The second individual exercise is to shoot an informal interview. Since it is an informal one, I want it to be as casual as possible, so I plan it to be a spontaneous one in a single shot as I ask the interviewee questions. I also prepared a list of random questions to make it look natural. I choose one-shot take also because I want to create a compact interview without interruption so that the audiences will be more engaging.(Never tried a single-take before.) Sometimes, a informal interview project like this won’t grab the audiences’ attention; so maybe a bunch of questions in one shot may be able to undo that.
When I tried to put the plan into act, I encountered several problems. First, I couldn’t just go around the campus and follow Hazel for the interview. The camera would be too heavy for me to carry around; the audio quality will be hard to control; and the white balance may go wrong. The solution was to shoot in a small area and get Hazel to sit someway during the most part of the interview. Second, the whole Q&A process wasn’t as compact as I expected. I couldn’t ask the questions while filming; and Hazel’s answers weren’t in a very quick pace, I suspect, due to the lack of rehearsals. I had to get Rachel to ask the question I’ve listed.
Altogether, I took five takes. Three of them stopped in the middle; two of them were filmed to finish. Now that I think back, I should’ve spent some time looking over the whole clip again before starting the second shooting. The differences between the two finished ones are:
Clip#1. Auto-focus. The exposure was controlled well. The ending was smooth. Sound was OK for the moment. Hazel didn’t look into the camera. Composition OK. A bit more interesting than #2. Boom was in the frame for a few seconds, but it can be fixed in post-production.
Clip#2. Auto-focus.The exposure was a bit over just before Hazel sits down.(Didn’t change the aperture in time.) The ending was a bit awkward. Sound was OK for the moment. Hazel looked into the camera. Composition OK.
I ended up struggling to choose one of the two after balancing the goods and bads. One thing was that all of our crew had to shoot in one day so I didn’t want to pull others off by spending too much time on my interview, but more importantly, I was not prepared. I should have think through everything before every take because it was a single-take plan after all—no mistakes should be made—and we didn’t have enough time for me to make mistakes. I chose clip#2 in the end; and I changed it into black and white so that it wouldn’t look too overexposed in the part I mentioned above.
Result assessment:
Good
I think the single-take idea with a bunch of random questions is good. The composition look nice and natural. The camera movement isn’t too dizzy to watch. I’ve filmed some clips that included the camera movements like those in the interview before which proved a pain to watch, but this time, it’s ok. I did some post-production in audition to adjust the audio. I couldn’t get Rachel’s voice better, but Hazel’s answers are now clear and in a good level.
Not so Good
I still find that audio is a problem here. The noise can be a bit distracting sometimes and Rachel’s voice obviously needs to be improved. I should’ve get two booms to record, since I didn’t have time to dub the interview afterwards. The interview could’ve been more condensed with more materials in it. I should communicate better with the person I work with next time. The ending also is not natural enough.
In addition, my technical knowledge has been improved this week! A really small, compact designed audio mixer was introduced and I was excited. What I really enjoy in studying for now is actually to learn using an equipment and a new powerful software. I’ve always had a problem in writing, no matter in Chinese or in English. I guess that’s a habit or I am simply thinking too much. However, when my ideas flow, I enjoy writing about them. I know some people really enjoy writing, but I am usually the type of person enjoy solving problems in technical aspect and even math:). I find observational writings really suits me as I usually try to keep curious about the things happen around me, so, wish myself luck.:)
“Observations are NOT JUST about telling the story or re-stage.”
