One of the most problematic and frustrating aspects of my video would have to be that throughout majority of the interview sections the microphone was incredibly visible on my interviewee’s shirt. This was wasn’t just out of laziness though; it was done specifically. During the practice interview exercise last week, the biggest problem I had was the sound being crackly and cutting out due to not doing a test run before hand. In my PB3, I took my latest knowledge into practice when I did several practice shots to make sure the sound was right. Initially I had positioned the microphone under my interviewee’s top so it was hidden and wasn’t going to be a visible distraction throughout the video. After listening back to the quality of the sound after doing the test shot, it was muffled, unclear and bad quality. I thought about different ways I could come around this problem, however the only way the sound was going to be the best quality was if it was on the outside of the shirt. Luckily I learnt from the exercise and checked before doing it all and not realising until after that the sound was bad and having to do it all again ….

Also, while editing in the post production section, I didn’t realise that I didn’t get rid of the visual behind the found footage when it was on – for example, at 1:40, the visual of the interview comes back onto the screen behind the found footage while it’s still in the shot. It’s not necessarily a negative or bring the video down in any way, I just should have taken the time to edit it properly – which i definitely know for next time!!

One successful aspect in my video was the lighting. I had planned to use natural light so I was very lucky to have the sun beaming on the day of filming. I re-arranged the furniature in the living room and specifically positioned the chair to face towards the opened door where the natural light was most dominant. I made sure that the camera upon the tripod didn’t cast a shadow onto the chair where my interviewee was sitting – I positioned it slightly to the left. Having the door open was very risky as there were birds, planes and cars making noise outside the whole time. Luckily it didn’t interrupt the sound of the interview, so I can definitely say the sound was a success.

In terms of mise en scene in my video, throughout the whole interview the television is going in the background (on mute). This is so create a sense of leisure in everyday families such as Dee’s. In the opening sequence there is an ad for a television program on the TV, and it just happens to read “I love myself” in capitals. This was unintentional however works so incredibly well with not only the content but the actual title of the video. The cut away shots of all my interviewee’s paintings was a success as it depicts her creativeness, allowing the audience to understand more about her as a person and her interests. Her paintings are incredibly detailed so I zoomed up on a few portrait’s faces to accompany the narration whilst she talks about her dad. This was to create emotion for the audience and sympathise with her, particular because they were the eyes of children.

I made a few learning discoveries throughout this project brief including the best and most interesting angles. I consciously made an effort to vary up the camera positon, in particular distance and height. Each time I paused the filming after each answer, I changed up from the previous position by either zooming or tilting the tripod slightly up or down. This was aimed to create a possible relationship between the audience and the interviewee as audience can feel as though she is talking directly to them, and it ensures engagement and full attention instead of just seeing the same angles the entire interview.

Overall I learnt to be patient in terms of going along with what my interviewee has to say and almost improvising when asking her further questions on top of her answers or asking her to elaborate. This is important in the media world as things change all the time, and you have to be aware of it and go along with it sometimes. This was not only just an important thing to learn, but an incredible skill.

The found footage I used came from the ‘prolinger’ section on archive.org. I used a series of black and white footage ranging from 1940 – 1955, and were specifically placed in accordance with what my subject was talking about. For example, I used my own footage of the Rocky Horror Show poster when she explains the challenges of acting, as well as the found footage of a 1950’s French theatrical clip. This fits nicely with the theme of theatre during this specific moment. Likewise, Dee get’s emotional when talking about her father being her inspiration, so I embedded a clip of a woman crying with her back faced to a man. I used this as a visual depiction of the emotion she was feeling, and aims to connect her emotion in real life with emotion that she could achieve in a film, reinforcing the fact that even though she’s an actor, her emotion/feelings in life are in fact real and raw.

Unfortunately all the clips I found with footage of the film’s and television shows Dee has been in, however they were copyrighted. I had issues receiving permission to use them thus couldn’t included them in my PB3, so the footage chosen still works well however isn’t actually her.

There is a clip of a man evidently having a great time whilst playing on the drums in my video, when my subject talks about a funny moment in a film she was in. I couldn’t have access to any of the actual footage of this, so decided to find someone laughing to allow the audience to understand that it was a funny moment, and prepare them to hear this funny story. Although the narration has nothing to do with music, it automatically (well it did for me anyway) creates a feel good mood and can’t help but smile which was my aim, so it’s achieving it regardless of what the actual content is.

The black and white and vintage effect of the footage creates a professional and authentic theme and represents acting as an art, corresponding with Dee’s love of creativity.

As I said previously I had so much fun with this assignment, so to show this I have attached a blooper from the interview below: