So here’s some plans that I made during the pre-prodction period of the shooting.
I’m going to be interviewing a friend of mine from high school – Austina. To start off with the questions, I decided to think about her personalities and her hobbies and all that stuff that resembles her. We were very close in high school and still catch up with each other now and then. She was involved in lots of activities in high school in a wide range that covers drama, singing, dance and even Mathematics. She’s always cheerful and positive and authentic in every way. However, she’s kind of an introvert so it takes a bit more time to get to know her fully. To make it easier for both of us while shooting, I might give her a range of possible questions that I might ask about a couple of days before the interview so she won’t be too nervous to talk then.
I checked with her through texts that she’s willing to film at her house. Because she thought she might need to change her clothes or touch up her make-up so it’s more convenient to fix things at home. And plus I was not so fond of the idea of filming outside. The last interview I did was taken outside and the lighting was the hardest thing to control. I do have two umbrellas but they are only for studio shooting. And too much uncertainty is never good for a shooting.
To me, interviews are always straightforward as complex questions often confuse the interviewee and the audience. So I might just ask simple questions about her life and interests and those questions are the ones that get the most content out of the interviewee. I do believe that simplicity is always the best way to work if you’re not sure how it’s going to look. For interviews, the less distracted of the audience the better, too much cutaways might take away the attention on what the interviewee says.
Cutaways is something that I’ve been thinking about. A cutaway helps present the idea better, giving the audience a more straightforward image to interpret. But what if it’s something that the interviewee is not so comfortable doing or if it includes staging and acting or anything that the interviewee does not do in real life. Then as useful as it is helping to deliver the idea, it is not acceptable to me as it takes aways the authenticity of the interview, which is the core of doing any interviews. So my point is, if the interviewee is not comfortable shooting cutaways, then it would be still cool to just have the actual interview. Authenticity is the key.
For the materials, I’ll be using my own camera and microphone – Canon XA 20 and a Rode mic. I’ll try to use the umbrellas but they’re gigantic. If it’s too inconvenient to carry them around then I’ll settle with natural lighting in her house.