Danny Hewitt's Television Production Blog

The idea of day 3 of filming was to capture the rest of the shots we needed before the editing process began. I was feeling under the weather, but this did not stop me from carrying out my task as director. Helen was on camera this time, and I told her to concentrate on Roy for this occasion as I knew we would need cutaways for his interview.

During the class, I also asked parents and children if they were interested in participating in interviews; luckily 3 lots of families agreed to it, which was great news as it meant we would have lots of coverage in that department.

After the class Helen and I set up the interviews, with both of us discussing the questions and telling the parents/children beforehand. Helen even did a couple of practice interviews just to make the children feel more comfortable and confident. We interviewed the different families one at a time, and made sure we stuck to documentary conventions.

After the interviews with the families, we moved onto the main one - Roy. This turned out great as he answered all our questions perfectly, and even mentioned a few very interesting stories about cynophobia victims.

Overall it was a great day of filming, and we got all the shots we wanted plus more.

The plan for day 2 of filming had to be altered slightly due to the disruptions of the trains the night before. We didn't let this affect us though, and started off the day with a light breakfast which my dads girlfriend kindly left for us. We planned our transport and timings at the breakfast table, and as I knew the area quite well, I was in charge of working out where to eat, and where to get the tube from.

We decided to get a big lunch at Nandos as we knew this would fill us up for the day of filming. We then jumped on the tube and made our way to Stratford. Again, we got a train straight from Stratford to Brentwood. This time we decided to walk to the training centre, which took about 40 minutes.

We got to the training centre and noticed Roy cleaning up the path, so I had a quick chat with him and again he gave us the freedom to film/access anywhere we wanted to. So we took some shots of the signs outside, and more location shots. We then had to wait for Helen's friend to drop off Helens laptop as we needed to digitalise the footage to make more room on the camera. Eventually she arrived and we managed to get everything on the laptop just before the training began.

We then got into position and Roy offered me to take part in the training. I agreed to get attacked by one of the dogs, who is trained to fight criminals. Obviously I took precautions and wore the protective pad on my arm. I then had to hold my arm out and let the dog attack it. We thought it would be a good idea to put the Go-Pro on me, so we could get a shot from my perspective. This turned out to be great, and we got the dog looking vicious at our other camera too.

Chris and I then participated in the next training session where we had to race our dogs around a course. This was really fun, and Helen managed to get great shots of both dogs in action. We then proceeded to film other dogs doing different jumps using both the Sony and Go-Pro. Chris was back on camera and I was directing him, while Helen was placing the Go-Pro in different places to get dynamic shots. The dogs were jumping through fire and going through tunnels. We managed to get some great footage which we're all very happy with.

Lastly, we filmed a border collie doing a training course at high speed. Again we used both cameras, this time attaching the Go-Pro to the dog. This didn't turn out as well as we thought, as the camera kept moving. However we have found a harness which we are going to use next time we are there.

Overall it was another successful day where we got lots of great footage

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.

As part of my research I watched a video on YouTube which gives you tips and tricks to making a successful documentary. These will help me give good ideas to the team, as well as cutting out mistakes

As part of my research, I've watched a documentary called "Britain's Gay Footballers" which was shown on BBC3 in 2012. Amal Fashanu tries to discover why no professional footballers come out as being gay. This was great to watch as it gave me vital information about coming out in sport; as well as useful information with making documentaries

The phone call went great, and now everything is planned. He wants me to send him the script and let him know what times/days we are coming to film