Reflection:

This week we are learning about interviews which are really important in making documentaries. On Monday, we tried an interview with classmates on Collaborate Ultra, but I found that it is not that easy as a face-to-face interview. We are unable to maintain emotional links with interviewees through eye contact, nor can we tell when we should guide them by observing their facial expression. So, for this week’s video, I decided to film a face-to-face interview. In the article by Rabiger(2009), he indicates that setting plays an important role in interviews. Interviewing in places familiar to interviewees can make them more likely to express their hearts. And for different topics , environment settings could have different impacts. So I chose to interview him at the place where he spent most of his time on. The setting of the interview is divided into three parts according to the requirements. I think this is very reasonable, because his exploration of the interviewee is gradually deepening. Through communication, they can recall more useful information and share it with us. In ‘Capturing Reality: The Art of Documentary’(2008), grandma is holding a photo of her grandchild in the whole interview. It inspires me to ask the interviewee to show some photos which are related to his key event. Doing this will not only make him recall more content, but also make the people watching the video understand his feelings better.

Reference:

Capturing Reality: The Art of Documentary. 2008. [film]. Directed by Pepita Ferrari

Rabiger, Michael. Directing the Documentary, Taylor & Francis Group, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central

Script:
Mason: Hi

Sullivan: Hello

Mason: Introduce yourself

Sullivan: I’m Shengjun Su, and I’m studying computer science in Melbourne uni.

Mason: Would you like to talk about a key event in your life?

Sullivan: Sure. After I got into Melbourne Uni, I joined the Chinese cultural society. As I continued to participate in the activities in CCS, I won the position of minister of sponsor department. And our job is to negotiate sponsoring the club with the merchant around school.

Mason: So what did you learn from that?

Sullivan: Well, During my tenure as a minister, I learned the skills of negotiating with people. It also strengthened my leadership skills. I believe these will give me an advantage over others in later life.