Film Day: Psychologist and the Park

    Hello blog readers, I have some exciting news...

    WE FILMED OUR FIRST INTERVIEW!!!

    Yes. We did. Well by we I mean Sofia because I had to be somewhere else, but still. While I would've loved to be there, Sofia did a good job as she filmed both our first interview AND b-roll shots of the park where our focus group meets to fly model airplanes: Markham Park. Here is how her day went, with specific planning involved so that she wouldn't waste time and get all the shots she needed, being that lighting is important for the outdoor shots.

The Park

    The first place Sofia went was to Markham Park, where she would complete filming the introductory montage of the hub where the focus "local community" of the episode, being the "airplane community", meets and connects. We want the montage to be about 25 seconds, including the title of the show, Interconnected, and of the episode, tentatively called "Flying High". Considering that the last Top Gun movie came out not too long ago and has since become heavily associated with anything airplane-related (at least for my Top-Gun-loving dad), we want to stylize the location introduction to be inspired off of the fast-cut, movement-filled energy of the movie sequences, as each episodes location introduction will be stylized to match the energy of the activity/ environment of the group. Because we want to do this, Sofia made sure to get a lot of shot variety including different angles, ultimately landing upon this gem of a video from one of my dad's friends... (it's been shortened so I can fit it in this blog post the actual video is much longer and has other moments we want to use):

     COOL I KNOW. We are both very excited about that shot, as we can play around with shot variety and it adds such a cool dynamic and different perspective of the airplane.

    Our shot list included mainly establishing shots of the flying field, the hut where the planes are fixed, and any surrounding areas of the park that are eye-catching/ add to the overall portrayal of the group's usual environment. We want to use their shared hobby to bring focus on the actual people and their own willing choice to continue to show up in this one place to do what they love together, so Sofia was sure to get shots of not just the planes but also the people flying them, as my dad brought her on a day when some of the group we are focused on was there flying. To film she brought her Sony camera that we use for most of the shots, as well as a tripod in case she wanted to stabilize any shots. 

                                                 

   The Psychologist

    

    After she filmed those outdoor shots of the park, she went to her therapy session where she would film the interview that she agreed to beforehand. We were really excited about this, as it adds a level of professionalism and credibility to the ideas we are getting at about connection, also inviting another perspective that would be essential in the opening sequence and recurring perhaps in the other episodes. After she graciously agreed, we wrote down some interview questions including:

• Do you see a shift in the way that society connects?
• Do you think technology has had an effect on today's social world/ local communities?
• Do you see a difference in the way that different generations connect in the modern world?
• Do you think there's a bigger (social) disconnect in a specific age group?

    These are just some, with Sofia ending up asking her additional questions as she saw that she wasn't receiving the responses she wanted to help guide the introduction, as we want to use her interview as a narration/voiceover for the first minute of the episode. I will talk more about the introduction later in the week once I clarify what we want from it with Sofia. Sofia used a tripod to film, especially because there was no one there to help her. I'm really excited for this one specific shot where the therapist asks the question "What do you guys think?" or something along those lines, being where we introduce ourselves to the series with a quick whip-pan transition, taking the audience from the therapist office to what will probably be our room. 

Sofia outside of the therapy office ready to film!

    Overall, the interview and b-roll shots went really well, and I am excited to ultimately edit everything together and transition from the intro sequence to the location introduction in a seamless and fun way that's complementary to the feeling of the show and the specific episode.