TUESDAY

Tuesday’s class helped to further understand the vast variety of ways we can participate with our subjects. In this way we looked at examples of documentaries where participation was included and interviews were conducted. There was one clip in particular featuring Errol Morris, which gave some vital information on how to get the best possible responses from your interviewee. The main point highlighted was to allow for space and awkward silence, as people tend to reveal the most when they feel uncomfortable with silence. We also briefly touched on the importance of ethics when interviewing people as there was one example in which two underage girls were recorded expressing some unpopular opinions which the majority of the class believed they may regret later in life. In this way it was again reiterated to us that we must be cautious at all times as we undergo the next stage in the creation process.

THURSDAY

On Thursday we had the privilege of being taught by the guest lecturer Julio, who taught us important technical skills which will be inextricably useful when we conduct interviews of our own. Some of these skills included, white balancing, microphone channelling, using a boom microphone and aperture setting. We then went out in small groups to test out these new found skills by interviewing either each other or a subject of our choosing. Following on from this we uploaded our interviews onto our computers and experimented with jump cutting and adjusting the audio levels in premiere pro. Overall this week has been very beneficial in developing and furthering our knowledge on the topics of interviewing and participation.