Yesterday I met with my portrait subject, Maddi and her dog Koenig to film for Project Brief 3. It was an interesting learning experience on both location selection, pre-production work and also equipment. We met in front of the playground at Birrarung Marr, and while aesthetically it seemed like an appropriate place to film, practically it posed a number of difficulties in relation to audio; groups of children kept coming and going (I hadn’t anticipated this as it was a school day and thought it would be empty), the birds were chirping throughout most of the interview and overall there was a good deal of background noise. We moved to a quieter area, but overall interviewing someone outside has definitely been difficult and I wouldn’t do it again. As of this point in time, reviewing the footage, I may need to re-record some audio to get it sounding clear and technically more sound.
Having to get permissions to film in locations was something I’d never had to do before, but it was relatively simple thankfully. Both Federation Square and the Melbourne council were quick to respond, however in my haste to apply for permissions for areas around the city to film so that I had them in time for the set filming date, I failed to consider the practicality of not choosing an indoor location for the bulk of the interview. Choosing an indoor location was however quite difficult, as the direction my portrait subject and I had decided to take the portrait was to focus on her running her dog’s instagram, and all related topics, thus the dog (Koenig) was not allowed indoors in any locations. Perhaps when I do re-record audio to put over footage that doesn’t include dialogue, we can either meet at her home or leave Koenig out for this time as I don’t need to capture any more footage.
The third ‘hiccup’ I encountered while filming was with the equipment. I borrowed a Sony MC50 as part of the technical requirements, but found it still somewhat difficult to use and the quality at first wasn’t up to standard. After some fiddling around with settings I was able to get the camera to work in the way I wanted it to, though I did also take some shots with my own camera (Nikon D5300) so that I could get a variety of shots and ensure that I got decent footage both on the Sony camera that had guaranteed technical quality, but also on my own camera, that I know how to use and am more confident in the operation of.
Overall, filming was rather successful (except for some of the audio – what was said was wonderful and will fit in to the ‘narrative’ I’m envisioning for this portrait, but quality was the main issue.) and I was able to get a good variety of shots to work with in post production. I’m hoping to perhaps create more portraits, to increase my practical experience and also as I enjoyed the filming and interview process, and want to see what other possibilities there are in the creation of a portrait aesthetically and experimentally.
