Project Brief Three “Carolyn.”

Carolyn, not only the Managing Editor of the Law Institute Journal but a family friend of mine spoke to me about her family life, critical points in her journalism career and what makes her such a wonderful and unique person. She gives not only an insight into the ways of the media and what you should do to succeed but a touch of her personal life and work-life balance.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 

1. What would constitute the perfect day for you?
2. What is your most treasured memory?
3. What does friendship mean to you?
4. Describe what makes your family unique.
5. What do you like about yourself?
6. Where and when was your favorite vacation?
7. Who is your role model?
8. What is the music that most resonates with you/you feel for?
9. What has been the best decision in terms of your career?
10. Why did you pursue a career in Journalism/The Media?
11. What is your favorite childhood memory?
12. How do you spend your free time?
13. If you won the lottery this afternoon, what would you do with the money?
14. What is your strongest personal quality?
15. What is a skill you would like to learn and why?

REFLECTION

I found this interview brief particularly challenging because it is not directly a ‘self-informative piece’ like project brief two (where it was more linked to the outlay of the piece rather than the artistic flare). I decided to focus more on the informational ideas in the interview – channeling in on the journalistic aspects rather than the creative ideas that I explored in my previous experiences. I decided to do this because I wanted to have a try at editing simpler pieces of work, one that does not have as many takes and fancy camerawork, simply the subject sitting in front of the camera, talking about their life. Through this medium, it allowed me to focus on Carolyn’s words and reflections about her life, adding appropriate imagery (for example, the close-up shot of the law journal and the shots of the bookcase) to emphasize the important point that she was addressing.

I decided to keep the editing quite simple with minimal cuts. I thought this was an effective part of my piece, although I struggled mentally with not going over the top with editing for this task – I wanted the words of my interviewee to be the center of the story, rather than the editing. A key discovery that I made was learning to work with the footage that I have in a small space, rather than shooting at many different locations, letting the audio speak for itself. Thus, this process developed my role as a media practitioner because it allowed me to focus on a particular topic and motive for the piece, rather than an open-ended narrative like initiatives that I have previously embarked on. This task also helped me as a media practitioner because I developed a better understanding of editing audio, something I had avoided in the past, simply because I prefer to let my editing and my visuals control the screen. However, in this task, we were challenged to do an interview, something I had never done before, apart from my own personal work (which was a print interview). I decided to do an ‘in person’ interview (i.e: my interviewee “repeats” the questions back to me in their answer) because I thought this would break the fourth wall, addressing the audience rather than myself as the interviewer, making it more personal. This style of interview allows a relationship to form between the interviewee and the viewer, thus, why I chose to shoot in this style. Overall, developing an interview style project for Project Brief Three has been rewarding as it has developed and challenged me as a media practitioner.

Word Count: 440 

INTERVIEW