Documentary Camera Logs

[John Paul O'Rourke]

I'm leaving to work on a project In SE Asia and I'm looking for documentary camera logs. We will be shooting two cameras. I've used camera reports and logs on narrative production but I'm curious if someone has a workflow or camera log template they can recommend.

[Robin R Probyn]

Your usually running around and shooting too much to do camera logs /report like you would on a narrative production.. especially if your shooting two camera,s.. if your shooting TC time of day.. sometimes an assistant director will keep a rough shooting log just by writing time of day and general description of shots.. no template that I know of.. they just write it in a note book..

Any really details report is done when rushes are logged in post..

[Tyler Purcell]

I have never done active camera logs on a documentary.

 

I simply download the material every day, organize via subject/interview.

 

Then when I have the time to watch material, I will log what I see in an editing program.

 

As a cinematographer for hire, I generally make sure my camera has decent metadata.

[Jeffrey Tidwell]

I've worked on a lot of doc and reality projects and the logs are generally a lot simpler than logs for scripted projects. Most of the time they just include the date, roll number, and a brief scene description as well as any necessary notes. I also add all the normal data for any shots that have to be recreated, green screen, plates, etc.

If you're unsure of exactly what you need talk to your DP, post, and production beforehand to make sure you're giving them everything they need.

Here's a template that I use.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7ZFLd5sVdtIZ0EyV2lOamJwZnd2SUZ3LVFRYzBMUG4wQVYw/view?usp=sharing