Further Suggestions And Brainstorming

I have used this to think about the way in which I can relax an interviewee. After talking to some peers, (after all its them I'm going to be interviewing) they suggested perhaps letting the interviews take place in a familiar environment and make it seem like you're having a conversation rather than a formal interview. They felt they would give better answers if I was relaxed and not worried about how the end result would turn out. 

As well as this, I have decided to stick with the Q&A type style of questioning people. This is because it means I will hopefully ask the questions that the audience would have wanted to know. The more video practice I get under my belt the more I will improve and hopefully put together quite an interesting and perhaps revealing piece. 

Following consulting my teacher I have decided that I wish to create a 5 minute extract from a documentary that would also feature the views of perhaps; parents, teachers, experts and outsiders, but the extract or clip I am going to create is going to focus on the students views. This way I can perhaps include the other views or one of the other views in my ancillary tasks, such as the double page spread. A documentary looking at the post 16 education system on a whole but my extract involves the student opinion. This is because it is easier for me to access students on a regular basis, and are more willing to give up their time or allow me to re-shoot if necessary. Whereas although teachers are more than willing to help and look forward to it, it is harder to arrange a suitable time that suits everyone, I also feel more relaxed around people my age, and as they are my age I can empathise with what they are saying or understand the process. 

Detailed Documentary Research

After shooting my first few clips and interviews I decided that I need to look more closely at the style of documentary I wish to create. My first two interviews came across as very formal and a bit blunt. I did not feel that this was a good style for me to choose.

So I therefore experimented with the feel of the documentary and conducted the next two interviews under a more relaxed condition and tried to concentrate more on capturing the personality of who I was interviewing.

One in particular documentary that I have looked at is 'Shermans March' by Ross McElwee

In this the creator has created a very relaxed feel to the film. There is a clear indication of a handheld camera being used with jerky and shakey frames, this gives us a sense of reality to the filming. Not only this but the careful positioning of those he interviews including the lighting and background.

As well as this he creates very interesting chots by varying them, in this case below there is the use of extreme close up.

 

 

 



In this screen shot you can see how he has purposefully positioned his interviewee near an open window in order to create a warm tone to the interview. Something I tried to recreate when I shot my fourth practice interview.

Again we see McElwee use this technique again, when he himself turns the camera around and films himself. This could be something I include in order to show reaction or give a different dynamic to the feeling of the video.

 

 

 

I also have looked at the famous Panorama documentary style. They are more of investigative journalist style, they take controversial issues and tend to show quite a bias opinion and side to the subect at hand. For example, John Sweeney, a well known Panormam journalist investigated Scientology. In this we see him follow one of the main leaders in this belief. Quite a forward style of filming that has a director and John Sweeney as the presenter himself. This may be too difficult to achieve on my own. However, there is nothing stopping me from attempting to create a revealing or argumentative piece similar to a Panorama.

 

I've looked at the way in which they interview people, the layout of the programme and ultimately decided to create a more relxed style clip of this that could fit into a long documentary about post 16 education. Just concentrating on the students view of how they find the post 16 education system.

 



First Interview Clips

Although I am happy with my very first try to interview and create a documentary style there is still a lot of improvement to be done. As you can see in the first two videos I took quite a formal approach to the videoing, had someone to help me set up the camera and mic in order to get the best quality angle and sound. However, the interview came across as very stiff and quite boring and mundane. After deliberation with my teacher it was suggested I tried to create a more relaxed feel to my videos. I therefore decided to take the camera home and film family members, I literally did a Q&A on the spot. I felt that these went a lot better than the first two videos. This may have been for a number of reasons, I was more comfortable as they were family members and I was in an easy environment. Not only this but I had more of an idea what the process would feel like and because I knew them I definitely found it easier to question them. The fact there is an obvious difference in my technique and how well the second way worked it shows I have improved and am starting to get more of an idea what I want to achieve. I think I definitely would like to show some sort of personality and opinion through the video to make it more interesting to watch and for the viewer to engage in as they can respond to what the person is saying. Previously, I hadn't really probed the interviewee to gain any real interesting answers out of them, they were pretty boring to sit through and watch. The main key for me to get a decent footage or video out of this is for me to be inquisitive and enjoy questioning people to find out what they think. 

Practice Establishing Shots

Practice Establishing Shots

My shots are quite wobbly and could be perfected if I used a tripod for my establishing shots so that there was a smoother transition.

Practice Establishing Shots