In the four weeks of documentary studies, compounded with prior knowledge, I decided apply what I have learnt so far in the one documentary style video. The video that I have made reflects on the life of a university student at RMIT, who currently does documentary studies. Taking inspiration from mockumentaries such as ‘Summer Heights High’ and ‘The Office’, I wanted to take a similar approach to my video. However instead of being fictional, the subject and the event are real. I am only taking the mood and the structure of these mockumentaries as the ‘look’ of the video. From the multiple styles of documentaries, such as the questioning style in vox pop, that we learnt in class, I have also adapted them into my video.

In terms of the cinematography side of the video, I wanted to get up close and personal to the subject. I used my fellow class mate Tristan as the subject. Since I know Tristan quite a bit now, I knew that making the shoot less formal would make him more comfortable and open to expressing himself more. In terms of framing, I got Tristan to lie down and took a mid-shot of him for the interview.

Considering that the final video will just have Tristan’s voice, I had to phrase my questions in the way that would give the audience some context to Tristan’s responses. Before the take I told and reminded Tristan to answer the question with context. Through verbal demonstration and direction, I gave him an example of a correct and incorrect response to the question:

“Did you draw a lot of inspiration from the film Blackfish?”

The correct response is:

“A documentary that inspired me to form my own was called Blackfish”

Instead of:

“Yes, I do think that documentary inspired me to form my own”

Furthermore, I also requested for him to explore the question. In doing so, I had my information to work with so that I could highlight key elements in his response and, if appropriate, manipulate my remaining list of questions to fit the context of his responses to give better flow and direction of the overall narrative of the interview.

On the technical side of things, I used my phone and a Zoom microphone that I borrowed. I was not too focused on getting the best equipment for the job. I felt that actually doing the project and applying new knowledge was what mattered the most. Good equipment was something I can worry later for my final assignment.

After the interview, I went over the audio recording and recorded some b-roll footage that was reflective of the content. There was a part of Tristan’s responses that was related to his fascination of documentaries that explore weird and quirky things. Using random footage of Tristan outside of RMIT, I did I cut of him where he was searching for things and acting funny.

Overall This was a great exercise of applying what we have learnt into practice. I feel like this is a step forward in the right direction to develop my final documentary video for the subject.

Link to video: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-y-uX03favVNF9XZS1uOThjd00