When the Community Becomes Part of the Crew
Filming in 360-degrees requires a lot of planning, patience and quick thinking while in the field. A lot of key decisions need to be made that distinguish it from linear filmmaking. You have to consider the position of the camera in relation to stitch lines, as well choose the location based on assessing the visuals of all 360-degrees of the scene. While it easy to frame a scene in a linear video, it is much more difficult in a 360 video to control the shot and ensure that the behind the scenes action does not appear on camera.
Often in our productions, the action behind the scenes can involve the family, friends, neighbors and passerbys of our main subject. In the documentaries that we film, we work closely with the communities on the ground who have always trusted us with their stories and welcomed us with their hospitality. While our goal is always to capture the most accurate story possible, it is also crucial to be respectful to the communities that are welcoming us.
Behind every one of our productions, there’s always a whole community of people who came together to help make the documentary possible. While it’s great to have the community participating and excited about the shoot, it also creates challenges shooting a 360 video when you have a crowd around your camera every single minute of every day There is also always a library of unused 360 footage, where, after we pressed ‘record’ and left the scene to hide from the camera, a group of curious bystanders would crowd around the camera. Often times, those curious bystanders tend to be children.
If that happens you either end up with a shot of kids crowded around the camera, dancing in front of the camera, or a combination of both. Any of these options are gold for trailers and “making of” videos, but none of them, unfortunately, are fit for virtual reality documentaries.
During many of our shoots, our running around with 360 cameras seemed to be one of the most entertaining events for the children of the surrounding communities. In Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, children would follow us throughout the day, no matter how far inside the camps we would go. Some of them would even find us the following the day to continue spending time with us.
In October 2017, we filmed “Forced to Flee” on the Rohingya refugee crisis in a camp in Bangladesh. Jamal, a young Rohingya refugee living within the camp, followed us for two days and quickly took on the role of instructing people to keep their distance from the camera and educating them on the purpose of the documentary. Seeing his dedication, we handed him an audio recorder to capture the natural sounds of the camp. Jamal was very attentive and responsible, and it was great to see him so excited about the task.
While some kids just follow and stare at the camera, others are more active and use the opportunity to perform. Zahra Rasool, Contrast’s Editorial Lead, describes how, “children were a large part of our production while filming our VR documentary, Oil In Our Creeks, in Nigeria. As soon as we would hit record and disappear to our hideout, they would start dancing and performing around the camera.”
Children in South Sudan were very excited to see our team capturing moving shots with a camera mounted on top of what looked to them like a toy car. They all surrounded our cameraman Alan Bucaria to witness the preparations and brought their own cars made out of scrap.
Most of the time these behind-the-scenes moments are not a part of the story. Thus, it is important to find a way to keep them out of the shot, without discouraging their enthusiasm and being disrespectful to the community who are trusting us with their stories.
Advice #1: Find a community leader, teacher or any other respected elder who could explain to the kids what’s going on and would encourage them to be quiet and not to disturb the production. Even if the kids are not in the shot, gathering good audio is also important, so this person could also make sure to hush the children in case they are too loud.
Advice #2: Spend time with the children, become a friend. If one of the team members takes that role, the kids would follow him/her, would love to take pictures, learn from him/her, this way they are kept busy, but distracted from the main production.
Avice #3: Involve them in the production. If they are interested and follow the process, maybe there is a future VR specialist and filmmaker right there in the group. This way, the children are not only trusted with a task, but are also learning new skills and getting experience in being a part of a film crew.
