In this weeks session we booked out equipment and went out to do some interviewing.
This was a really useful session for us as we are currently filming the Tango Man film which includes a lot of interviews and we want to make sure that when we interview people we do a good, professional job.
The set up for our interviews went well. We decided on a topic for our questions and wrote questions out in advance, and we assigned roles; Jacob on camera, Joe on sound and myself as director / producer.
I say that it was a useful session because everything that could go wrong did go wrong. So from that point of view it was a successful session because when we got back and reviewed the footage we were able to recognise and sort out all the things that hadn't worked. I'm glad that we were able to do that in this practice exercise rather than things go wrong in our actual filming where we might only get the one chance to do it right, and the one chance to show that we know what we are doing and are professional in our approach.
Issues we faced in the exercise:
The person who is doing sound on our actual film wasn't able to make this session so we had to go to stores to get sound equipment for the exercise. Because we had to book this through the ridiculously appalling Connect2 system it took a lot of time to book the equipment and then, for some reason, all three of us decided to just book the microphone and boom pole, and not a Marantz, and record from the camera.
The main issue that we had was that, for some reason, the sound didn't record with the external mic in the camera. It was the same camera that we had used on Saturday and it had recorded sound then using it's internal mic, so it was obvious that we hadn't read the sound instructions properly and that we need to change the settings for using an external mic. It was good that we find this out now and know how to set up properly next time. That was the sort of stupid error that we can't afford to do again. The other point for us to note from this error is, if we had booked out the Marantz it wouldn't have mattered so much that the camera hadn't recorded as it would have been recorded on the Marantz too. In our filming so far we have used the Marantz, so the interviews that we have done for the film have worked just fine.
From our session exercise footage, and from reviewing other teams' footage, the other points that were raised were, if the background is untidy, for example the join in the green screen wall, or bumpy plaster walls, then bring the interviewee forward away from the wall. This makes the background less flat to the subject and not so noticeable.
Framing is an important issue. In our first interview that we shot for the exercise we got a good framing of the interviewee, but there was a big window in the background which affected the exposure. Our second interview was a lot better. We dressed the background using one of the interviewee's election posters (she was a candidate in the Union elections) and she was framed really well in shot.
In both interviews I was stood a little too far away from the camera as I asked the questions. It would have looked a lot neater if I had been stood closer to the shoulder of the cameraman so the interviewee was facing a little more towards the camera. I know now to do that in future.
I am very comfortable in approaching people and asking questions, and seem to put them at ease. One comment made in class when we reviewed our footage was about how the interviewee's seem to be enjoying themselves and acting naturally. The comment was made that I must be very charming. Watching the footage back it does look very relaxed and unforced, so I'll take that comment as a compliment!!
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