For Thursday’s studio on 23rd August, we had the chance to shoot an interview with somebody that we know of  around with the Sony x70 video camera and boom mic. As nobody in the class had a friend to interview that was in school, we had to interview our one of our class mates. My group, Grace, Jen and I, had to interview Mary, our classmate. Thus, after my group members took the roles they wanted, I was left with taking up the role as the interviewer. I was not thrilled with the idea of me being the interviewer, as I know myself that I’m not a good interviewer nor am I good at having conversation with people, in general. However, I took up the role anyways. I prepared some questions for Mary to answer as a group we had a conversation with her as well.

We then decided on the location we want to shoot the interview. We picked the outdoor rooftop as the location as we could use natural light. We had Mary sit on a bench with some greeneries behind her. Due to the time constraint, as the interviewer, I did not prepare my interviewee with he types of questions I wanted to ask her. This resulted in wasting time in briefing the interviewee with the type of questions I wanted to ask. Not only that, during the shoot itself, it took a long time for her to answer due to my “unprofessionalism”. I know now how important it is to prepare your interviewee even though you do not want them to know what the exact questions you will be asking during the interview itself.

Even with the hiccup happening, we were able to get through with the interview, and we were lucky enough to have an interviewee like Mary, as she was understanding and after warming up, she was very comfortable with us. It made the interview process easier as well. After the interview segment, we shot some B-rolls of Mary just being herself. For example, she jumped around, playing around the “garden” etc. The B-rolls we shot were able to capture Mary’s personality, that not many people know.

At the end of the class, I learned that you have to make the interviewee comfortable to be able to show more of their personality through the lens. It will also make the audience, who were watching the interview, have a better understanding of the interviewee. Another thing to take note of is that you HAVE to prep the interviewee with a couple of questions that you want to ask them, BEFOREHAND. This will enable the interviewee to anticipate what kind of questions the interviewer will be asking and prep their answers.

Prior to today’s studio, Kim wanted us, in our groups, to share our documentary topic and concepts as we move forward with the shooting plan. My groupmates, Grace and Jen, and I met on Monday to discuss what we wanted to present to the class. In our “mini presentation”, we had introduction of our subject, examples of colours and types of shots we hope to achieve for our documentary. We felt like we overdone it a little as we over prepared with slides as visual example. However, we managed to branch out more ideas from the feedbacks we get from our classmates and Kim. After hearing from the other groups in the class, I felt that there were a lot of interesting ideas/topics from other groups, which I am excited to see the final documentaries from the groups.

On top of the mini presentation we had to give to the class, Kim showed us two short documentaries as example of how we should approach our assignment 3, which includes shooting a 1-minute documentary film. We had to focused on what types of shots and the number of shots that were being used in the documentary and also the editing styles of both documentaries. I’ve forgotten the names of both the documentaries that was shown in class, however it was fascinating how both documentaries were able to capture our attention in such a short duration by using a lot of visual elements.

It then got me thinking on how I would want to film my own 1-minute documentary film for Assignment 3. For a short duration of a documentary film, it is important to use voice overs, soundscape and visual aids which will enable to capture the setting of the subject’s story and being able for the audience to also feel the emotions that the subject is feeling. In other words, being able to relate and sympathise with the subject. One of the documentary that Kim showed, was about a man who was lost at one of India’s mountain while he was hiking it. The documentary showed interview scenes with his parents, and it gives a sense of realness of the parents as they rencounter how their son was when he was younger and how they felt, and still feeling, about their son being missing at a foreign country. As an audience, I was firstly, intrigues by the amount of shots that us being used and edited into a short duration – documentary film. Secondly, apart from the amount of shots, the types of shots that they had in the film was mostly close ups of the interviewees’ hands and facial expressions. For example, when his mother was talking about the disappearance of her son, there were shots of her facial expressions as she was about to break down. It shows the subject being vulnerable to the incident. Lastly, most of the shots of the interviewees were against a plain background. I could tell that this was a creative direction as the story of the interviewees were emotional and impactful that they chose to have the subjects in front a plain background.

Thus, I hope to incorporate the kind of shots to capture my subject’s expressions while telling his or her story. On top of that, I have to also think of the change that happened to my subject with his or her story. As at the end of my documentary, it has to show what kind of change that my subject had to go through with the story or incident that he or she had witnessed. However, I’ve also learned that it is important to have archival materials from the subject as it will help the audience envisioned the kind of person the subject was before they witnessed an incident.

For part 2 of week 5’s blog post, I’m going to talk about a documentary that I’ve watched recently on Netflix.

The documentary is called, “Dark Net”. The premise of the documentary is basically about the hidden area of the worldwide network, where predators and criminals are able to exploit others through various online communities or deep dark web. Each episodes talked about specific themes, from exploitations of kids in children pornography to “dating” online.

-New On Netflix UK, Dark Net, viewed 14 August 2018 <https://uk.newonnetflix.info/info/80182553/s>

At first, I was not interested in watching the show, as I have heard some pretty dark stuff about the “dark side” of the internet before, in conspiracy theories videos on Youtube. I decided to try watching the first episode of this new Netflix documentary.

The first episode was a little heavy already, but it fascinated me. It was about “dating” online. However, there is a twist to it. It was not about how a girl and a guy meets online and started chatting. It was something a little deeper. There are 3 cases in on episode. The first case was about a couple who met online, through a BDSM (also known as Bondage, Discipline (or Domination), Sadism, and Masochism) group chat online. Thus, they started having “BDSM” relationship through a private online chat.

Photo from YouTube/Felonious Dragon

The second case was about a Japanese man, who broke up with his long-term girlfriend recently, started to play a game called “Love Plus”. The game allows players to interact with a virtual “girlfriend” of their own, without being committed to a “girlfriend”. In the show, it also stated, through their research, they found 60% or higher of single male in Japan, rather have a “relationship” with a virtual girlfriend in the game than to have a real intimate relationship with a real life person. This is because in the game, their virtual girlfriends could not break up with them or go against the male’s words.

The last case in the episode would be about a woman who was victimised by her ex boyfriend by posing her nude photos to online porn sites. It shows how dangerous it is a person, who you once trusted, could turn against you when things starts to go sour. She was also able to take her pictures down, however, her more pictures of her was uploaded at another porn site. A few months later, the woman reported her ex-boyfriend to the authorities and he was caught with distribution of pornographic images.

At the end of the documentary, I did not realised that I actually like the documentary. It not only tells the story of real life events that happened to real people, it also uses a lot of graphics to send the message across to the audience. The typography graphics acts as an aid on top of showing interviews, cutaways and reenactments. On top of that, the narrator also stated research and statistics of each case studies in the episode, which was very informative, as an avid user of the internet, I did not know half of the information that was stated in the documentary.

This week, for Tuesday’s studio class, Kim went through the points for our documentary assignment. From doing research work, developing on the hypothesis or theme of the film we want to do and preparing for interview or pre-interview. The most important point that Kim stated was to spend more time with the main subject or person that we are interviewing beforehand. This will enable us, as the filmmaker, to understand the subject’s story and also creating a relationship with them, where they feel more comfortable during the shoot itself. On top of that, we also have to take care of the the subject matter or interviewee during the shoot as well, by making sure that they agree on talking about what had happened to them in the past. Kim pointed out that as filmmakers, we have to always remind ourselves that even though the documentary has it’s ending but the subject matter’s lives continue on.

Other than prepping us on what to do and what is to come as we prepare to shoot our documentary, we also had a chance to do a trial set up for a practice interview. I was in charge of the audio, which means I had to handle the boom mic and listening in if the audio is clearly recorded. I tried placing the boom mic’s pole behind my neck, as I was taught to place it that way. However, it was not as comfort and everyone in the class could tell. Thus, I just held the pole connected to the boom mic in front of me. Kim taught me to make sure that the boom mic should be placed as close to the subject matters as possible, as long as it is not shown in frame of the camera. Thus, I tried to get close as possible without getting into frame.

Not only do I have to get the mic as close as possible to the subject, without getting the mic in the camera frame, to get a clear audio, but I have to listen carefully in the audio that’s been recorded too. Due to the headphones’ wires being too short from the camera to my position, the cameraman, Sam, had to listen in to the audio. However, were were having difficulties with the audio, as he could not hear anything. Kim also told me to make sure the boom mic is pointed towards the subject who was talking at that moment. Since there was an interviewer and an interviewee, I had to switch the position of the boom mic between the two, to make sure that when one of them spoke, the audio would be captured clearly.

I was not good with audio back when I was studying Media Production. Thus I was not very excited when I was assigned with audio, however, I tried it out anyways, since I was picked. I learned that handling a boom mic was not easy. The job as a boom operator is not easy. I am glad that I tried it out as a trial, before doing an actual recording. I was able to practice handling the boom mic and learn from my mistakes, like not putting the mic nearer to the subjects and also, being able to hold the boom mic’s pole in a comfortable position as you will have to hold it for a long time, during the whole interview session.

For Week 3’s Thursday’s studio, we were put in groups and tasked to film one of member’s story of significant change that happened to them. One of our member, Grace, volunteered on telling a story, which changed her perspective in others. Before going out and film her interview, we had to plan on what interview questions we want to ask her, the location of the interview and overlay shots. In other words, we had to plan pre-production phase to make sure that we get enough shots for the overlay and to prepare for the main interview shots as well. Planning was crucial as to make sure that we are prepared during shoot and it will also make editing stage easier as we can edit according to what has been planned.

After Grace told us a story of an incident that changed her perspective, we penned out a few question. We didn’t write down to many questions for her as Grace articulate really well what we wanted to convey to the audience as well. Her story was about an encounter with a random person on the street. As a group, we made sure that she was comfortable with telling the story, which she agreed, to make sure that she feels  comfortable telling something that changed her as a person. Other than preparing the questions, we also discussed the location for the interview and also overlays. After preparing everything, we then were briefed on the use of the Sony X70 video camera to shoot the interview.

During the shoot, it went smoothly, as Grace answered to the interview questions and the interviewer didn’t have to prompt more than 3 questions as Grace was very clear in her story. We had two different camera to capture different shot sizes as well – we used the Sony X70 as the main camera on the tripod, while my other group mate, Jenn, used her own DSLR as a 2nd camera with more close up shots. However, due to limited time, we didn’t managed to get overlay shots. Thus, we only managed to shoot the interview part.

When we got back to class, we tried to transfer out clips and Kim wanted to show the clips we’ve shot with the camera on the screen, so that everyone in the class could see the shots and give us feedback on things to improve on. However, there were some technical issue with the SD cards. None of our clips that we’ve shot wasn’t showing up on the screen, however, we were able to transfer the clips onto one of our laptop. We didn’t know what happened as it didn’t show up on the screen, however we managed to save the clips.

In conclusion, what I’ve learned from practical class this week:

• Plan out what’s the angle of the story we are trying to tell
• Plan what kind of shots and locations you want to get for the main interview and overlays BEFORE going out to shoot it
• Know the functions of the camera
• and lastly check the SD card that the footages are being shot. Make sure it’s being recorded to a SD card.

For our 3^rdweek of Media class, we had to choose one question and discussed it in groups.

The questions given were:

• What is the difference between bering witness, observing, observing, noticing?
• How do we seek out truths in an era of fake news?
• How do we ensure authentic representations?
• How and why does personal remembrance becomes understood as historical knowledge?

Thus, my group decided to discuss the question:

“How do we ensure ethical authentic representations?”

Each of us had similar ideas and answers to the question during our discussion. In opinion, there’s a debate on how “ethical” and “authentic” things are being shown, especially in Media. In Media, there’s always going to be a sense of manipulation being put out there. Which reminds me of what a Canadian comedian, Russell Peters, said during one of his comedy shows, when he joked about Arab people and the media. He stated how media know how to manipulate things, and it’s up to the people to figure it out on their own. An example of what he said;

“…they enforce all this this shit, you know? What they’ll do is, they’ll show you an image of somebody of a different background, and then they’ll show you an alternate image, like right away of something completely different. They don’t say the two images are together. They kind of present it like, “Whaddya think?” “

“Arabs” | Russell Peters – Red, White, and Brown

Peters, R 2016, Red, White and Brown, video recording, Youtube, viewed 1 August 2018

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEVAE3EYoOg>

Which I agree. There is limits of ethical authenticity, especially when being represented by the media, especially when there is social media. People could edit and cut out parts of a video, which takes away the essence and the real issue. What do I mean? The video that’s been edited or cut, doesn’t tell the whole story of the situation. As I’ve mentioned before, social media, for example on Twitter, anybody could post a video of a fight that they had seen. However, due to the limitation in the duration of the video that can be posted on the platform, people are only able to see certain parts of the video, not the whole situation. On top of that, certain groups of people can be misrepresented.

Going back to what Russell Peters said about Arab and the media, the media only wants to show the war that is happening in Arab countries, and in his words, only shows “the rednecks” of Arab on media outlets. This is because the way that they acted was more interesting or “media worthy” than regular Arabs, which were the majority, who didn’t act as “radical”. Thus, because of what the media chose to show, majority of people around the world see Arabs as “radical”, even though it is not every Arab who acts like that. In the end, there is a misrepresentation of them as a group.

In conclusion, we can’t be a 100% ensure that things are ethical authentic, especially with social media. However, from what we CAN do is ask around people who were actually there during the conflict to give their insight on the situation or talk to the people who were involve in the situation. Be able to investigate and find out the truth.