This morning we met up as a group and went to record some long shots around the Fargate area and also Devonshire Street to contrast this. The weather was good and clear all day so we made the most of the full day by starting early and gathering as much footage- both close ups as well as long, static shots - as we could until late afternoon when the shops began to close and it began to get dark. At first, we did encounter a few issues with the shots we set up, such as market stalls and vans being set- up in the middle of the street, meaning it was difficult to get the full long shot straight down the Fargate area that we initially had planned out. After discussing the options for this as a group we managed to relocate to the side of the street which meant that these stalls were no longer in view whilst also ensuring that we had the a similar intended shot re set up.
After sorting out the camera settings as it was a bright day, we let the camera roll for about ten minutes to get a variety of people walking past and capture different types of scenes happening on the same busy street. The intention for this shot is to show how fast paced life in the city centre is, and present the idea that people go about their day to day lives, generally in a rush and not really paying attention to what is around them. When contrasting this with the similar scene on the Devonshire Street shot, we intend to show the difference between the people in the area as well as the place itself; how people choose to go into independent stores and generally explore the area with more interest than the majority of the shoppers who are rushed around in the city centre area, where the stores that stand are no different to any other city.
We also made use of the full day and time that we had free as a group to record a selection of soundbite vox pops from members of the public during the busier early afternoon time around the Fargate city centre area. As well as asking them the more general question of their views on Sheffield as a city and the shopping facilities, and if they knew anything about independent businesses and where to find them in Sheffield, we also asked them to describe the city in one word.
The purpose of this was to gather as many words as we could to put into our poetic documentary and, if at all possible, joining words that different people have said together to form an almost poem out of spoken words from the public. Our intention for this soundtrack is to put it alongside the footage of the busy city centre street scene, possibly in black and white and possibly as a timelapse - the words being those of shoppers who find the city like any other, boring and a nice place but not unique. In doing so, our intention is to capture and portray the fast paced city life that rushes through this part of the city every day, and contrast this alongside street scenes of Devonshire Street, where people in general take in their surroundings and aren't so rushed around - enjoying being around and noticing the smaller and more unique details of Sheffield; those that make it unique and what it is.
At the moment, although our idea is not fully formed, experimentation is the stage we are at - trying out early ideas and reviewing our own footage and sound on a regular basis, as well as the work of others that we take inspiration from, to establish how to strengthen the film and visually present the idea which will be fully explored in our main length documentary.
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