We’re currently in the process of creating our documentary piece. A week ago, we shot our subject, a longtime good friend of mine who is now with the Australian Ballet School, and although I have worked with interview subjects before, even him, I’ve learnt a lot since starting this course about dealing with interviewees.

We originally planned to shoot with a rather jolly busker, who was very loud and proud about his craft on the streets, but was honest and told me that he would be far too uncomfortable to work on screen. That taught me the lesson to not put my eggs in one basket, as I had visualised some great ideas with him being the subject and rather panicked and had to start from scratch.

I then approached another, this time a homeless busker, who was clearly lacking in some vocabulary so it was difficult to gauge whether he actually understood what we were asking. Nevertheless, he agreed, and a day later as we hauled our gear to the location we agreed to meet – he was non existent. Could not find him anywhere in the CBD.  Again, back at square one.

Our final idea, although hesitant, was to work with my good friend. I had a lot of doubts that his work would communicate well enough on screen, but it wasn’t until we all, as a team, started working on location that we promptly found a common creative vision and actually captured some groundbreaking film.

The moral is… well I don’t really have one. These are just me authoring my thoughts. But it does establish the gravity of ‘hey, don’t just jump at the first idea, there may be something better around the corner’. There, theres the moral I guess.