Starting off with the positives, the most successful part of the work in my opinion is the focus. I originally tried to just do an interview about comedy in general, but it was too broad and all over the place. Once I honed in and focused on a much more specific topic (the importance and role of the audience in Josh’s specific brand of improv comedy) I found it much easier to create not only a succinct video, but an interesting one. There’s no jumping around of topics, and there’s no distractions, it all fits together well, as its all quite specific to a singular theme.
Obviously that could also be a downside, if someone isn’t interested in the nuances of stand up comedy, and is just looking for some laughs, this probably isn’t going to hit with them. So it may narrow the audience a bit. But it still fills its niche well in my opinion.
In terms of what didn’t work, I needed better cut-aways. That was mainly due to inability to get access into the buildings due to licensing though, so not sure what else I could have done there. The lighting wasn’t good at all either, I had to work with the time I could get with him, and the inability to shoot inside to get good lighting, but still I should have found some way to shift the light source a little bit, its a bit harsh on his face.
I’d also say that I should have maybe used a third camera angle. I sort of edited in a second camera angle (close up) for the final seconds, but perhaps If I just shifted the camera around a bit and shot him side-on for a couple of answers, that could’ve added something interesting. It might be a tad visually bland.
Something I can take away from this is the importance of preparing for a much longer interview than you need. I shot an interview that went for 25-30 minutes, and only barely pulled together enough material on this one specific topic. Obviously you are constrained by how long the subject has to give you, but the more the merrier. If you ask lots and lots of questions about a whole variety of topics, it just gives you more canvas to work with and trim down into a neat 2-3 minutes. I think what I aimed for was 10 minutes of filming for every minute the final cut would be, but I could have asked even more questions.
I learnt a few things that can be extrapolated out to my development as a content creator. It was good to be able to get behind a proper camera for an extended period of time, I think I’d like to move into directing, so any time spent in that sort of a role will be great experience. Secondly, If I planned the specific style of interview early, rather than just kept the questions broad, I could have got a few more usable minutes.