1. UNIT 36-Interview Technique for Creative Media Production-Essay
Every single interview that you see & film is unique and each subject has a different story to tell. Once you have filmed your interviewee’s you need to cut your interviewee’s and really capture and highlight the best words said and images to tell your story in a way that your audience will engage to it.
Whilst filming, someone talking about the topic on camera seems simple, but its more than that, what you have to remember is, it looks easy, but there’s more to it. The reality is that their needs to be a lot of planning and effort to go into a good video interview. What you specifically need to look for and avoid when filming for example when you look for a location if its suitable, if it will work out for example for the staging of the interview/lights that will visually help you tell your story
Firstly you will need to think of a location, where you will be filming your interviewee’s but you need to keep in mind you cannot film without having permission to shoot. Find a location where you have control over for example, a place where it won’t affect your shoot with the people, noise and lighting. Do you have a outlet at your location for the electricity to plug in your lights or enough battery? So you have to keep that in mind.
Also can you record clean audio at your location? You also have to think about what microphone is more suitable for your interview. It depends on the particular interview and audio situation you are in, what one to use. For example for a sit down interview, hard wire line microphone is the best to use that makes them less self-conscious and makes the interviewer more relaxed also they are small to carry around with you. The disadvantage is, you put it on the chest area, and if the interviewee’s hair is long it may rub against it, and this will mess up the audio sound then. Also as they are wired, you don’t need to be worried about running out of battery of anything. The shot gun microphone or boom, it might be too disturbing and not comfortable to have someone standing next to your interviewer. So if you really want to use a shot gun mic, it is better to use it on a stand, so you can be perfectly still.
When setting up you want to avoid plain white walls because it will make your frame flat, unless if you have no choice then use posters, objects and anything you can to break down boring, lifeless white walls, bringing it to life, doing this will help tell us your story. But it has to be related to your story. Also when you set this up, even if the audience doesn’t know what the person is talking about, they still have a clear vision of what the topic is about. While your subject mouth is telling the story to the ears of your audience, camera work and lighting should all be working to show the story to the eyes. Audio and video alone are powerful story telling, but when you use them together the effect is much stronger. Lighting is very important alongside with that, is the cheapest and easiest thing to accomplish to add a professional look to your project. You might need a 3 lights kit with stands and power cable. What you want to avoid is, there should be no shadows, what so ever. The problem might be the reflection of lighting with subjects wearing glasses.
Staging an interview is the physical placement in the relationship; between the interviewee and the camera. If the interviewer is sitting, the chair should not move. Avoid shooting someone right against the wall, this creates shadows, it will look low budget. It’s much better to position the person in the middle of the interview to get a much interesting composition with greater depth. Avoid backgrounds that are too busy because it will distract your audience then from your subject.
When filming your interviewer, should never look at the camera, they should be looking at the person who is asking them questions, like it is a casual conversation, to make it look more realistic. Another thing, you should consider is how you are going to position your subject in the screen. On the left side, facing the right or on the right side of the frame, facing left or dead centre. It doesn’t really matter but you want to have some kind of storytelling. It’s also good; if you film with two cameras so then you have two different angles shots, the advantage of that is every time the topic changes you can change it to a different camera angle that you took. Also, if you make a mistake with one of the cameras, you can edit that, having a backup with one of the other cameras. When filming these interview shots you can only keep them up ever so long, the audience will get bored so it’s also good to take cover shots related ones to tell the story. Cut away, is individual shots of anything relevant to your interview, character or location to help tell your story more effectively.
You have to remember anyone who is not a professional performer that is not used to being in front of camera, is likely to be a little nervous. So, tell your subject how long the interview is going to be. Email them beforehand, telling them the questions, so they will be prepared and know what to say. Before you start, ask to your subjects and your crew to turn off their phones. Also just before you start ask your interviewer to repeat the questions, before they answer it. This makes it a lot easier when we edit it. Before you start tell your interviewer to not to look at the camera to look at you like it’s a normal conversation. Tell your subject that nothing will go live and that we will cut out any mistakes. Also, always keep some water ready for your subject. If you do this is will make your job more and to help your subject relax and things will be more organised then.
When preparing before of your interview you need to come up with questions and write them in in a logical order so your story will have a CLEAN BEGINNING, MIDDLE and END with the right amount of questions. Avoid asking questions that can be answered with YES or NO. Remember you want you’re subject to paint the picture in their words. The questions you should be asking, start with HOW, WHY, WHERE and WHAT and BAD questions are; DID, ARE, WILL and WAS.
Regardless be aware of the pacing and length of your interview. Always close your interview asking “Is anything that I have not asked you and you would like to add on?” This question will allow your subject to explain any answers that was given earlier that feels unclear or incomplete.
What you should be aware about when filming, when a subject moves out the light this can spoil the composition of the shot, let them know, if they are shifting. At all times your interviewer, should always have eye level with the camera, not looking up or down. Tell the interviewer when you ask them a question or example,“Where are you from?” instead of saying, “Chicago,” you would say, “I am from Chicago” and whatever else you would like to add in there. Lastly, keep some tissue, if you think things might get emotional.
For my documentary in my group, our original idea was to do ‘Freezing bodies’ (they freeze your body, when you die and they believe in a couple of years times you will come back to life’. But because the person who owns the company went on holiday, on the last min we had to change the idea. We thought of the idea Porn, but not just any old porn, porn rewires the way people, think, behave towards one another, the way they view society and one another also relationships. For example theirs something called ‘Casual sex’ for friends with benefits two people they get casual with no hard feelings, but it never works out.
The problems we had whilst filming Afroditi the phycology women of pornography was, when finding our way there, the issue was the parking. We couldn’t find it, because they do not have a parking place, we drove all the way down, and parked in the wrong place. We overcomed the issue with A’s interview by calling her and we asked people where to park, it turns out it was just down the road for visitors parking. The parking was 2pounds for 3 hours so that was a good amount of timing for us to set up the equipment and to film her. Also another problem we had with the audio whilst filming there was a buzzing noise. Eventually it stopped.
Issues we had whilst filming O was a ticking clock, dripping tap and mums and kids making a lot of noise.
Issues we had whilst filming F, the biggest issue was the lighting and location, there wasn’t a lot of lighting and also the space was not big enough to set up the equipment eventually, we managed to set the atmosphere and scenario to make it look like a messy, boys, teenagers room and worked with it, by setting up the lights it eventually looked ok.
Whilst filming M the only issue we had was we ran out battery on one of our cameras but luckily as we had two cameras, it was ok therefore we could only work with one. Also when we booked equipment for these dates there was no cameras available therefore we had to use Macs camera. Another issue we had when filming M was with the microphone, when we attached the micro phone on his jumper it kepted rubbing against it.
The filming went pretty good whilst filming the interviewees we all took part and got involved setting up the equipment. For example interviewing P, Mac set up the camera, lewis set the other camera up. I set up the Audio and the lights I and Lewis did and Anna directed everything and spoke to the interviewee, what was going to happen and spoke her thru it by asking her the questions. I then asked more questions at the end, just in case we missed anything like having a casual conversation with her. When we started filming Courtney was doing the Audio.
