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When the director sent me the script for the film I was certainly interested. It wasn't something I was used to reading or expecting from him as my friend and as a director. When we arrived and after I had set up the camera and lighting I was ready to dicsuss shots with Josh and his Assistant Director, Hannah Jones. Unaware of the amount of children, I was taken back when a whole year 4 class came threw the doors and all staring at me stood in front of them setting up a 'big fancy camera'. They always say never to work with kids and I found out the hard way hiring a young girl for one of my second year productions. The kids do what kids do best and laugh at everything so it became a problem when we needed them to be shocked or have straight faces. One little guy, Lee, was just a gem and when I noticed him in the wide shots of the class I told Josh that we needed him for a close-up reaction and boy did he do well!

 

A small 5 person crew did prove to be a struggle with me doing lights and camera, Josh directing the class, Hannah with clapper and running over the shotswith me according to the paper work and soryboards. Katie and Matt on sound and attached together as a team. Not even forgetting the mounts of swords, axes, helmets and shields we had to carry from the school hall down a football pitch length of a guagmire field! (Cast and Crew Below)

Viking School
Directed, Written and Produced by Josh Arnold

My Role: Camera Operator and Cinematographer

Everything involved with cinematography and the styles you can achieve with cameras has always been an interest of mine so in order to get in to the visuals and camera technology I made investments for a Canon 550D and Canon 5D Mark II. On every shoot I will always bring my 5D Mark II for any stills or a 2nd camera set up. It definitly came in handy on set and assisting in speeding up some of the process with wide shots on the 16-35mm wide angle and the 70-200mm lens on the 5D Mark II for close-ups at an equal distance of the camera to the subject.

 

Overall we didn't have any major issues apart from shooting in the cold and speeding through camera set ups in mud and unlevel ground, cold children (who were not impressed with us and then we made the mistake of letting them carry the weapons down! Just look at their faces in the picture above!). The one and only criticism I would have for the shoot was to have another crew member or two to help with lighting and as a runner. We all got on very well as a crew, got through our shots fairly quickly but unfortunately not quick enough with the lighting dropping quicker than expected and loss of light. We tried our best with LED's and the camera settings to keep going but then came to the conclusion that we'd never get it all done in time so just shot some rehearsals ready for the next shoot day to complete the entire fight scene.

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