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TWD Takes On The Daytona 500!
Recently Third Wave Digital got the exciting opportunity to film at the Daytona 500. Our client, Sunoco Race Fuels wanted us to feature their Rookie program, particularly four young drivers. We were tasked with filming interviews for each of the four drivers and gathering footage of those drivers interacting with fans and their crews. A challenge of filming big events like the Daytona 500 can be the overwhelming amount of activity that makes it hard to focus your effort, but the clear marching orders from our client let us drown out the white noise and focus on the Rookie drivers. With this in mind we executed on a tight schedule and were able to come home with four quality interviews.
The Interviews
Each of our driver’s had a very tight schedule and only gave us fifteen minutes for our interview, additionally our locations were restrictive, so we had to plan very quickly and carefully. The basics of filming an interview have to do with eyeline, separation, lighting, positioning, and location; all of these guidelines help create a visually pleasing interview. We were able to create pleasing interviews with proper planning and adaptability.
Coverage
When editing together an interview, having coverage to cut away from the speaker is essential. Ideally, we want footage of what the speaker is talking about, but when that’s not possible, finding interesting angles and moments of candid action serve very well. It wasn’t possible for us to follow all four of our drivers around constantly throughout the weekend, but we knew key times when we had the best chance of capturing them in engaging situations. Planning and being in position really helped us capture our coverage.
Racing Footage
Filming at a racetrack can be intimidating: the cars are speeding by, roaring in your ear, and the best locations to film at get taken quickly. Thankfully, TWD has years of racing experience and our client gave us a very specific targets of four drivers to focus on. Information about the track is vital and making sure that each videographer in your crew has this information will yield good results. In our experience filming at the races we have our editing down to a science and know which shots to get to yield the best results. We want pans of the cars passing by, steady shots of the cars entering and leaving the frame, and the behind and front shots of the cars. Capturing a variety of shots allows us more freedom and options in post-production editing and allows ample footage that is dynamic and interesting.
The Unexpected
During the weekend our crew had a very special opportunity to work with the fantastic people that make up the Sunoco fuel team. These individuals that make this entire event possible and volunteer their time to fuel race cars all weekend, were very generous in working with us to get some exciting footage. We were able to put Go Pros on some fuel team members as they fueled up cans with the Sunoco Race fuel that powered our Rookie’s cars.
The Daytona 500 was a success for Third Wave Digital and it was made possible by an experienced, talented crew, clear communication and solid planning.
posted 03/13/2020 in Creative Services, Video Production
Tags: third wave digital, daytona 500, sunoco racing, video production, creative services
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