The location of the shoot was Oakwright’s show home in the Hereford countryside. The show home gives potential customers a feel for the type of house, giving them the ability to ‘try before you buy’ whilst also providing them with inspiration for their own.
Oakwright’s show home was furnished and styled using Holloways, allowing both companies to be well represented.
We travelled down to Hereford the night before and stayed over in preparation for the early morning. There were frequent checks on the weather, as rain was forecast and part of the shoot was focussed around the garden, which was to be designed using outdoor furniture and treated as a room in itself, complete with before and after shots.
Arriving at the show home at 8:00am, filming in the garden began soon after. Once camera equipment was set up and filming of the garden began so did the rain. Luckily it wasn’t too heavy for too long and although grey for the majority of the morning the weather picked up in time for the ground floor post-design shots of the house, most importantly the garden, which benefitted from the evening sun.
The shoot had to encapsulate both companies individual areas, whilst showing off the show home as a whole. This meant that focus had to be paid not only to the furnishings and overall look of the room, Holloway’s influence, but also to the oak fixtures and details, Oakwright’s main focus. This was achieved by using before, during and after shots.
Cinematographers
Gary Hawkey – Gary is an experienced Freelance DOP/Lighting Cameraman who has worked in the television and film industry, working on programmes such as Top Gear, Watch Dog and The One Show. He has also worked on sporting events such as Wimbledon and both the Summer and Winter Olympics.
Gary filmed the majority of the inside shots of the house.
Andy Rutter – Andy focussed predominantly on the outside of the house and the garden area, taking shots of the patio before and after the furniture had been put in place. He also did some close up shots inside the house of furniture and the oak aspects, to emphasise both Holloway’s and Oakwright’s place in the house.
Shooting on Sony A7s
Both Gary and Andy used a Sony A7s. These cameras are designed to enhance video recording and low-light performance. The A7s has a high ISO range and due to this much clearer results than most cameras can be achieved.
Ronin
Gary used the Ronin camera mount to take wide shots of the rooms before and after furnishing. It allowed him to create smooth and stabilised camera angle changes making framing wide-angle scenes less difficult.
Both Andy and Gary used camera sliders to allow them to pan the rooms/garden areas in a more controlled way.
The shoot was a great way to start off my week of work experience as it allowed me to see all aspects of TINKER TAYLOR’s work, including the original shoot. With this in mind I hope to see how an entire day of filming can be condensed into a few minutes worth of video and the process behind editing and creating the final product.
Hattie Pickering