DRJ#6 - What Equipment I will for the practice and Risk Assessment Form

Introduction

This post will show the equipment that I have decided to use and booked for the practice.

Choices and Reasoning for Equipment

My proposed filming date is for the 14th of May 2023, and the reason I have chosen the equipment that I have decide upon is simple. It is more or less an identical set up that I used in my placement when making media for the emergency services during the 2021/2022 year.

This set up that my mentor in the service had shown me is extremely effective and I believe it will get the desired quality that I need for the participatory documentary that I have decided upon for my final practice piece titled, "The Evolution of Cinematics in Video Games".

The only difference between this set up and mine is that when I was making documentaries in the emergency services, they were done with two cameras. Due to the time of year with final hand in being so close, another camera was not available for this set up. I know I can make this work, with it being slightly more difficult to edit but I would also feel bad if I knew someone was struggling for a camera and I had taken two. So I feel in the interest of being a good sport, I should make do with one.

The other difference is, I don't have that much experience with the Black Magic system as I am used to using Sony cameras. A Sony camera wasn't available during the booking process but I will have to make do with my limited experience. I have asked Matt McNally a post graduate that I was in class with before I went on my placement has agreed to help me out on this final project of mine as a camera operator.

Risk Form Completion

A majority of the blog posts I had already written out on paper, but as stated in the DRJ#2 post. I decided to type them up instead due to how bad my hand writing was.

There weren't many risks other than cabling but on the day I pointed out to Matt McNally and my partner Bowie Lui, to be mindful of cabling as it would be a potentially trip hazard when filming. Below you can find the Project Title that I submitted along with the Project Outline, Students Involved, Campus, and the project supervisors which was Lee Cadieux.

The next section that I completed was the location form:

I couldn't alter the dates for whatever reason so I decided to leave them as is and decided to submit them anyway. So I ended up submitting the form, but even to this day where I am typing up my notes and adding some further context to those notes Lee never approved the risk form as of 20/05/2023, which is four days before the deadline and six days after filming. I submitted this Risk form when I booked the equipment on Friday 6th of May 2023. Here is a screenshot below for evidence.

Conclusion

I understand that Lee is probably busy, but to be fair this is something I feel that could have been approved. I had talked to him about my project in one of the studies supervisory meetings a few weeks prior to that and explained that the only concern I had was the cabling. I emailed him later asking if he could approve the shoot but I never got a response from Lee.

As for the equipment, I feel confident in the set up that I had chosen for the day of filming as it was something that I had used for 37 High Commendation awards for the emergency services awards ceremony of outstanding acts of bravery. Whilst the crew is minimalized compared to what I had on placement, I am confident that I can make it work.

Thanks for reading!