Directing a Multicamera Shoot for UM's Mcity Automated Vehicle Testing Facility

Nearly a decade I used to do regular work for the University of Michigan, across several departments and colleges. Over the years, I’ve been able to keep a relationship going which has evolved into me being involved with media projects from time to time. While this is usually just editing remotely, I was asked to come up and direct a multi-camera shoot for a recent video project.

There is an automated car testing track called “Mcity,” where a small scale town, complete with traffic lights, pedestrians, and even a short highway provide a testing ground for these vehicles. My role was to lead a team over the course of a day to capture video content for a myriad of purposes, arguably the most important of which was an upcoming web broadcast.

Specifically, we needed to capture how the AVs (automated vehicles) performed under a series of seven specific tests. Our footage needed to be immersive and telling, so that the viewer could really get a sense of speed, proximity, and reaction time.

This was to be a major collaborative effort; I coordinated directly with the Communications Director as well as Michigan Media producers to be sure I understood the big picture, and then in turn had to communicate directives to a crew of 3 camera operators, plus 3 drivers and 2 ground control staff. Lots of moving parts to be sure!

We had a limited time for our drone operator, so we started with that first. We ran the full course several times to get different aerial looks onto the 7 different scenarios, as well as some high angle beauty shots of the course. This gave our drone operator some time and room to re-shoot as needed, but also provided a reference for what was next– getting our ground camera operators into place in the best positions possible.

We moved from one scenario to the next, making sure we had good coverage before moving on to the next shot. I mixed in car-mounted GoPro shots as much as possible for some dramatic, high-impact angles too.

Even with a few delays due to equipment failure, weather, and more, we still came away with great content. It was an enjoyable shoot, getting to collaborate and work with such a talented group of operators and techs on this one.