Project - Kings of Concrete 2010 Capture Kings video competition.Location - Dublin City
Time frame - 3 day shoot and edit.
Crew - 3.
Budget - €100 - €150 approx (mostly for food and parking)
Production Company - Billy Cat Productions
(Pic. l-r, Jass Foley, David O'Sullivan, Richard Geraghty [a.k.a me!] with the 2010 Capture Kings trophy; it's made from an old film can; very cool)
Kings of Concrete is an urban sports and culture festival which takes place over one weekend in and around the Civic Offices on Wood Quay in Dublin city every year. It features skateboarding, BMX, rollerblading, graffiti, parkour, breakdancing etc etc. It's been going for 5 years now, including this year, although before this year I had only a vague knowledge of it.
This year the organisers decided to run a video competition entitled, "Capture Kings". The idea was to have 4 film crews shooting at the event on Saturday and Sunday (3th & 4th July) and edit together a video to be shown at the after show party on the Sunday night with a winner to be chosen on the night. Quite a challenge when you understand the logistics of shooting an event that size and completing a finished edit all in just 3 days.
A friend of mine who's involved in the event, Ciaran McGrath*, approached me a couple of weeks beforehand and suggested I get involved in the competition. I was hesitant at first but intrigued as I've always had a vague interest in those areas that the festival covered.
Around that time, myself and Ciaran were working at a photo shoot with Jass Foley**, who I'd been working with on various projects over the last few years, and Dave O'Sullivan***. Over the course of that shoot (one of Jass's epic photo shoots; a large crew, models, far flung locations, well, Meath, etc etc) myself, Jass and Dave began kicking around the idea of maybe joining the competition. Ciaran basically bullied us into signing up for it so, despite my hesitance, Dave went ahead and signed us up. I thank him for it now of course! In the week running up to the event we decided to meet up and start organising how we would approach the shoot.
Pre-Production -
We decided immediately that our video would not just be a typical skate video, i.e. cool images set to music. It needed a narrative; beginning, middle, end. Also we would shoot it in as cinematic a way as possible (more on that later). In terms of the narrative we also decided that music would play a huge role in telling the story of the event.
We decided to shoot with three cameras over the weekend; a Nikon D3s, Sony EX3 and a Sony sr11 handicam, as well as a Nikon D3 stills camera for time lapse shots. Initially Dave thought it would be good to separate the three video cameras to get as much coverage as possible, however in the end we decided to keep them together as often as possible. This was because of the difference in visual quality between the cameras; if we were to have too much of any one camera on screen at once the difference between cameras would be more pronounced. Also while filming any one event at the festival we could cover it from 2 to 3 angles, which makes for more dynamic coverage and it definitely helped a lot once I sat down to start editing.
In order to help us get that cinematic look that we were going for we decided to use a dolly and tracks for tracking and panning shots, which would be a pain to transport and move around the event location but worth it for the shots we could get whilst using it.
For those of you who may not know, a dolly is a flat platform with wheels under it which runs on parallel rails. You place the camera and tripod on the dolly and can push the dolly along the tracks to get a smooth tracking motion. Combine this with panning the camera and it makes for a nice dynamic shot.
Jass also had a magic arm rig which is basically a 4 jointed metal arm with a clamp on one end and a place to attach a camera at the other. This was great because it allowed us to attach the smaller cameras (D3s, sr11) to the dolly for lower and higher angle shots and it also allowed us to attach the smaller cameras to pretty much anything, i.e. skateboard anyone?
Base of operations was to be Dave's spare room where we set up Jass's cinema display and Dave's two flatscreen displays along with our three laptops. This was to create a quick workflow between logging and transferring and converting the footage to get it ready for editing on the main editing computer (Dave's macbook pro). We work on a Mac based Final Cut Pro editing system.
The reason we had to convert the footage before editing was twofold; the D3s shoots at 24 frames per second (fps), the EX3 we decided to shoot at 60fps then convert it to 24fps before editing. This creates a smooth, cinematic slow motion look which we thought would be perfect for this type of event. Also the sr11 shoots at 30fps so to have all footage at the same frame rate would help with any rendering issues while editing. Jass created a droplet in Compressor to convert the footage to 24fps in large batches which we could just leave running while we worked on other things.
We had been sent some info from the organisers which included a schedule of all the events happening over the weekend so we sat down and decided which would be the main events we would cover. I typed up a shooting schedule which covered everything we would be doing from leaving Dave's in the mornings to getting back there to log footage/edit at night. Dave graciously allowed me to crash at his place in the editing room for the weekend as I live too far away to commute every day, although the way we figured it we'd be working all weekend so we were prepared for lack of sleep!
Production -
Day 1, Friday 2nd July, 2010.
This was not an event day but Dave (Smith, one of the event organisers, shout out to Dave, thanks for everything man!) suggested that we go down to the location to get some shots of the crew at work. They would be on location all day setting up barriers, ramps and various installations for the festival. Our mandate for shooting that day was to get some time lapse shots on the D3 stills camera and the sr11, with the EX3 and D3s free for dolly shots and anything else we could think of.
According to the schedule Jass was to pick us up from Dave's at 9am to get to Wood Quay for 10am in order to set up and start shooting. However myself and Dave had a better idea and stayed up til 3:30am drinking and playing Tiger Woods on the PS3. So professional! So, we left at 10:30 instead, which I maintain is not too bad, considering.
We arrived on location at 11 and found the production office, located just off Fishamble street in Dublin. We were met there by Sophie and Gali, two more of the event organisers who sorted us out with our event passes and brought us up to speed on what was happening. (shout out to Sophie and Gali; thanks for all your help, you guys were great!) We also met some people from the other video teams, or "the competition", ha ha, they were all lovely and we got on great with them throughout the course of the weekend.
From there we dragged our gear into the main event area and set up. First up was Jass's time lapse shot on the D3 which required him to move the camera by small degrees on the tripod every 5 minutes in order to take in the whole location. In the course of 4 hours 2,000 photos were taken which, once imported into Final Cut, could be strung together and sped up for that classic time lapse effect. 4 hours work for less than 5 seconds screen time. You have to love it.
Initially we set up the dolly and tracks up on some steps which also served as seats for the amphitheater around the circle which was were a lot of the events would be taking place the following day. Across the circle on a grassy area, two massive skateboard ramps had been erected. There was a rail installed on a stairs adjacent to the skateboard ramps and up on a hill slightly around the corner from all of this was a massive BMX ramp. Quite a bit of area to cover, especially when it would be filled with people. But I digress.
While Jass's time lapse was going on, I set up the sr11 in a wider shot from across the circle and left it recording for a couple of hours with a view to speeding it up in post for another time lapse. Once again, 2 hours filming = 3 seconds of screen time. Once that was sorted we began getting our dolly shots.
The first few shots we got with the dolly were close ups Jass suggested of a skateboard with a nice Kings of Concrete logo on it which was in the production office. So we borrowed the skateboard for a few minutes and using the D3s attached to the dolly with the magic arm we began getting shots swooping across the logo on the skateboard at various angles. We also got some focus pull shots; both static and moving.
After this we moved the dolly around the site a few times to get various slow tracking shots of the empty ramps, the empty circle and the empty stairs with the rail. We even got a Hitchcock style reverse dolly zoom shot which I was delighted with; think that shot in Jaws zooming into Roy Scheiders face on the beach, or that shot in Goodfellas in the diner near the end, or in The Fellowship of the Ring; Frodo: "get off the road!" ... you know the one.
All of this footage would go into the intro of the video illustrating the contrast between the location before the event and the location during the event when it would be heaving with people and competitors.
Once we figured we had enough footage for an intro we packed up the gear then headed back to Dave's to begin logging the footage and scrubbing through it for shots we would definitely use. I also cooked us a massive spaghetti bolognaise dinner, cos I'm good like that.
Day 2, Saturday 3rd July, 2010.
Now the fun begins. Our plan was to get there early enough to set up the dolly and tracks in a prime position to get as much coverage with it as possible but we had to do this before it got really busy. We arrived around 11am and there was already a crowd of people milling about, skating, using the ramps and rail, doing parkour etc etc. We set up the dolly in a great spot between the main skateboard ramps and the circle. Before the event kicked off Dave and Jass took the D3s and got some interviews with some of the event organisers while they still had time to spare.
The main skate ramp was filling up at this stage so we took the opportunity to get some nice dolly shots tracking and panning past the ramps and the legions of skaters and rollerbladers as they strutted their stuff. The first big event we would cover was the Freestyle Football tournament which was taking place in the circle. Using the magic arm we attached the D3s to the dolly at a low angle while the EX3 was used to get a wider covering shot. I was expecting to be nonplussed by the Freestyle Football but it really blew me away; some serious talent involved and the shots we got are testament to that.
After the football came the dancing, lots and lots of dancing. There was a breakdance competition and in between there were performances by two dance troupes; one called Ghetto Fabulous (I think) who I'd actually seen at DCU a couple of times when they performed with the DCU Dance Squad, and another troupe whose name escapes me but which was comprised of younger kids. These guys were all amazing, seriously professional and slick performances from all involved from the breakdancers to the dance troupes. We had a little more trouble with the dolly here as the crowd was massive so we augmented those shots with plenty of handheld shots from the crowd and from right in front of the performers.
While we covered the bigger events we also spent plenty of time roaming around the event getting surplus miscellaneous shots of all the other goings on, of which there were many. I wanted to get coverage of as much stuff as possible because when it comes to editing I find the more varied shots you have the more dynamic and interesting an edit will become.
By the end of the day we were exhausted but happy that we had a serious amount of great footage to work with. So we packed up and headed back to Dave's and began logging and transferring the footage once more while Dave cooked us a savage thai green curry for dinner, cos he's good like that.
Around 12am that night we decided to call it an early night rather than stay up til crazy o clock as otherwise we would be completely exhausted for the next days shoot and edit. Of course it didn't quite work out that way; myself and Dave ended up staying up til 4am labeling all the footage we had gotten that day. It was the right thing to do in the end though because it helped enormously in getting the edit together in a timely fashion.
I decided that for the next days shoot I would have to begin editing on location while the other lads got the footage we needed from that day. There would have been no way I'd get a finished edit done had I left it til later in the day to begin cutting.
Day 3, Sunday 4th July, 2010.
I basically didn't get any sleep on Saturday night/Sunday morning so I rose around 7:30am and began doing up an edit list which was a basic plan for how the edit would go and which shots would go where; essentially the "story" of the edit. I had lain awake for hours editing in my head so I figured I may as well get started. By the time Jass had arrived and Dave had awoken from his slumber I had a rough intro segment cut together. We packed up and headed back into the city for day 2 of the festival.
The main events we wanted to cover were the Parkour demonstrations and the BMX competition. While Dave and Jass were in at the festival I set up an editing station in the Kings of Concrete production office and went at it. This day really seemed to fly by and by the time 4pm rolled around we were on our way back to Dave's to finish the edit. This is where spending all that time labeling shots came in handy as it took approx 3 hours to finish the edit which would have been easily doubled had we been lax in terms of getting the footage ready to be cut together. By the time 8:30pm rolled around we had an edit we were happy with so we burned off some DVD's and made our way into Dublin to the Button Factory for the after event party/awards ceremony.
I have to say, seeing our video being played on a massive screen and getting such a positive reaction from the crowd that night was amazing; I would've been happy just at that but then we ended up winning the contest, fighting off some very stiff competition. We were all delighted but very very tired after a long, hugely enjoyable weekend. We also made new friends who we have since gone on to work with again. What more could an independent film maker ask for?
This blog brought to you while listening to; Bonobo - Days To Come, Miles Davis - Kind of Blue and Led Zeppelin - III.
*DJ, photographer, t-shirt designer and all around nice guy.
**Photographer, director of photography, multi media whiz kid and a fellow DCU Communications 2010 alum.
***DJ, filmmaker and another DCU Communications 2010 alum.
Nice blog, I want a magic arm.
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