In week four’s class, we talked about the ethics behind filming a non-fiction piece and wrote an ethics charter. One of the points I mentioned was “from a media practitioner’s perspective, don’t let subjectivity get in the way”. What I mean by that is that we surely as human beings have our own personal feelings and opinions about certain things, therefore, we shouldn’t let that get in the way of our filmmaking. For instance, asking the participant not to talk about a certain topic just because it doesn’t align with our own beliefs, or refusing to include things during the post-production process just because we don’t agree with them, when in reality, these parts may be essential to the whole story. Surely, we may feel uncomfortable at times, but we should also be mindful and considerate of others.
This also ties in with “Ask for clarifications for any misunderstandings instead of trying to interpret it ourselves”, in a way that we sometimes may get the wrong idea of what the participant is saying, or we may be mistaken with our preconceived notions of the participant’s story. So, instead of just running with that mistaken preconceived notion, it’s better for us to ask for further clarifications from the participant, so that we also don’t misinterpret their story, and unconsciously take it out of context (Spong, 2020). When making a non-fiction work, we as the creators should stay true to the original story and not veer away from it.
The next points I wanted to elaborate more about are “Avoid telling the participant(s) to repeat themselves in a particular manner the second time” and “Find the ideal place to set up filming, keeping in mind the technical aspects”. I remember seeing an interview being conducted in one of Grey’s Anatomy episodes (2010) where the participant is getting emotional in talking about his feelings. However, due to the fact that the interview was so spontaneous and on the spot, the shot was backlit as he was standing in front of a window. The interviewee was then stopped mid-sentence and was asked to move positions in order to reframe the shot and was also asked to repeat himself all over again with more emotions to his words. Therefore, I think that it’s also worth adding to the ethics charter that we should respect the participant’s privacy and not interrupt them while they’re talking. (Spong, 2020)
REFERENCES
- Spong, R 2020, ‘WEEK 4 – Molly Dineen’s kind cuts / Ethics / The interview’ PowerPoint Slides, BP221, RMIT University, Melbourne
- Grey’s Anatomy 2010, television series, These Arms of Mine, American Broadcasting Company (ABC), 28 October
