problems even quicker e.g. like understanding that the colour doesn’t look right. Also taking note that I would need to be more organised and thinking ahead in planning and researching both the environment and what I want to say. Lastly, a good thing about this day was a smashing burger for lunch too.

This is a very good example relating to my project, of the problems that I face on a daily basis working and visiting various environments, and the struggles and challenges I have of being deaf. Noisiness and too much going on in the background, which makes me not hear everything has spoken or absolutely nothing, not keep up with conversations because they are all talking at once and I can only concentrate on one person at once and keep having to say pardon which creates frustration and tiredness for me. Consequently, I have to focus on certain sounds and lip read, unless they are a British sign language (BSL) user, which helps me feel more involved and relaxed. So relating to the concept of collision I have to adapt to the hearing environment, but if I was with a deaf person communication is easier to adapt to each other. If the deaf person was a BSL user, this can be illustrated visually by cogs in wheel construction. As a deaf person, the cog is not a good fit but adapts to the place it is, in comparison a BSL user the cog is an exact fit with another BSL user.

God Bless

Oliver