DOCUMENTARY: Interview Workshop & Feedback & Group Idea Development

Today was our first workshop in the documentary unit. I was interested by this workshop from the beginning because we need to ask questions in an interview style for our documentaries so this was good practice for us. 

After listening to a powerpoint from Helen, we got into our documentary groups and set up our area as if we were going to interview someone about their life. I was the camera operator, Callum was the sound man, Sophie was the interviewer and Jack was the interviewee. We thought these were perfect roles because Sophie and Jack are both good at talking on the spot. Sophie was able to think up a variety of different questions and Jack made up the answers, saying he had 5 different jobs and 4 children (two sets of twins), and he gave a very realistic and enjoyable performance. 

Set up during the interview

I set up the chairs and the camera so we had some studio machinery in the background so I had something to be behind Jack. This made the depth of field really good. I focused on a medium shot of Jack (head and shoulders) and the machinery was blurred in the background. We cut after a few questions and answers and I changed the shot size by zooming further into Jack. This time I had a close up of just his face and the machinery was blurred even more. I was happy with this look and Sophie proceeded to ask more questions. We also had a LED lamp on Jack on the side that he was facing, this brought out the colours surrounding him and gave a nice glow to his face. 

Medium close up & close up shots

To capture the sound we had a couple of things to choose from, from a boom mic, clip mic and tazcam. To overcome the sound decision, we chose to use a clip mic and the boom. The boom mic was a good way to get all the other noises such as Sophies' voice and the general background noise as the clip mic was only aimed to pick up Jacks' voice. The clip mic was surprisingly very strong for such a little microphone and we received a clear and loud recording of Jacks' voice. 

We also learnt about the clip mic, in terms of how to get it at the correct level rather than toasting the audio. To do this we were shown to change the level of sensitivity.

Preparing the clip mic

How the workshop helped our work

After today we have definitely decided that the clip mic and boom are best for our documentary. We took into consideration that we will be outside and still think the clip mic will get the best sound from our characters. Luckily the clip mic shouldn't pick up too much wind/outdoor noise and just the character who is wearing the mic. We have all agreed that the interview shot should follow the 'rule of thirds' which is a simple rule we should always use when creating documentaries. As Jack was quite quiet when we watched it back, we've learnt that we need to make sure the mic's are on the correct settings when we are getting the interviews for our own documentary. Even if the voices sound loud enough through the headphones we should check the footage back there and then just incase they aren't loud enough.

Feedback from our interview

We received feedback from Ferg, Helen and the rest of the group the Friday after the workshop and they were pleased with our work. They said they liked the framing and there was a lot of looking room ready for a caption to placed in. The depth of field was mentioned and Helen and Ferg were also impressed with that. I was happy with this feedback because I was the camera operator and I set Jack up and worked out how far away he should be from the background and camera. They also picked up about the lighting and that it created an attractive light on Jack, where we could see both sides of his face well rather than one side being too bright and the other too dark. This is good lighting for an interview so we will keep this in mind when we set up for our documentary. 

However, the sound wasn't great. Jack was extremely quiet even though on the day his voice seemed like it was at the correct level. This brought the whole video down slightly which was frustrating because everything else (the camera, framing and lighting) were spot on. Nevertheless, we learnt more about the sound and how we should check it before wrapping to be sure we have the correct level. Luckily, our audio wasn't too quiet that we could have easily could have brought it up in post-production.

Our documentary Story

While we were participating in this workshop we decided what story idea our documentary will follow. We will have shots of the football team competing in a match and shots of them training before the game or on another training day. Then we will go through a series of interviews from the teams manager and a footballer, while cutting back to the game footage as well as the interviews. Next, the idea is to find and follow a character who is either gay or straight (we haven't decided yet) and is going to have their first training day with the LGBT team. We might interview them before a game but if not we will definitely interview them after. We can also follow them to their house as they are getting ready to meet the team for the first time as their emotions will be quite high. 

Idea development

After the workshop, it gave us motivation to get our own interview questions sorted for the manager, footballer and new team member. Below are the questions we have come up with so far: