Filming started today here on the Isle of Skye. The forecast was for rain and I’d been warned there’d be a lot of hanging around, so I wrapped up warm and downloaded a book to read.
Today’s task was tracking shots – the two Porsches would follow a camera truck with two cameras and seven people attached to. Now, over the years I’ve done countless stills shoots for car magazines and tracking photographer is normally done by a single photographer hanging out of the back of a car or with a camera clamped to the rear of the tracking vehicle. The key is to keep the chase car as close to the camera car as possible otherwise the road won’t blur and also to drive steadily and smoothly.
With film, however, it’s quite different. We had two cars – a Porsche Cayman R and a modified 964 Carrera – battling for supremacy, and the director demanded dynamic movement as the cars jostled for position, while at the same time moving up close and then dropping back from the cameras.
It was a lot of fun but exhausting as we had to make full use of the tracking vehicle’s time and we had four separate locations to cover. At two roads the other traffic was stopped which gave us free rein to overtake and drive alongside each other. It was a strange feeling to being flying down the wrong side of a road without a clear view ahead!
As for the weather, most of the time it was gorgeous sunshine mixed with the odd heavy shower. I was far too warm in the Cayman R without air-conditioning but continuity demanded I keep my black fleece on all the time. As for time to read – not a chance, we didn’t stop all day apart from an hour for lunch which, it seems, film crews demand. That’s how I like it though, I’d rather keep busy.
