Posted on May 1, 2017
reflection on PB3
I was much happier with Project Brief 3 than I was for Project Brief 2. Though, with that being said, there are still many things I wish to improve on.
The first improvement I need to make is the act of approaching people to ask them to be in my films. At first, I actually wanted to interview a 90 year old Slovenian lady who lives across my street. We’ve had tea together many times, but when I phoned her asking if I could interview her, she responded with a ‘no thanks’ and hung up on me. I don’t think she recognised me, so that could be a reason, but I just wish I handled the situation much better. Now I know for future documentaries, I need to clearly introduce myself and be very articulate with my purpose for the interview. In the end, I was very grateful to have found Aunty May to interview instead, and as we get along very well, the filming and recording process was quite a breeze.
On the same note of pre-production, I believe I need to have a more clear structure before I begin filming. It was a little difficult with Aunty May and her husband as they are not professional actors and most scenes were improvised (especially the B Roll), but there were many moments during editing where I wished I had filmed more of a particular scene or asked Aunty May to talk more about certain subjects. Having relied heavily on the editing to perfect my past projects, even with my photography projects, I definitely hope to improve my skills in trying to be more accurate during production and strive to make things more perfect at the beginning rather than just post.
Another really important aspect on my list of improvements is audio recording. The first time I shot the interview was a nightmare with the recording. I used a shotgun mic mounted on my DSLR and although the shotgun mic worked fine with the week 5 activity, the dialogue this time was way too soft and was almost indistinguishable with traffic sounds and static noise. Even when I tried to reduce the white noise through Audacity, it distorted everything and that’s when I knew that this audio was beyond repair. Luckily, I was able to reshoot the interview and for the second round of filming, I was advised to try using the lapel mic. As it was my first time, I wasn’t too sure how to use it, however, fortunately it worked like a charm and the audio turned out so much better than the before. I most definitely intend to use lapel mics for future documentaries. Furthermore, I understand that some people are concerned about the authenticity of interviewees’ answers when recording the second time, but with Aunty May, I noticed that she found it much easier to respond to my questions and was able to narrow down to those really good “golden moment” answers rather than waffling onto something else.
Overall, as this is my first experience making a documentary, my biggest goal was to be able to reflect Aunty May’s life in its purest form through this project. Before we began, Aunty May was very accommodating by asking how I would like to direct her and the shots, but I told her that all I want from her is to be comfortable and as natural as she could be. Even when I was filming the B Roll with her husband at the gardens, I told them to pretend I wasn’t there and just go on their date like they would on any other day. With this directing, I hoped I would capture the most genuine side of Aunty May and her husband’s life. So, I really do hope I was successful in that sense.