Final Interview

BBC Interview Research

Shot List

Interview Evaluation

This documentary, titled "Bridge The Gap" features two students from Ravens Wood School. In the past, the two academies (Rugby and Performing Arts) have been known to not get along and so we thought it would be a brilliant idea to swap students from their respective academies to live a day in the life of their opposite. 

The first interview can be seen at mark 0:32. This interview features the two subjects, Harry and Sami being questioned on their opinions before the academy swap day comes along. The question "Do you like the idea of swapping students so you change academies for the day?" can be heard as shots of Harry lifting weights are used to set the scene. The Mise En Scene is prominent due to this interview being set in the school gym. Harry is wearing his 'working out vest' and is mid way through an actual gym session when we approached him to film the interview. This adds to the realism of the documentary and also highlights the fact that nothing was prepared prior to filming. An issue with this interview is that we started to film and quickly realised that the camera was positioned to look down on Harry. This was quickly filmed again as looking down would of had an overpowering effect on Harry and make him look smaller, taking away the truth. This was also not the persona we wanted to convey with Harry. 

Upon Sami's answer being played, Shots of Sami performing lines, holding a script and using elaborate gestures are shown. This was in-fact a use of archive footage to establish the persona of Sami before we see him actually talk to the camera. The archive footage shows a black box studio space which further aids the Mise En Scene of the interview by giving the audience a sense of Sami in his natural environment. When we finally see Sami talking to the camera, he is set in a changing room with lockers behind him. This reinforces the fact that the entire documentary takes place in a school. 

In terms of watching an enjoyable answer, Sami's replies are more engaging to see as he is simply more confident than Harry. This is largely due to his performing arts background but could also be on account of his lively personality. 

Filmed Interview Practise & Evaluation

The interview above features myself, the current I.T. Technician for Ravens Wood School, Laurence interviewed me with the hopes of gaining knowledge on his transition from part time to full time work. The interview is shot all in one take and takes place in my office. In terms of Mise En Scene, the backdrop and setting of the interview could have been better prepared. Despite setting it in the actual workplace, none of this location can be seen in the shot, instead, a simple white wall backdrop is visible. To improve this aspect of the interview, I would suggest setting up the camera further back and not zooming in the shot. This would improve the overall framing and also set the scene better. 

In terms of Cinematography, some would argue that the interview is poorly shot due to the camera looking down on me, this creates a sense of over-powerment and also means that my focus is lost. Instead of looking relatively close to the camera, I looked directly forward which means that his eye line is lost. 

The final point that could have been improved is the choice of clothing I wore that day. Even though this interview was spontaneous and time for planning other clothing was not available, we should have adjusted the shot to not include the majority of my shirt. This was a problem for us due to the tight stripes on my shirt causes a grainy effect. 

In conclusion, the elements we need to better prepare for are Cinematography and Mise En Scene. In particular the shot could have been constructed in a much nicer and more aesthetically appealing way, as to be more entertaining as a whole for the audience. To do this we will think about using techniques along the lines of the rule of thirds, focusing on the positioning of the subject, sometimes having him off dead centre can look much nicer, due to the fact that it looks much more dynamic. In terms of the Mise en Scene we can focus on getting a more linked setting to the topic of the interview, so in this case we could make sure that the desk I was sitting at is visible, and have lots of paperwork on to reinforce the office vibe.

Interview Presentation/Pitch Evaluation

After showing my pitch to the clients I received some constructive criticism explaining how our interviews could be better and done to achieve greater effect. We got feedback in three different categories, following what I put on the pitch, these are Interviewees, Purpose and Content. There is a list of feedback I was given below and how I will adjust my interviews as a result of this.

Interviewees:
- "These two are a good choice of subjects, with opposite behaviours it really shows a contrast and opens up another level of entertainment. Perhaps think about making sure that the two don't know exactly what they are going to be doing and what they are going to be asked before the interview starts, so there is a much more natural reaction." - Due to this feed back I will make sure that I will not tell them what they will be asked prior to filming, I will throw them the questions and film their initial answers and see their exact reactions.
-"Do you think that Harry (Rugby Student) might be too awkward? It might be a case where it is quite unbearable to watch and in some cases people may not even be able to hear him speak. Perhaps ensure that you are in a good enough location where it won't affect his speech if he is quiet?" - This was a very good piece of feedback and I will ensure that the location we film in will not affect his voice in a negative way, so his vocals will be easily recognised.

Purpose
- "The purpose of your interview is good, and is fairly standard, as a documentary there should always be a focus on the informative side, making sure that enough information is getting through to the audience, so perhaps focus on making sure the correct level of information is given, but not too much" - With this feedback I will ensure that I don't go over the top when asking the questions in the interviews, I don't want to overload it and make the documentary boring.

Content
- "A nice range of questions, good in terms of covering a relatively wide range of information, maybe think about asking about what they normally do, and comparing it to what they're going to be doing?" - This is a good idea and I will definitely think about incorporating a backing question to get some previous information but i don't want to over do it on that front.

Interview Presentation/Pitch

Interview Question Draft

All of the questions will be asked to both students, but changed depending on their academy.

1.1 So do you like the idea of swapping students so you're in the RAPA/RUGBY academy for the day? - We will ask this question because it gets a general feeling from both of the students, it will tell the audience how they actually feel about doing the swap.

1.2 How do you think you will do? - We will ask this question to get a bit more information on the subject again, and to see how confident the two students are about the swap.

1.3 So what do you think you're going to be doing? - This will be asked to find out exactly what they think they will be doing, as they don't actually know what they will be taking part in until they are there, so it gives a bit of suspense/anticipation.

1.4 Do you think it will be easy? - We will ask this to see how confident the two are, this could actually create a comedic feel so that would help boost the entertainment we will get out of the interview.

After these are asked the documentary will continue and then another interview will take place, these questions will be:

2.1 So from the academy session what skills do you think you have learnt? - This question will be asked to find out how they feel they have done in general, and also to show that the activity has actually taught them something. It will make it have a much more personal approach.

2.2 Did you find it harder than an average session that you normally would have done? - Again we want to ask a question like this to further the information given, to give the audience a good idea of the two students and how they got on.

2.3 Would you ever do it again? - We want to ask this because we feel it will open up the comedy that could be had, we imagine that they both will not want to do the activities again.

So we asked them the questions and here were there responses:

1.1 - 

Harry - Don't know, its interesting because its going to take me out of my comfort zone so i think I'm a bit sceptical.

Sami - Well it sounds like its going to be an experience to remember isn't it? Like i don't know what I'm going to be doing.

1.2 - 

Harry - Well its going to be difficult, because with my friends i get to have my banter, and i don't really know what to expect.

Sami - Well obviously I'm a beast so I'm gonna go in there and tear it all up.

1.3 -

Harry - Well a little birdie told me ill be doing street dance, I'm not really that confident, i can't dance.

Sami  - Well I asked about to see what I was doing and apparently were doing something called circuit training.

1.4 -

Harry - No, I can't dance.

Sami - Who Knows...

After the event...

2.1 -

Harry - I learnt that I'm a quality dancer.

Sami - Teamwork. Participating with the other lads I though id be isolated, but they brought me into the group, they helped me out a lot.

2.2-

Harry - I found aspects of dance harder, like the flexibility, I'm not very flexible its not my strong point, my strong point is lifting weights and hurting people.

Sami - Yeah not gonna lie, it was intense, obviously there were harder parts of it that were hard like the laying down bit, i was in pain for at least three days after it.

2.3 - 

Harry - Hmmm, no probably not, its not really my thing but i did enjoy it,

Sami - Ahaha no, it was too hard, I give the other guys respect but nah thats not good for me, not got the fitness i don't think.

Interviews for Dummies

Interviews are a key part of any informative programme, weather it is a documentary or a news report, interviews will always be used to reinforce the information that is given. There are numerous ways in which interviews are made effectively and that all comes down to the theme and the subject of said interview. There are some general themes that are often made as interviews, these are mostly comedy and informative, obviously depending on the subject. In this guide I will be telling you the key things you will have to follow to ensure your interview is professional. These steps are, Camera Techniques, Mise-en-Scene and Framing

Camera Techniques
It all comes down to personal preference with your camera techniques, however there are definite ones that are going to make your interview look professional and generally good. So, the first one that you could use would be single camera technique. This is where the camera is set up on one person throughout the entire interview (obviously the interviewee) with the questions being asked by someone off screen. This will force the audience to focus mainly on the interviewee, rather than switching between him/her and the interviewer. This is a basic technique that you could use, and for what it does it is very successful and it should not be underestimated. Another technique that could be used is Multi Camera techniques, this is fairly similar to single camera, but with more than one. In an ideal situation you would have two cameras set up, on on the upper torso of the interviewer and the same on the interviewee. You would film the entire interview, not moving the camera once and in the editing process you would cut the clips so you can see the interviewer when he asks the questions and then see the interviewee when he answers them. This is good because it gives a bit of variation of who you are watching, rather than looking at just one person the entire time. This is a very professional technique and is probably used the most out of any other camera technique. Something you can do along side this technique is called "The Noddy" this is where you will cross cut either the interviewee or interviewer nodding, over their opposite talking, showing that they understand what is being said, or that they approve.

Mise-En-Scene (The setting or surrounding of an event)
The Mise-En-Scene within interviews is imperative when it comes to setting the scene of the interview and making the interview itself more entertaining and easy to watch. It is fairly simple to take advantage of this aspect, obviously it depends on your own topic/theme, but it will work with absolutely anything. For example, if my interview was with a professional sportsman, i would think about setting the interview in a gym, or in a sports themed location. It is fairly self explanatory from there, use the theme of your interview and try to set it in a location that is heavily linked with that. A real life example that has been used is the interview with Aaron Taylor-Johnson about the film Age of Ultron. This interview has the theme of films, and it is shot on set of the film, with Taylor-Johnson sitting on one of the cast chairs. Mise-en-scene also covers the smaller things like costume, it is not always apparent, but most of the time the interviewee is wearing something to do with their profession, so using the same example from above, Taylor-Johnson wears his actual costume from the film to give the audience a bit more to look forward to.

Framing
When making an interview it is always important to think about framing, this is because it will make your interview look much more professional and also look much nicer, and as result make it more entertaining. Framing can be used in several different ways to achieve different effects some of these being emotions. For example, if the interviewee is sad then the framing would often be much closer up, displaying how sad he/she is. However if they are happy they would often try to get more of the body in so you can see the gestures and body language that would portray this. A particular technique that would help get a nice frame is the rule of thirds, a basic technique used by every film maker, this is where there is a grid of nine boxes over the screen so you can see a more specific spacing of the images on camera, with this you can choose to focus more on something else by putting it nearer the middle.







The image above shows exactly how the rule of thirds can make your image look much better. Although it isn't to do with interviews, it still works the same way.

Interview Research

Location Recce

These three locations were used for our expositional shots at the beginning of the documentary. We felt that they really set the scene, with the Ravens Wood school reception being the very first shot of the documentary it shows the audience exactly where it is set, and then it is followed up by pan shots of the drama studio and sports field, further informing the audience as to what is going on. We felt that these all reflected the theme of the documentary well and worked brilliantly.

We feel that using the gym for the interview with the sports player before he swaps is a good location because he will come across much more naturally, whereas after he swaps we will interview him in the drama changing rooms, which is a much more alien environment, therefore making him less natural. This process will be the same for the drama student, only with the changing room being used first then after interviewing him in the gym.

These two locations make up the bulk of the documentary, the sports hall and the dance studio are where we are having the sessions take place. In the sports hall Sami will do circuit training, and in the Dance studio Harry will have a dance workshop. We feel that these two locations are ideal for the documentary and activities due to the fact that they are both used regularly for similar activities, therefore there will be no extra work needed to set up the rooms efficiently and it cuts out any further risks that may have taken place.

18. Production Log

3/11/14
Today we did a location recce to establish where we would like to film for our documentary. We decided to use the drama studio and sports hall for expositional shots, and for the actual content we knew we needed to use the gym and the dance studio. We felt that the drama studio and sports hall where suitable for the expositional shots because they both are linked heavily to the two students we are swapping, the hall being used by the drama student in the documentary and the studio being used by the rugby student. We feel that using the gym for the interview with the sports player before he swaps is a good location because he will come across much more naturally, whereas after he swaps we will interview him in the drama changing rooms, which is a much more alien environment, therefore making him less natural. This process will be the same for the drama student, only with the changing room being used first then after interviewing him in the gym. At the end of the day we uploaded all of the footage onto a Final Cut document and labeled all of the footage G or B for good and bad. Good being the shots that we will use and bad being the ones we don't.

4/11/14
We began the filming process today, working on in particular the expositional shots, these mainly consisted of slow moving panoramic shots and slow zooms, one we found that worked particularly well was the zoom onto the school PE logo. We also began filming the first interviews with Sami and Harry, pulling them out of lesson and asking them the questions we had previously decided on. We found that Sami was much keener to answer the questions in detail, giving very good responses, where as Harry lacked in depth and often came across quite intimidated, this is something we expected due to the different subject paths the students took. At the end of the day we uploaded all of the footage we had got and labelled it G or B.

5/11/14
Here we got the footage of the participants doing their activities, Laurence filmed Harry in the dance studio, and I filmed Sami in the gym. When filming the students it was important to get both the footage so it portrayed a balance of them succeeding, and failing, this will then make the video funnier in general. When filming Sami I got some brilliant footage, both comedic and showing that actually he can complete the very difficult Rugby circuit training task. I tried to get mainly close ups of Sami's face for the comedy side, and when i was trying to find him being successful i would often shoot at a long distance or medium. This was similar for Laurence when filming Harry, he found that there was an equal amount of Harry succeeding at dance, and him failing, so this gave us a clear range of footage to use when editing. At the end of the day we scanned all of the footage, again labelling them G or B, for ease of access when the editing process begins.

6/11/14
Today we filmed the final interviews for Harry and Sami, swapping their interview location so they were in the opposite room from their first interview, Harry was in the changing room and Sami was in the gym. It seemed Harry was much better in this interview and had come out of his shell about the subject of doing Dance, this was a success in what we had hoped to achieve. Sami was also very good in answering the questions and didn't seem to show any signs of not liking the session, however he did point out that he didn't want to do it again. The shots we used for this were the same as the other interview process, with a front on mid shot, capturing mainly their facial expressions and some hand gestures. This was all of the filming done, and with that we uploaded all of the footage and then again labeled it G or B.

7/11/14
Today we began the editing process, trying as hard as possible to work through it chronologically, we started editing the opening expositional shots, speeding them up to fit the time of the voice over we had previously recorded. This didn't take long, and in 15 minutes we had the opening 20 seconds for the video complete. We then began editing the interviews, we decided to have a question being asked, and then an answer from Harry, then an answer from Sami in the following clip. This was easy enough to do, just a case of cutting and putting the clips in the necessary places. After finishing this after 45 minutes we realised that we needed a song or sound effect to go underneath the video, so we found a brilliant Ukelele track that really fit the theme of the documentary. After putting this in the documentary really started to look good. With the first minute of the documentary complete we decided to work on starting to find the clips of the two completing their sessions and organising them into an order, to then cut and place tomorrow. This didn't take long and it left us in a strong position for the next day.

8/11/14
In the final day of our schedule we didn't have an overwhelming amount of editing to do, just to cut and place the session clips and then edit in the final interviews. We began by editing in the clips that we needed and putting them in the right order and position, this went smoothly and we had completed it in about an hour. We then needed to edit the final interviews, we did this in the same way as the interviews from yesterday, having the question being asked, then one answering it, and after them the other answering it, this didn't take too long and when we finished this we had the majority of the documentary edited, with a good 6 minute piece we decided to clean up and fine tune the editing to make sure it ran well with the music. We added numerous cross dissolves, mainly when there was a significant change in location, and at the beginning we faded it in, and at the end, faded it to black. Then we exported it, using Quicktime Conversion, ensuring that it was in the highest definition possible (1920x1080). After 2 hours of it exporting, the documentary was complete, and we gave it a final watch to make sure everything was ok.

14. Risk Assessment

Prop List