Before a shoot it's important to think through everything you are going to be doing. I visualize myself on the job and try to think through all of the potential challenges I may face. This OBR application and potential job has become a constant thought throughout my day. I want to ensure that I do everything I can to secure my chances of getting the job.
Over the next few months I have arranged opportunities to film and photograph aboard some sailboats during races. This will simulate some of the challenges I will face over the 9+ month journey around the world. I have watched many of the existing videos created by the OBRs in past races. I am trying to put myself in their shoes and imagine how can I tell the story like they did but with my own style.
OBR video links below
One thing I noticed from a lot of the existing work was the audio challenges. As you can imagine, we're on a boat, as a one man band, in salty, wet, windy conditions. If you are a filmmaker, you know the importance of audio. When I spoke to the head of Volvo TV in my preliminary interview he mentioned that he really needs for us to be able to follow story lines. Again if you are a filmmaker especially a documentary filmmaker you know the importance of following a storyline. In a world where day in day out, not much changes, how do you tell a new story every day?
Here is what I know.
- they have a new audio setup already on the new boats
- they have fixed cameras at the OBR's disposal for story telling
- we can bring around 40kg of equipment
I decided that I want to test out RODE's new VIDEOMICRO and accessories. I noticed that many of the other OBRs used some variation of a videomic on their camera. The beauty of a videomicro is that is can be used for many applications. My thoughts were that if I needed to, I could quickly throw the microphone into a heated situation. Capturing the story starts with the audio, we can easily use the onboard cameras or a gopro, b-roll, even a photo to accompany the audio. I can gaff tape the microphone to the overhead or on a nav station if need be to get closer to the action while I film from afar.
Next idea was to attach a gopro session to a micro boom pool pro with the videomicro. This way I can get a bird's eye view on a conversation while capturing good clean audio. First impressions are that its hard to keep the gopro from jiggling around and I dont love the fisheye look. Because I will not be using my phone to view what is on the gopro I will likely have to leave it on wide mode. I think that over the next few months I can develop a use for this set up. I also think I can come up with some solutions to make the gopro more stable on the boompole.
This was purely a test. You can see the shadow in the background and it is not a group conversation.