We are going to conduct a documentary interview. we all knew that we had to make a plan before we started doing anything. Therefore, create an outline is the first step. we thought about how we are going to tell the story. who’s the subject? what are our core story points? what’s the structure? The style? Any existing footage or photos that help tell our story?  is there some existing situation we can film or do we have to create the moment for the documentary? too many questions came out to our mind…

The interviewees we found comes from China but we want the interview can be conducted in English at first. Therefore, we believed that give the give the question to the interviewee in advanced to avoid her tension. I think that if potential interviewee has our questions in advance, she can see clearly what the interview is about, think about her willingness to participate, and also be better prepared to answer the questions. Especially, English is not her main language, knowing what will be asked may help her expresses her answers more effectively, which is good for her & us 🙂 We don’t think this advanced knowledge will negatively influence the answers she gives. However. since we started filming, we realised that the previous assumption could be totally different with the fact. Firstly, she was very nervous and unnatural when she talks in English in front of the camera. Besides, her intonation just like reading a book to us and we realised that she was trying to recite her prepared answer before the interview. Then we decided that just allow her to speak in Chinese to present most natural and reality side of her.