Contact with Syd & Mallory and Planning for further filming

After last week's filming we got together as a group to review the footage and sound that we collected and to generate ideas for our next filming date within the store (Wednesday 5th November). We thought about some of the key things we gained from our interview with Lucy; how we learnt about their side of the story on the current situation - the fact they found out via social media and that we all feel like we got a sense of understanding that this is a store that has passionate owners who love Sheffield and bring something unique and of their own to their city. We also found out that everything that they create and sell in store is made in house, and so we thought about the creative possibilities within this. After attending the practical workshop session on Friday in the workstation studio, we feel we could get further interview footage and that it could be really beneficial to our film to include footage of the contributors talking to us as they make items and are comfortable in doing something that they love as they talk about it.

Because we previously had already interviewed Lucy and agreed to come back in next Wednesday (5th November) to film closer up details of the store and general establishing shots, we wanted to stick to this as we understand that there are only a couple of members of staff in the store and we do not want to be interrupting the needs of the business. However, due to us rethinking the store interviews and how we could better approach these, I sent a message to Syd & Mallory thanking them for their help and time for the interview and explaining the process of us reviewing the footage and our query about if filming them at work would be at all possible. Within a few days I received the following response:


Hello! No problem at all, I'm happy for you to come in and film around the shop and even a bit of sewing downstairs. But unfortunately we won't be able to film up in the studio as it's a very small (and chaotic!) space which we can't really let public into with the industrial machines and big rolls of fabric, and heat press, it's just not safe to have many people up there. Also we have a big order to get finished and shipped this week so it's pretty full on up there!
See you in the shop in a couple of days.
Cheers. x

Taking this into account, we are happy as a group to film the work that goes on downstairs due to the health and safety restrictions that the upstairs of the building has in place. We think that even just small details could work quite nicely and fit within our film, such as one of the owners on a sewing machine or making some jewellery. We are also glad as a group that we have established a positive working relationship early on with our contributors, as they have agreed to let us go into the store with cameras to film any time we want to during their opening hours, and told us to e-mail them if there is anything else that they can do to help.