Practical Artefact: Filming Interviews

When it came to filming the interviews for my practical I carried out lighting and camera tests because I had minimal knowledge of filming interviews. In addition I watched YouTube videos and read Representing Reality Issues and Concepts in Documentary by Bill Nichols. Nichols explains thoroughly the different types of documentaries and how these are usually filmed.

It helped me consider how other types of documentaries to know what would best get my messages across.

                       


When filming the practical, I chose locations where there were large rooms that would give me enough space to set up the lights, camera and backdrop stand, like the image below of a location in Norwich I used.

The Garage, Norwich, Norfolk

With each interview I did, I learnt how organise myself to maximise my time and the interviewee's. I calculated that I was able to set up in 30 minutes so when I arranged for times to shoot I could keep the whole interview to 2 hours maximum. This was a positive factor because people had work and other commitments, so being able to give an approximate time frame was helpful. In person and through emails,  contacting and communicating with people from different backgrounds and ages boosted my confidence and networking skills. It introduced me to people working on similar projects and industries so overall I made valuable contacts. 
Technically I studied how to setup DSLR cameras for filming in different environments so that I was prepared. It was not till after a few interviews that I invested in a Lapel microphone as I learnt that it would give me better sound quality as the microphone I attached to the camera was good quality but it also picked up much background noise.
Other lessons I learnt were:

1.     Make sure there is minimal to zero background noise in your environment so your microphone won’t pick it up because in this case, when interviewing someone, their speech needs to be clear as possible.

2.     Make sure the lighting on your set compliments your  subject natural and shadows are minimal unless required. Consider the colour of your background and how that may affect how the lights are set up. Each person depending on their skin tone, makeup and sometimes hair colour, you want to light them according to these factors as that will determine what you need to edit in post-production. 

3.     I learnt that I need to leave at least a ten second gap between each question so that when I edit the videos it is easier to mix and match different clips. I should also not respond with ‘hmm’ and ‘aahhh’ in the video while the subject is talking because it does affect the atmosphere in the interview when you watch it back in the editing process.