AV News Magazine | Page 24

AV News 178 - November 2009 As for kit, any lens will do, forget the football scenario of massed white 400mm primes, anything from fisheye to 300mm will do, though I wouldn't be inclined to change lenses too often. So I got home, having gone to the event largely looking for single images, but once there, recognising that there was a great potential for an AV. I hadn't gone planning for an AV, so surveying my images at home I realised that I had some key pictures missing. There were no pictures of the finish, no-one showing off their medal, no one huddled in a space blanket; I was just too engrossed in the flames and water that I forgot to get those shots. I had recorded a bit of sound, mainly people cheering on their mates, some of the splashing of water and some crackling flames. What I should have done, in retrospect, was to interview a competitor or two, but I didn't. So the challenge was how to end the sequence. I went over various things and then spotted, on a TV programme, a disclaimer which I felt would give a light hearted end to the film. (I won't give away the ending in case you haven't yet seen the sequence). So having decided on a light hearted ending, I recognised I needed a light touch to the sequence which encouraged the audience to think "…these people must be totally mad…" rather than "…these people are very brave…". From the photos, as usual, there were a hundred different sequences I could have made. I decided against showing too many different obstacles, but focused on two or three. I also had quite a few close-up shots of competitors so I wanted to use those among some broader scene setting shots. Page 22