Interview Practise - Editing Part 2 | Workshop

After the sound workshop where I was interviewed, we were given the task to create a shot list and a script for it so we could film cut away shots, and then edit it together to create a final video. Due to some complications, myself and Nisserin were put in a group with Sammi, but we decided to use the footage from our workshop as both me and Nisserin were involved in the interview.

• We wrote the script and then the shot list, and we also wrote out a list of cutaway shots that we needed to shoot to make the video effective and more like a documentary piece. Due to some of the interview being about my interests outside of university, we decided that getting together round my house, when we're not at uni, was a smart idea. 
• We then discussed filming in the base room at uni, and using some archive footage of my previous YouTube videos, as I do mention a similar topic within the interview.

• At my house, we shot the clips of me playing the ukulele and singing, and we also filmed a shot of me typing on my laptop - scriptwriting - and editing a video. 
• This was to show my interest in editing videos, writing scripts and creative writing in general. We also shot some cutaway shots to show my interest in Disney & Giraffes. 

• Then at the studios we shot footage of me looking through the camera and taking pictures to show my interest in photography and the camera in general. 
• We then filmed me walking through the base room door and writing on a notebook to emphasise the creative writing interest. 

• The archive footage we used was me performing in front of an audience a few years ago. We also used some clips of my previous videos on YouTube, and some of the videos I produced while at uni. 

• While editing this video we started by looking through the interview footage and cutting out the stuff we didn't want like the pauses and the fillers. We watched through the interview and placed the cutaway footage on top of the interview whenever it was appropriate. 
• We decided not to add background music as we felt it would distract the audience from the interview itself, and also we had a clip of me singing later on in the video, so we needed no sound before and after hearing it. Once it was done we added credits, and we colour corrected the clips to make all of the clips match and to keep the continuity of the shots. 

• This workshop really helped me with the development of editing and filming a documentary. I realised that a lot of cutaway shots are used within documentaries to help tell the story, and also to keep the audience interested. 
• This helped, also, with the structuring of my groups documentary as it can give us ideas on how we want to present the footage, and how we want the interview to look.

Charles Ferguson | Documentary Film Maker

Charles Ferguson is a producer and a director and he is mainly known for his documentaries. He is mainly known for his work on 'Inside Job', 'No End in Sight' and 'Time to Choose'.

Inside Job [2010]

This documentary presents a complete breakdown of the global financial crisis of 2008. This event caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes during the worst recession since the Great Depression. This nearly resulted in a global financial collapse. Through intensive research and interviews with important financial insiders, the film follows the rise of the industry which has corrupted industries such as politics and more.

Ferguson directed this documentary while also writing it alongside Chad Beck. The well-known actor Matt Damon narrates it.

This piece of work is quite interesting as he interviews a lot of different people, meaning that there are quite a few different personalities being shown on the screen. The whole documentary itself is more of a debate between the interviewer and the interviewee as he questions there answers to keep the conversation going.

No End in Sight [2007]

This documentary is a look into the problems in Iraq, in order of time, mainly about the decisions made in 2003. It also looks into the backgrounds oft those decisions being made. This immediately follows the end of Saddam. In this documentary he interviews many different people who were involved like reporters, soldiers, military brass and former Bush-administration officials.

This piece of work is quite interesting as he shows the problems America faced around that time with the president and the situation. It makes you feel sorry for the people that are being interviewed as the tone they are being portrayed in is quite a sad one.

Time to Choose [2015]

This documentary looks into the worldwide climate change challenge and solutions. It leaves the audience understanding what is  wrong and also what can be done to fix this problem. He interviews many different people involved such as innovators, leaders and individuals living on the front lines of climate change.

This piece of work is quite dark and quick paced, but it's interesting as it explores the problems in away that you feel sorry for the people involved while also wanting to change the world. It's quite a dark piece, but it quickly changes to something positive and calm to change the audiences' perspective of the problem.

Ferguson's Style

• Uses archive footage from the TV.
• Factual.
• Sat down interviews.
• You can hear the questions that are being asked, but you can't see the person asking them.
• It's more like a debate or an argument.
• To create some conflict and interest for the audience.
• Interviews a large amount of people.
• To get a lot of different opinions.

In our documentary we will be using quite a lot of archive pictures from the farm to show the history of it, and to inform the audience how long the farm has been run. 

Elizabeth at Ninety | Review

A documentary special that I have watched recently is 'Elizabeth at Ninety'. It was aired on BBC One on the 21st April - the Queens actual birthday - and it was appreciated by numerous amounts of the public.

Content

• In this documentary, we watch various never before seen clips of the Queen growing up - both as a child and an adult. Not only do the public get to see these clips, but so do the Queens relatives and herself. 
• Various royalty members are shown within this documentary, such as Prince Charles, Prince William, Princess Kate and many more. The main person who carries the story throughout the documentary is Prince Charles, the Queen's oldest son. 
• The main pieces of content within the special is archive footage of the Queen's life and members of royalty watching them on a big screen.

Interviews

• There aren't too many formal interviews in the documentary as some of the royal family members are sat watching the old footage and talking through it. The few interviews that are shown within the special are quite formal. 
• The interviewee is sat talking to the camera or slightly to the right of the camera, with their name shown on either the bottom right or left hand side of the screen - it depends on whereabouts the interviewee is composed. 
• The questions cannot be heard so they have the interviewee answer the questions like they would say a normal sentence. This is done to make it seem personal and not forced, which adds a sense of normality and makes it quite natural.

• The interviews are usually about what they've just watched or what they think of the Queen as a person. Usually, over the interview, you can see some cutaways of the archive footage that they have found. 
• This archive footage is varied from when the Queen was a baby to when she was a teenager, then when she was an adult with her own children, and then more recent events. An important bit of archive footage that is featured is her coronation. 
• Seeing this makes the public appreciate the Queen a bit more, and makes them realise how young she was and how long she's been doing the job. When you see people like Churchill, it makes the audience think a lot about the duration of her reign.

Sequencing

• The sequencing of the documentary usually starts with archive footage which then leads on to relatives watching the footage and talking through their opinions on what is happening. 
• For Example; the first bit of sequencing you experience is Prince William and Harry looking at footage of their father as a young child, and they're talking naturally about what they are seeing.

The three main pieces of footage that are sequenced together are:

• Archive footage
• Relatives watching the footage
• Interviews from the relatives

The different type of shots that we see within the interviews and mainly the watching the footage scenes are:

• Wide shots
• Mid shots
• Close up shots

By using these different type of shots the audience gets a real feeling as to what their emotions are which adds to the personal tone of the documentary.

Sound

The documentary starts by Prince Charles narrating and he carries on at various times within the special - he carries the story. Some of the other sounds you can hear within the programme are:

• The relatives talking over the archive footage while they watch it
• The interviews
• The sound from the archive footage

• Hearing the footage from the archive footage before and after the sounds of the interviews makes the audience realise how old the footage is, and what the shows used to look and sound like. 
• This gives the documentary an old feeling and again it makes them think about how long the Queen has reigned. It's interesting for the audience to hear what the relatives thoughts and emotions are when watching the  footage and makes it personal and natural.

• The Queen eventually comes onto the screen and watches the old footage with Prince Charles. You can hear their chat over the footage and it adds a family tone to the documentary while also creating a natural feeling, which is something the audience really enjoy especially when watching royalty.

My Thoughts

• I really enjoyed watching this documentary because it makes you realise that the royal family are quite normal, and it's nice seeing them laughing and enjoying the old footage. 
• It's very fascinating watching the archive footage because it's never been seen before and you feel like you're seeing a bit more of the royal family than you usually do - especially the footage of the Queen as a baby.

• With our documentary, because it's based on nature and wildlife, we won't be using a lot of archive footage. However, we will aim to find some archive pictures of the farm to show the difference between then and now.

The Secret Life of The Zoo | Review

I have recently started watching 'The Secret Life of the Zoo' on Channel 4 every Tuesday at 8pm. This is a documentary series based on Chester Zoo and the animals that live there. Not only do they document the animals, but they also document the zoo keepers and they're emotions towards the animals.

Content

• Throughout the series they document various things, such as the animals growing up and moving into bigger enclosures, animals meeting new animals of their kind for the first time, and babies being born which is quite fascinating to watch. 
• Not only do they show the positive side of the zoo, but they also dwell on the negative sides and they sometimes mention when one of the animals has passed away. 
• This gives the director a chance to show the emotions of the zoo keeper which creates a really nice friendship between the animals and the keepers. 
• They show a mixture of interviews with the zoo keepers, CCTV footage of the animals when they are alone and when the zoo keepers are off duty, and footage of the keepers interacting with the animals when they're feeding them or cleaning their cage. 
• They use a variety of these shots within each episode and they help make a connection between the keeper and the animal. You definitely see and understand the relationship between them when watching each episode and it creates a family tone to the series.

Interviews

• Within the interviews, you can't hear the questions being asked, so the interviewees have to start their answer as if it was an opening sentence. They also make sure their answers make sense through the editing of the show. 
• When you see the interviews, you can clearly see the interviewee in front of a dark background, and it's clear that they are talking to someone off the camera. 
• This leads to the possibility that the interviews are shot in a studio type environment. 
• The producers could have chosen to do this in order to help the sound of the show, but also to clearly show the difference between the interviews and the actuality of the show. 
• The shots they use within these interviews vary from mid shots and close up shots depending on what they are talking about and their emotions towards the topic. 
• When they film actuality shots, they tend to let the zoo keepers do what they usually do which makes the show seem very natural and not forced in anyway. 
• The zoo keepers don't tend to answer many questions while actually working which suggests that the interviewer doesn't ask them any questions while they work which adds to the natural sense and feeling of the shot.

Sequencing

The content they cover within the opening sequence usually consists of:

• Clips of the animals in their habitat.
• The public watching them and experiencing them first hand.
• Footage from the zoo keeper's office's.
• Interviews from the keepers.
• Landscapes shots of the zoo.

• These are all used to set the tone of the program and also to set the location of the series. By using a mixture of animal footage and keeper footage they are covering two of the most important aspects of the show - the animals and the keepers relationships.

• Over these clips, they have commentary which introduces the show and explains briefly what the content of the show actually is. As well as the commentary, they include clips of some of the interviews that are shown within the show, and this helps towards the transition between the opening sequence and the narrative of the episode. 
• Within the opening sequence, they not only show the positives of the job, but they also show the negatives. They do this to prepare the audience of the different emotions that will be shown within the series.

• When the episode has officially started, the commentary describes the history of the zoo, while birds eye view shots of the zoo and wide shots, long shots and close-ups of the animals are being shown on screen. 
• Once the commentary is over, they go straight into the interviews from the keepers. When the interviews are on the screen, they add the keepers name in the bottom left of the screen. This adds a personal tone to the show and makes the audience get to know the keepers  on a personal type level. 
• Depending on what animals the particular episode is centred around, they usually have a sequence of the animals doing what they do at the zoo. The shots they tend to use in these sequences are close ups, mid shots and long shots. They will use a mixture of footage from the cameras in their pens or footage from the cameras outside in the open.

• Not only does the show focus on particular animals, it also focuses on particular topics. These topics help the narrative of the show develop and they create a link between the different animals that they show in the episodes.

Sound

• In the opening sequence, other than the presenter doing the commentary, the sound you can hear is the natural sounds of the zoo, and the sounds of the animals that are being displayed in the clips being shown. 
• There is also a soundtrack in the background which carries on throughout the sequence and ends after the title.

• A different soundtrack then begins after the title, and that carries on throughout the episode. Whenever there is a break within the different animals shown, they tend to change the music so it adds some variety. The music will also change based on the mood they want to create and the emotions that the keepers are showing within the sequences.

• Commentary is also carried throughout the episode after an interview has been shown. They usually have a few seconds of music and the animal, but to keep the audience interested, they start the commentary. 
• This usually contains information on the zoo or the animals that are being presented on the screen. It also ties in the topic of the episode by linking the episode and the animal together.

My Thoughts

• One of the things I like about this documentary series, is the humour that they show through the animals. The way the series is shot gives the animals their own characters, which is really nice as the audience can almost relate to the animals and they can find the ones that they love the most. When you see the same animal, you start to understand them and get their character type which makes the series better to watch, and makes it funnier than normal.

• When starting to think of our ideas, my idea was similar to this series, but even though we didn't choose that idea, we could still use the same sort of style.

Location Recce - Ashtree Farm | Research

The other location we will be filming in for some of the shots is Ashtree Farm.

• The type of shots we are hoping to capture within this location, is mainly shots of the quadbikes moving around the farm. We want to get a variety of different shots like close ups, wide shots and midshots of the public riding the bikes and going around the field.

• One of the key shots we want to get some close-ups of are the wheels turning in the mud to create a messy type of atmosphere and also to link it into the commentary that will be in the documentary.
• The commentary will be informing the public about how the public will sometimes invade private land and ride their quad bikes, destroying the crops on the farm land.

• The sound that we get from the quad bikes we will use within our documentary to make it more realistic and to create a different type of atmosphere for the topic.
• Some of the risks that might occur within this location are similar to the farm.
• Fall in the mud or trip over.
• To stop this from happening we will wear the correct clothing and make sure we care for the equipment by putting in places that are dangerous.

Location Recce - Broadditch Farm | Research

The main location we will be filming at is Broadditch Farm.

• It's very large and we are hoping to get some shots of John walking through the land showing the presenter what he is doing to protect nature and what he grows on his farm. With a little farm shop welcoming the public, it's a very pretty location. We are hoping to film outside of the shop, but also get some footage of what is inside the shop itself to show the business side of the farm. 
• Although there is a possibility that the weather won't be too nice, we will try and capture the beauty of the area to create the atmosphere of the farm for the documentary. 
• We have talked to one of the owners of the farm and he told us that we are more than welcome to walk around the farm when filming the wildlife and nature, so we have access to the majority of the farm when we need it.

• Due to the location being a farm, there might be some danger hazards that we will have to keep into consideration when filming in this location. Some of the dangers that could occur are the mud, especially if it's raining or has been raining previously. One of the crew members or cast members could fall in the mud and hurt themselves doing so. 
• To keep them safe I'd advice them to wear appropriate footwear like wellies. This way, not only do they look suitable to be on a farm, they are also being safe. Also to keep them from falling we will make sure we find an alternative route to walk, so they don't have to walk through the mud.

• Another aspect that we will have to think about when filming at the farm is the lighting. Due to most of the shots we wish to get are outside, we will have to think carefully about the time of day and we will have to check the weather before hand. 
• In terms of where the camera and cast will be placed, we will look at the direction of the sun and make sure it is behind the camera, so we don't get any backlighting. We can keep changing the aperture based on the brightness of the sun. We could also use the ND filters on the camera if it gets too bright, and also it could help towards the focus of the footage.

• Another issue that may occur is background noise which could effect the sound of the interviews. When filming wildlife it will be good to have background noises of birds chirping and the wildlife natural noises, however it might be a little bit off putting during the interviews. 
• If some of the machinery is being used in the background of the interviews, the look of the interview would be effective and good, but the sound might be a bit distracting. We will have to make sure that we choose appropriate sound equipment to pick up the interviews better than the background noises. 
• Also in terms of being outside we will have to be prepared for airplanes flying ahead and the wind, and also from the public as well. 

Here is a little video of our visit to the farm, and a few test shots that we are hoping to capture on the filming days.

Interview Practise - Sound Part 1 | Workshop

We had a sound workshop recently and within this sound workshop we were given a recap on what we already knew about the sound, but we were also given new information to help us with the sound of our documentary. 

• We were told about the multiple use of a clip mic and a boom mic, and we were given instructions and advice on how to make the most out of our sound and what settings they should be on. 

• We split into groups of 4 and we were given the task to ask someone questions and film a short documentary on them. We started by giving everyone roles in our group; I was the interviewee, Ellie was the interviewer, Nisserin was the camera lady, and Ellen was the sound person. 
• I was asked some questions about university and my personal life outside of university but Ellie, and the others did their jobs by making sure the sound sounded good, and the camera framing was good.

• From Fergus, we were told that we shouldn't be afraid to getting in to close with the boom mic. The clip that was on my scarf was a nice sound element, but we should have a back up sound on the footage just in case. 
• Ellen was given the advice to get as close as possible to me with the boom mic and Nisserin would tell her how far to move so she was out of shot. This taught me how to make the most out of the sound, and why it's so important to be close to the person on the screen.

• As well as single shooting, we decided to start double shooting with two people in the frame; myself and Ellen. We were then asked questions by Ellie about our friendship and how we met at university. 
• Through this experimentation, we all learnt that it's very hard to shoot actuality of two people because it's spontaneous. You need to decide who you are going to focus on with what question, and what shot size you will have it on, but this needs to be decided on the spot, which is quite a hard decision to make.

• Afterwards, we watched all of the clips as a class and discussed the good things about it and the bad. We were told that our framing was really nice, and there were some nice transitions between different shots.