Saturday 28 March 2009

Filming report

The filming went really well I think. In total we got loads and loads of footage, so we wont be stuck for material.

The sound came out really well, though Alec was a little quiet, but it's no problem. The image is nice and crisp too, so thumbs up on that.

It was really interesting meeting our guests. I was fortunate enough to be able to get to know Alec a bit before he went on film. His story was really sad and I felt really honored to meet him. There were a few tears too, which isn't much of a suprise. After hearing what he went through, I will never complain about anything again! It really brings home how fortunate we are but so many people take it for granted.

It was fun having the kids around from the school too. It made a change having people much younger around. It kind of gave the studio a youthful vibe, even with Alec and Anita around.

Overall, the filming was a sucess and I feel the day was a very positive experience.

Tuesday 10 March 2009

Post initial meeting / Pre tutorial

We met this time last week to discuss our project so far and to make the next steps.

What we discussed:

  • Time management
  • Our questions
  • Filming style
  • Our interviewees

Time management: This is going to be very difficult for us because we can't even film until Thursday 26th March, which essentially leaves us with very little time for editing and finishing off the paper work. A few of us will be on holiday at some point over the easter break, so we'll be losing more time there. But, this isn't impossible. We have a large group and can share the work load, and a couple of us have said that we're willing to come in and work on it at weekends and late nights.

Our Questions: We've learnt from some of the previous videos not to ask obvious and badly structured questions. We'll get much better footage if we ask the right questions and try to steer our interview in the direction that we want them to go.

Filming Style: We've decided that only the interviewee will be in the film. We're undecided whether the interviewer's voice will be cut, but s/he definately wont be in the shot. We've got the film studio for the whole day, so we have plenty of time to get enough footage. Some of us have other seminars to attend, but at least two people have the whole day free.

Our Interviewees: So far we only know who one of our interviewees is; Alec Ward, a Polish man who survived the slave camps after the Nazis invaded Poland. We're currently preparing some questions for him.

Tuesday 3 March 2009

Update

The latest is that I've settled on the 'Survivors of War' project.

This promises to be really interesting. I've always had an interest in history, so it's going to be an honour to meet people who are a bit part of it.

Last week we watched some previous groups' films, and some of the filming was really poor! On the plus side, my group can learn from their mistake and hopefully make a good film.

Mistakes:

  • Inconsistent camera work - in one of the films, the shot was zooming in and out too much and the camera person was too eagar to follow the every move of the interviewee.
  • Poor sound - some of them were just too quiet.
  • Bad interviewing technique - I understand that it can be difficult to interview a stranger if you're not confident, but I felt it was really poor in some of the films. One of the interviews used a lot of poor and colloquial English, which isn't acceptable when interviewing an adult.

There were some good points though, and my group need to take them board.

Positives:

  • Good sound - one of the films had very crisp sound. It really displays how important good sound in, especially in comparison to the film which had poor sound.
  • Good interview skills - one of the films had some good interviewing. It's important to ask the right questions to allow the interviewee to something interesting.