Filming Fire Fighters
On the 17th April I was asked by George Joyce to be a camera operator for his dissertation production. His dissertation was a documentary about the lives and stories of firefighters. George had already filmed all his interviews and most of his documentary so today we were filming the B role and cutaways for interviews.
The B role involved fire fighters in training simulations and reenactments of real life situations, all based in the Fire College Training grounds in Gloucestershire.
https://www.fireservicecollege.ac.uk
We started the day with a long drive to Gloucestershire from High Wycombe, signed in and got picked up by Matt, our supervisor, to attend a safety briefing. The first simulation didn’t start for another 2 hours or so, but one of the other officers kindly offered to take us around the grounds to see what simulations were available and what we were allowed to film. This was a great opportunity to learn more about what equipment we would need later e.g. lens and rigs. George had already mentioned that he wanted a three camera set up with 1 recording wide and 2 recording close ups and mid shots. When we arrived at the first location we practiced our set ups. I first tried to use a 50m on my Canon 5D for a wide. This was difficult as the minimum distance we were allowed to stand at gave me a tight frame, and we had to move much further back to achieve a wide. So I decided to swap the lens for a 24 – 105. This lens was perfect. I could achieve great wide shots and then get close up when needed.
After the tour around the grounds, understanding how near to the simulations we could go and what lens would be best to use, we had to wait for a couple of hours till the first simulation started. During that time we organised our gear and set up rigs. I was operating a Canon 5D Mark 2 with a 24-105mm lens on shoulder rig.
The first simulation was fire fighters dealing with a burning building (go figure). As camera operators we were obviously not allowed in, so there wasn’t much action to film. We could only really capture fire fighters preparing to go in and them coming out, and setting down. This meant the camera operators would often capture the same thing but this isn’t really a bad thing as having two different angles of an event shows the production was well planned and was able to capture what was needed.
For the first simulation, I knew that the only way to make what I was filming more exciting and entertaining was to come up with interesting angles and camera movement. I did so with low angles and smooth moving pans tracking fire fighters walking from point A to point B. This means the editor/director can use these shots to show preparation/travelling and dramatic rushing generally for different situations, not just this particular one. For example, I captured a fire fighter walking to a check point, ending the shot with him standing quite casually near the check point. The shot can be cut down to just see the fire fighter walking, which can them be edited over an interview talking about preparation before going into a burning building.
I made sure I filmed a lot of these generic shots along with shots that were specific e.g. fire fighters climbing a ladder.
While filming these shots I got to grips with the best settings to use for keeping the subject in focus. As the camera and I would have to move around a lot, I needed a depth of field that would easily keep things in focus. I achieved this by putting my aperture to 22 and then finding an appropriate ISO to keep the image bright enough. Luckily the weather was bright and cloudy. This meant I could have a fixed ISO number.
Throughout the day we fell into a routine of filming the fire fighters. The other simulations were a crashed car from which a civilian needed rescuing and another burning building but with fires starting on two different floors. The routine was to capture the main event first, such as removing the car doors/roof and windows to take the civilian out or seeing fire fighters enter the burning building hopefully battling flames. Then to capture them preparing for the event: people chatting, pointing, walking, driving in the fire truck etc.
I would usually film the event for 5 seconds then move on to the next item to film or possibly get it from a completely different angle. This provided the editor with a variety of shots to use and combine together.
In conclusion, the day was great! A lot of hard work to constantly be on the move with the camera to capture different shots but I believe I’ve captured some of my best work along with tightening up the basic skills as a camera op.
On the 17th April I was asked by George Joyce to be a camera operator for his dissertation production. His dissertation was a documentary about the lives and stories of firefighters. George had already filmed all his interviews and most of his documentary so today we were filming the B role and cutaways for interviews.
The B role involved fire fighters in training simulations and reenactments of real life situations, all based in the Fire College Training grounds in Gloucestershire.
