Today we had a huge discussion about audio and interview. We often forget about how important audio is, but it is arguable, that audio is just as important as images… if not more. 

To me, I would always say that audio is more important than video footage. If you’re watching any film (documentary or otherwise) the music or soundscape will always play such an important role to enhancing emotion into the piece.

Imagine you are blind. A story can be told purely through voice, and sound. If you’re deaf and watching a story, you may have absolutely no idea what is happening. Audio and imagination work well together. When audio is effective, video is redundant.

Think about it – even if video footage is intentionally silent, there is still purpose behind the silence. All the 5 human senses are as important as each other – smell, taste, touch, sight, and sound. The last two – sight and sound, are extremely important and reliant on each other in the film, cinematic, and documentary world.

In order to create a successful, moving documentary based on The Melbourne Period Project, interview and audio will be severely essential. Through this class discussion, I’ve realised that capturing the sound and noise will be of utmost importance. Every minute sound is meaningful. Even the pauses in an interview and the heavy breaths can infer something important – emotion, struggle, memory.

I feel that capturing a heap of B-roll including: people walking, blurred hands, unrecognisable faces etc. will be an enhancer to the audio that is already there. I feel that the video will support the audio – not the other way around.

I think, with the particular topic of The Melbourne Period Project, there will be a heap of extremely touching stories that will be captured through narrative, soundscape, and even emotive music. What will be important is to ensure that there is a safe space created between the interviewee and interviewer to ensure the depth of the story can be captured.

An issue we may encounter in terms of video, is the problematic circumstance of privacy. In correspondence with the company, we were told “…we don’t allow filming of anyone experiencing homelessness. We have a policy that their privacy is more important than our publicity.” Of course, this is totally understandable – hence the focus on the stories being told, rather than the potential video action.