Week four’s focus was on the technical aspects of interviewing, which is an integral part of any multimedia project. In order to convey a message as best you can, framing, image quality, sound and editing must not get in the way.

Interviews can be conducted in a variety of ways, each conveying subtle connotations to the audience, it can be framed as:

  • decontextualised or controlled in the studio
  • in the home, work or other familiar environment
  • while doing an action which may be related or unrelated to the topic
  • as a group or couple
  • inside or outside

Furthermore, the way in which an interview is conducted can demonstrate your relationship with them and how you would like the audience to perceive them. The approach can be anywhere from conversational to interrogative – it all depends on the tone you want to strike.

In class we orchestrated a practical exercise in groups of four to test these aforementioned skills. What becomes apparent quite quickly is that the technical set up is what takes the most amount of time. The  technical set up includes:

  • Setting the white balance
  • Making sure the mics are on seperate tracks
  • Place lapel mic in a hidden place
  • Make sure the decibel is levelled at -12
  • Make sure exposure is on manuel
  • Decide on deep focus or shallow depth of field
  • Zoom in to focus then find your frame
  • Boom should be as close as possible without being in frame
  • The interviewer should be as close to the camera as possible

Stills from the interviews

Being a third year student this process is familiar to me, I feel as if I have become comfortable with it after every try. I also understand the value of the set up, as bas elements are easy to fix on and detract from the original message, not everything can be fixed in post. Moreover, we each took turns interviewing, being the interviewee, operating the camera and holding the boom. Common successful interviewing elements include:

  • Sincerity
  • Not include the interview questions
  • Be framed as a medium shot
  • Have an eye-line that connects with the audience
  • Include a background that shows consideration
  • Be in focus
  • Be lit properly and in correct colour balance
  • Include shots to cover cuts, e.g. images of the hands and the interviewee not speaking
  • Have good sound

What I have learnt in this course about myself as a creator is that I foremost enjoy interviewing and camera operation second. This exercise merely confirmed this idea once more. I enjoy the unique way in which people gesticulate, their tone of voice and intonational changes as they tell a story or answer a question. I enjoy observing the way stories translate onto screen and furthermore formulating the creative ways in which I can edit the footage together.

Attached below is one of the interviews, which I call “The Skincare Routine”:

On Friday we visited the Living Museum of the West to shoot our videos for assignment two. While we were working collaboratively in the pre-production stages and in the formation of ideas, we all assigned a video to work on. My main video was the montage. The over riding theme of my montage was hidden stories and people. I delved through draws and countertops of the museum to find photographs from the past, mainly between the 1920’s and 80’s. Most of these photographs had no explanation behind them, or if they did it was one line descriptions or merely a name and date. This did not matter to me as it is the ambiguity of the past that was my main interest in this piece. To place these photos of unknown people in unknown places next to one another, joining them together in the present, gives their memory new life. The voice over is a recitation of the poem ‘People’ by Jean Toomer. I’ve always adored this poem because of its simplicity in meaning and structure; I found it to be very befitting of this project, the missing puzzle piece if you will.

Attached also is the montage and other videos complete by my group.