Investigation Post 12/12

Work Log

Monday: Watching Sony HXR tutorials

Tuesday: Researching interviews/documentaries

Wednesday: Researching interviews/documentaries

Thursday: Writing notes

Friday: Lighting research

Interviewing

Brice's Interview

What to learn from Brice's documentary:

• A slow start without the subject works when the setup is straight forward. Brice was able to catch the audience's attention with interesting visuals that coincide with only a couple sentences that describe the focus of the documentary.
• Because the focus of the documentary is Brice, it makes sense to have him be the last part of the introduction, as now we are transitioning from the interesting visuals to the topic at hand: Brice (out of focus to into focus also helps this).
• Font type is important with how formal you want your film to look. Personally I don't like the font type in the first opening two statements because I think their spacing and font type are a little casual.
• Adding the song in the background when it was mentioned was an abrupt audio transition but it honestly works for the better because it keeps the documentary moving and interesting by catching out attention with that kind of interruption. Since documentaries are difficult to keep entertaining and informative, this was good.
• In general, audio additions that go along with Jack's interview did well to help the documentary flow well and with elements that make it interesting.
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• In the picture above, there is a lack of visual stimulus on the right side of the composition; remember that it's good to have something to complete the cinematography of your shots so there isn't needless unused space.
• B-Roll was very good, there is a lot of variety in the kinds of shots that were taken which contribute to keeping the documentary interesting. 
• B-Roll included a lot of movement or focus changes to keep the B-Roll itself interesting as well.
• There were bokeh effect shots
• It even ends on one
• Multiple angles of the same B-Roll footage is still good to do

Interview Checklist for Two Camera Setup

I'm stealing and modifying Brice's checklist:

1. Start preparing 20-30 minutes before interviewee arrives
2. 2 cameras
3. 3 batteries
4. 3 SD cards (make sure they have space ahead of time)
5. 2 tripods
6. Lavalier mic
7. Zoom recorder
8. XLR cord
9. Gaffer tape (in case lavalier needs support)
10. Set up cameras 1 and 2.
11. Set up lighting- Soft Box- Back light
12. White balance all cameras to the same piece of white paper.
13. Adjust exposure so its the same on all cameras
14. Set Movie Recording Size on all cameras to 1920x1080, 30fps
15. Plug in Lavalier Mic to zoom recorder
16. Ask subject to speak normally
17. Adjust audio levels for Lavalier Mic
18. Plug in shotgun mic to camera 1
19. Attach mic to subject
20. Ask subject to speak normally
21. Adjust Sound recording on camera 1- balance audio levels so they reach 12.
22. Focus cameras
23. Start recording zoom recorder
24. Start recording on both cameras
25. Get a clap
26. Ask questions
27. Record interview

Lighting

I did a little bit of research on lighting as well. Learning from this article and some images online, I have learned about Three Point Lighting. With Three Point Lighting, you will have a soft (large light source) "fill light" to one side (angled straight forward more or less) and a soft or hard (focused in smaller light source) "key light" slightly above the subject (angled slightly down). The third light is a light that is a lot higher up than the subject and behind the subject. This "back light" is angled down to cover the last bit of unlit areas of the subject.

https://nofilmschool.com/types-of-film-lights

Interview Shot Angles Research

The concluding part of my research on interviewing/documentaries was the cinematography that goes behind camera placement within your interviews. Because my instructions are to use two cameras, I have to keep in mind that I have limited choices for where I'm putting my cameras. I'll also need to have the two be fairly different in terms of how they look to maximize the interesting variation between cuts in my documentary.

From this, I mainly took away how the cameras were set up to have a straight on shot in front of the subject (for most of the straight on shots) and then a 90 degree turn to the right of the first camera to have a sideways view of the subject.

Notice how there is something on the left and right of the subject to add to the visual stimulus of the shot. While they don't take away from the focus of the shot, they complete the shot.

Same thing here, there's the plant to fill in the open space to the left of the subject.

After looking into it, I was thinking that I want to do a straight on and a side view similar to how the video has a straight on and side view, and so I went on to look at more side angles that I liked. In this article, I found the "underside" angle which is from the side and gives a sense of authority that I think would fit well for interviews with school administrators. 

Underside shot