This week we were out in the field getting vox pops of our street art films. I learnt that vox pops translated to the general public’s opinion and were a nice addition to specific documentaries or news pieces. In our street art film we hoped to gather views on street art and graffiti. Before we went out into the field, we were given some helpful tips. Firstly, it was important to have a background that corresponded to the topic. Secondly, we needed to find a quiet space so our recordings were clear. Finally, we needed to frame up our shots nicely and adjust it to each person’s height. Nervous about approaching strangers, we were shown a video that gave us a way to approach people that wasn’t so daunting. We were encouraged to look as though we were asking for directions when asking people if they would help us out. The thinking behind this is that we appeared non-threatening and as if we needed help.

I prepared two general questions to ask people: do you think there’s a difference between street art and graffiti? and do you consider graffiti to be art? My group and I had found a great backdrop brightly sprayed with paint, near the basketball courts on campus. This was also away from most of the traffic so there was little background noise. We set up our equipment, framed up our shot and put a marker on the spot we wanted our subjects to stand. At first we were rejected by lots of people thinking we were trying to sell them something, but then we had our first subject and eventually we got five in the short space of time we were given. One subject in particular stood out to me as they were very enthusiastic and gave quite an in-depth and eloquent answer.

From gathering these vox pops we learnt some dos and don’ts. Don’t- approach very tall people as you’ll have to adjust your frame dramatically and raise the tripod legs only to lower them for the next person. Do- give people time to think about the question to get more interesting and in-depth answers.