Individual Project

The Weston Operatic Society

For my individual documentary I decided to make a piece on the Weston Operatic Society. this was for several reason. Firstly, this year is their centennial year, which is quite an achievement and also the hook for my story, and also because I have a very good friend, Vicky, who has just joined them and is working back stage. She is my 'in'.
After talking it over with Vicky, she gave me the contact details of Margeret who is one of the more prominent members of the group and both her and her husband have been with them for more than 20 years. Margeret and I emailed back and forth for a while and then spoke on the phone. I offered my services as a prop person back stage. I did this for their sake as well as my own. They are always in need of another pair of hands and it also gave the the opportunity to view the company from within, so to speak. I spoke to many of the members and got a great sense of their camaraderie and politics. After researching and helping out for a couple of nights, I took the camera to their penultimate performance, a Saturday matinee. I took some shots of the cast and crew arriving, some shots of a vocal warm up and then make up and costume. I also took some great shots back stage before and during the performance. I was not able to film the performance front of house due to copyright and royalty restrictions, but it really wasn't the focus of the piece anyway. I was more interested in being a fly on the wall backstage. I used the microphone on the camera because while the sound was important, I wanted to give the experience of being one of the company, and it worked better to be as unobtrusive as possible. I also filmed in the street outside the Playhouse, while the audience was arriving and in the front of house, although I was told by the front of house manager that was not allowed to film any children, which I was already aware would be a problem as its illegal. He did allow me to film in the auditorium thought, which was wonderful and very cinematic, with all the dark red seats and the hum of the crowd. The only thing I did wish I had more of was some interviews, but everyone was so busy i didn't want to interrupt. In retrospect I should have, since this was a reported piece, I should have had interview. But I hope to make up for that with anecdotal narrative and some pieces to camera of me narrating.
I have a lot of editing to do now, so I better get to it!