Documentary Unit: Filming Day 1

As I am the director of this project, I have a big responsibility on shooting days. Not only do I need to get the shots, but I also need to make sure everything is organised as well as keeping up the good morale with my team. We met on the train at Rochester in the morning and proceeded to London (fuelling up with Haribo). After eating lunch at Westfields and getting our free Millies Cookie, we jumped on the train from Stratford, which went straight to Brentwood without any changes needed.

After arriving at Brentwood, Roy met us in the car park and picked us up. He then parked in the middle of Brentwood and we went to a cafe for a drink. In the cafe we discussed the plan, mainly telling Roy what we wanted. The lady who served us said Roy is "Mr Brentwood" which confirmed to us that he is the right man for this. I asked Roy to give us a tour of Brentwood without the cameras first, just so we can plan what we're going to film (and so we don't waste valuable memory/battery). This turned out to be a great move as he showed us all the famous/interesting parts of Brentwood, and gave us many ideas as to what to film.

We then went back to the car to pick up the camera equipment; I decided to put Chris on camera. We then went back to all the places Roy showed us and we got some great shots of all the famous places as well as the stereotypical Essex people. We even managed to interview Gemma Collins from the popular show "The Only Way Is Essex". However the main purpose of this day was to get location shots (mainly for the intro)

Roy then took us to his impressive Dog Training Centre. He gave us access to every part, and again gave us a tour without the cameras so we could plan our shots. Every time I thought of a good shot, I wrote it down so I didn't forget. After filming some location shots, we started interviewing some of the people who worked for Roy and the Training Centre. I made sure we set up the interviews in the style Helen (lecturer) has taught us in our lectures. I put Helen in charge of asking the questions (which we discussed beforehand). Again, I made sure we used the right techniques, so I asked the participants to use our questions in their answers to give the interview a stronger structure. The interviews went great and we were very happy with how they turned out.

After agreeing with parents and getting them to sign consent forms, we then filmed the Cynophobia class in action. The class was very interesting and we got some great shots of the dogs, children and Roy. They played different games to get the children more comfortable with the fact they are near dogs. After the class we interviewed a parent with his child, and asked questions about Roy, the class, and the effects this phobia has had on their family. Again this went great, and we were happy with the footage.

Roy then took us back to the station where we got the train to Stratford. After getting to the platform to go home, we then got told that some teenagers ran onto the tracks and into the tunnels - therefore our trains got cancelled... We then had to think on our feet as it was quite late, and I decided to ring my dad and ask if we could stay at his house (as he lives in London). So we travelled to the other side of London and stayed at my dads house after a very busy, but successful day of filming.