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Interview Questions
Interview Questions
When did you start learning your instrument?
What made you start this hobby?
What has learning an instrument done for you?
How has learning this instrument helped you outside of playing music?
Where do you like to play your instrument?
Do you ever play music with others or do you prefer to play music by yourself?
Why should someone learn to play an instrument?
What would you say to someone who is thinking about learning an instrument? How can they start?
Why do you think it is important that these skills should be preserved? Why should we make sure people younger then you learn these instruments and pass down these skills?
Interview One
Interview One
On the first shoot for this interview it did not go as well as I would have liked it to go. This is because the room that I collected the footage in was too dark for the subject of this documentary. I think that if I was to use this lighting for a documentary with a darker theme however for this documentary the lighting was too dark and dramatic. From looking over this footage I can see that I will need to reshoot this interview on another day because I am not completely satisfied with the final result of the footage. However, something that this production day helped me with was bringing together a bigger variety of B-roll shots and it gave me yet another idea of how I want to structure my interview. While shooting it also allowed me to test out the lapel microphone again and try different techniques. For example, I was able to test how the music I played on the instrument would sound on the recording from the microphone. Looking back at this production day and the result of the footage I think that I am going to have to re-shoot it to make it look how I want my interview to look.
When I tried to fix the lighting by opening the blinds and even increasing the light coming from the LED panel the lighting on the camera did not change. I knew that this problem was happening during production however I wanted to carry on with this interview as another method of research in case I do want to include a slightly darker scene later on in production and during post-production.
Interview One Re-Shoots
Interview One Re-Shoots
After my first attempt at filming my first interview I have decided to re-shoot the entire interview because I did not think that the interview looked how I wanted it to look. This means that in these reshoots I have thought about what went wrong in the previous attempt and I have found methods to avoid these things from going wrong again. One thing that went wrong in the first attempt was that the lighting in the room was too dark for the camera to pick a lot of colour up. Therefore, to avoid this I have decided to change the location of this interview to a different place in my house where there is more sources of light. I think that this is going to help because it will help the camera to capture more colour in the shot. In these reshoots I also think that I am going to spend some more time trying out a variety of shots to keep my interview interesting instead of using the same three shots throughout all three interviews. This also applies to the new B-roll shots that I am going to try and use in this different location.
Looking over the footage and audio that I collected I think that I have successfully collected all of the footage that I need for this first interview. I can see that it is good quality, I have answered all the questions I gave myself and I have also helped to make the documentary longer by giving long and detailed answers. While I still think that I might take some of the B-roll footage that I collected the first time shooting this interview. Most of the B-roll that I collected filming this interview will be put into my final edit. This is because the lighting is brighter and I also had a much better idea of how I want my B-roll to look and how much I am going to need to make this interview more interesting to the viewer.
Now that I have completed the second attempt to my first interview I can say that I have an even greater understanding to how I want my documentary footage to look and how I am going to lay out my other two interviews. I think that this production day was a lot more successful then the previous shoot for this interview. This is because the lighting is not too dark like the previous shoot and in my opinion it looks a lot more professional. In this shoot I changed the location to a different room in my house instead of using my bedroom. This helped to include lots more natural light into the shots which I think helped to add colour to my shots. In this production I also used similar shots to the ones I created during my pre-production and put in my storyboard. I find it very helpful to find a place to start in my first interview.
Interview Two
Interview Two
While filming my second interview I think that I successfully collected lots of good quality footage that will be included into my final documentary. In this interview I included some shots that are similar to the ones that I tested out in my action research. I also used some different shots that I tested at the time of the production. In this shot I placed the camera behind the interviewee and I placed the camera facing opposite it with the interviewee in the middle. This then made the lighting behind the interviewee force the camera to pick up the dark side of the interviewee's face. I used this shot for the most important question in the interview about why we should 'preserve' these skills. I think that this shot was very successful. I also tested out different B-roll shots that I think was very successful. During this production I found it a lot easier to capture good quality shots because I was able to have full control of the camera while completing the interview instead of having to stand up every shot and check that the camera is in the right position. Overall, I think that this interview was very successful and I was able to capture lots of professional-looking footage that I will be able to use in my final edit.
During the production of this interview I decided to use the lapel mic which I tested during my action research. This was a lot more efficient then using a sound kit because I did not have to carry around the sound kit to the different locations and I also think that the lapel mic is a lot better of an option during interviews. This is because it picks up clear audio when held near the interviewee and it also captures my voice in the background whenever I ask the interviewee a question. In this interview I also made sure that the shots captured some of the drum kit in the background. I did this because I thought that it would help show the subject of the interview behind the interviewee and it also shows the area where they play their instrument.
Interview Three
Interview Three
For my third interview I wanted to try something different from the first two interviews. I wanted to find a modern type of instrument that I could interview an expert about. I then asked my friend who DJ's professionally if I could interview him. This interview went very well because I tried it in a different setting in the interviewees garden. I think that this helped to give a change of scenery in the documentary instead of all shots being inside. When getting the equipment for this interview I chose to hire out a large LED light but I ended out not needing to use it because the lighting was already effective when the interview was shot outside. I think that some of the shots could have been better in this interview because I think the light from the sun was too much for the camera and it caused a few of the shots to become slightly unfocussed from the light.
When filming this interview I made sure to pay attention to my pre-production, action research and my initial research. You can see this in the interview through the shots that I used. For example, the interrotron that I used where the interviewee stairs into the camera. I used this shot for the most important question in this interview that asks about why we need to preserve these skills and pass them down to others.
I liked this interview a lot because I felt that my friend, the interviewee is very passionate about music and he was able to express this passion in his answers to my questions. I am going to capture the B-roll footage for this interview during eater break when I am going to one of this DJ's events. He is also going to send me some of his biggest highlights at his events so I can include them during this interview in the final edit.
Overall, I think that this production has been very successful. I have been able to capture lots of good quality interview footage as well as lots of B-roll footage that I can edit over it. I have used my pre-production and action research to help me make the footage look how I want it to. I have also thought about the order of my documentary and how I want all of this footage I have collected to be structured in the final edit. I have found my research incredible useful because it gave me somewhere to start when thinking about shots to use and the layout of how I want my inteerviews to be. It also allowed me to ask my interview subjects effective questions to give the message that this entire documentary is trying to spread which is 'Why should we preserve musical skills'. However, while looking over the footage I can see that in all of my interviews, something that is going to need further shooting during re-shoots will be B-roll footage. While I feel like I have collected lots of B-roll footage, I do not think there is enough to keep the documentary interesting for the viewer the entire way through.
Editing Lesson 1:
Editing Lesson 1:
I began the editing for this documentary by opening Adobe Premiere-Pro and placing all of the footage that I had gathered so far during this production time. I then placed all of the interview footage in order of questions and each interview. I did this so I would be able to re-think the order of the interviews later on. Once I placed all of the footage in order I began to add the B-roll footage in above the interviews in the places that I thought suited best. For lots of this B-roll footage I cut it in half so it would be shown during different moments of each question. I made sure that the B-roll's audio continued through the interview to give background noise in the interview. I liked using this audio because I thought that if I played the subjects music then it would work better then using other music. Finally, I began to place simple animations into the edit. For example, I included text in-between each answer to make sure that the answer being asked is fully understood by the viewer. I placed this text along all the questions in the first interview. I chose to use this font because I thought that it would work well with the tone of this documentary. I liked the bright yellow colour and the bold text that does not look as agressive as other bold typefaces that I tested before.
When editing in this lesson I also tested out the character introduction animation that I created to see how it would work in an actual interview. I think that it worked very well because it is clear and introduces the subject of the interview without taking away the main focus of the screen. However, in the future I think that I could test out different colours for this animation to see what suits the colours in the background of the interveiw best. However, I think that the beige colour palette that I have used for this animation worked very well for this interview.
Editing Lesson 2:
Editing Lesson 2:
When moving onto each question I wanted to find a way to make it more clear that the next question had been asked. I had already placed in the yellow text on the screen however, I wanted this text to be easier to read over the interview. Therefore, I decided to experiment with blurring the start of the footage for each question. I used the video effect, 'Camera Blur' after separating the part of the question that I wanted to be blurred.
After testing out different levels of blur I decided to keep it how it was originally when I put the effect on the footage. When watching it through I decided that I liked the blur effect but I wanted it to blend in with the rest of the question without cutting from blurry to clear. This meant that I had to create a time frame on this effect. I placed this at the start of the blurred footage and stopped and started the footage over and over again. Every time I stopped the footage I would lower the level of blur on the effect until it was completely clear. Overall, I think that this blur effect was very successful and I was able to create a good separation between each question that was asked in each interview.
Now that I had already placed in all of the footage in order on premiere-pro and edited a lot of the first interview I decided to change the names and descriptions on the animations that I created. I did this by opening the original Adobe Illustrator document that I used to create the first animation for my interview. I changed the names and the descriptions and exported them as PNG's. placed both of these images into premiere pro and placed them into the parts of the documentary that they needed to be in. Something that I could change about these animations in the future is the colour of them. While I think that the colour work for the first and second interview, I do not think that they work as well for the third interview with the brighter colours.
Overall, I think that these animations were very successful and they help to make the documentary seem more professional. I think that they give a good introduction to the subject of each interview while also not taking any attention away from the interviewee.
In this lesson I think that I was able to make a lot of progress in my edit and I now have an even better idea of what the finished documentary is going to look when I have my final edit. I was able to try out a new video effect that blurred part of the footage in-between each question that was asked. I also placed in some more B-roll footage into my second interview which I think was more successful then the first interview. This is because during the filming of the second interview, I had a better idea of how much B-roll I needed to collect because of my previous experience with the first interview. While editing in this lesson I also began collecting ideas of how I can improve my documentary by adding some video effects. I decided that I was going to experiment with colour correction methods once all of my footage had been placed into the documentary and the edit is completed. I want to add some colour correction because I think it will help to further improve the lighting in my documentary and even make it look more professional like an official documentary created by professionals. However, I think that overall, I was able to make lots of progress on my edit and I now have an even greater idea of how I want my interviews to look. I think that the video effects that I added in were very successful and the second interview that I edited is better then the one I edited in the previous lesson because of this greater understanding of how I want my interviews to look.
Editing Lesson 3:
Editing Lesson 3:
In this lesson I continued with editing through both my first and second interview. I began this lesson by going through and refining any transitions or cuts to each shot. I spent my time making sure that there was no mistakes and that all of the questions that appear on the screen are spelt right. I found this use of my time very useful because I now do not have to look over these areas again later on during the editing phase of the documentary.
While making this editing changes I managed to capture multiple mistakes in my edit so far. For example, I found spelling mistakes in my animations, small gaps in between different shots and even using the wrong audio input instead of using the audio captured on the lapel microphone. I also used this lesson time to look through all of the B-roll footage that I had previously placed in the second editing lesson. This B-roll footage being primarily in my second interview. I looked through this B-roll and made sure that I used all of the good quality shots and cut out all of the shots I did not want to use. This also meant that I had time to look through the B-roll audio and edit the areas where the audio of the subject fades in throughout the two interviews. Finally, in this editing lesson I used my time to place in the audio for the third interview with 'Joe' and make sure that they were ligned up with the interview footage above it on premiere pro. Overall, I think that my use of this lesson time was very good and I was able to make lots of changes that I would not have been able to make any other time.
Editing Lesson 4:
Editing Lesson 4:
For the fourth editing lesson I did not yet have all of the B-roll footage that I needed to complete my rough cut for the documentary. Therefore, I decided to spend my time effectively and begin working on the final part of the documentary. This being the most important and final question in the documentary 'Why is it important that these skills are preserved? Why should we make sure these skills are preserved?' This question is the most important one in the documentary because it is the whole reason for the documentary and the interviewees replies to this question spread the whole message of the documentary.
I made sure to first place all of the audio from the lapel microphone for each of these questions. I wanted to place all three interviewees answers next to each other at the end because I wanted them to answer the question back to back so the viewer can take in the overall message of the documentary as best as possible. Once both the footage and the audio had been placed in I made sure to place in the graphic text for the question being asked as well.
Once I had completed these steps I was unsure of what else I wanted to do to this final, important area of the documentary. Therefore, I decided to leave it to a later lesson during the editing phase for this project. I then chose to make a good use of my time in this lesson and began looking at some of the colour correction methods and techniques that I could use once the documentary had been completed and it was time to add some video effects.
I first decided to look back over the colour correction techniques that I tested during my action research to see if they would still suit my final documentary footage. While I still think these techniques will work effectively on my footage, I also wanted to spend my left over time in this lesson to find a third method that I could use. This was because I wanted to have multiple techniques that I could use and fall back on in case the methods I tested previously did not work as well this time. I am going to use these techniques that I have learnt on my final editing session once all of the footage has been placed into premiere-pro and any other aspects of the documentary are completely finished.
Rough Cut:
Rough Cut:
Unit 2 FMP documentary rough cut.mp4Now that I can look over my rough cut I have an overall better idea of how I want my final documentary edit to look. I also have an even better idea of what I need to add and include to the edit to make it better. For example, I am going to add some video effects like colour correction. I am also going to add in more B-roll in areas where I feel they need more. Finally, I am also going to think about different methods that I could use to cut to each question smoothly. For example, when the picture blurs I am going to fade it into being blurred instread of it cutting to it. I think that this will make the transition to each question even smoother. Overall, I think that my edit is going very well at this point in the production phase and I have lots of ideas that I could use to further improve this edit and make it into a professional final documentary edit.
Editing Lesson 5:
Editing Lesson 5:
In this lesson I was able to place in my final pieces of footage that I captured in-between lessons. This footage that I captured was the B-roll for my third interview. I enjoyed creating this B-roll because I managed to sit down with Joe, the subject for this interview, while he did a short DJ set. As he was DJing I captured a large amount of footage with many different camera angles. This left me with more then enough B-roll footage to edit through and include in my documentary edit. I think that this B-roll footage was very successful and I have now had the oportunity to place it into my Premiere Pro edit. Looking over this interview I can see that it has high energy that suits the theme of this interview and it also helps to make sure that this interview is entertaining for the viewer. I also hope that it shows the viewer what you can gain from learning to DJ or even to play any instrument. This is because in the footage I collected you can see how much Joe (The subject of the interview) enjoys playing his music and how it improves his mood as a whole.
While editing this B-roll footage into my documentary I found it a lot easier then the previous two interviews. I found editing this interview footage a lot easier because the B-roll I captured lasted longer then the interview overall. This meant that I had so much footage to chose from. While it took time to look through all of the footage and find what I wanted to use, I think that this was a lot easier then having to settle for whatever B-roll I had much like in the first two interviews. While editing this footage into Premiere Pro I placed 2-3 long peices of footage over this interview so they spanned across the entire interview. I then went through to find what shots I wanted to use and what ones I wanted to miss.
Once I decided what footage to use I used the point tool to lower the opacity of the areas that I didn't want to use. This meant that if I wanted to I could keep the audio from the B-roll I didn't want included over the interview footage. Therefore, using this method I could cut in and out of these long pieces of B-roll footage throughout the interview. Overall, I think that the final edit for this interview was very successful. I was able to place in all of the footage for my third and final interview. In this time I also made some small refinements on the last question in the documentary about 'Preserving' these skills. For example, I made sure that all of the audio and the footage in this final part were aligned and the footage was of good quality. Now that I have completed all of the basic parts of this documentary I think that in my next editing session I will begin adding some video effects like colour correction to make the lighting in these interviews pop. I want my interviews to look more professional and I can do this by making sure my colour correction effects help to make the colours of my shots stand out over eachother and have a contrast.
Editing Lesson 6:
Editing Lesson 6:
For this editing session I decided to spend some of my time out of lesson in another classes media lesson to complete my edit. I wanted to spend this time refining my documentary and looking out for any mistakes in my edit. Once I checked for any mistakes I chose one of the colour correction methods that I had previously learnt. This colour correction was done by going onto the effect tab 'Basic Correction' and changing the 'Temperature', 'Tint', 'Highlights' and 'Shadows' for each individual shot in my documentary. I went through each shot and made sure that the colour correction that I used suited each one and helped to compliment the lighting in the shots.
Before Colour Correction:
After Colour Correction:
For each shot I added colour correction to I began to learn methods where I could change the shot to look more how I want it to look. For example, when there was a darker shot I would heavily increase both the 'highlights' and 'shadows'. This can be seen in the shots in the first interview. However, when a shot is too bright because of the surroundings e.g. the shots in the third interview, I would heavily decrease the 'highlights' and 'shadows' which helped to make the subjects face clearer and even make the backgrounds colours 'pop' out to the viewer. Once I had colour corrected all of the interview footage throughout the edit I decided to look through all of the B-roll footage and check for any areas where I could slightly change the colour to make it look more cinematic. I think that this helped a lot and even made my documentary look more professional as a whole.
Looking over my documentary edit I can see that I have included many visual effects to my documentary and I have also laid it out clearly for the viewer to understand. I can also see that I have created a good balance between the interview footage and the B-roll throughout the documentary making the final edit both informational and entertaining for the viewer.
Final Documentary
Final Documentary
Final Documentary (1).mp4Production Reflection
Production Reflection
Now that I have completed the production for my Unit 2 FMP documentary I can say that the final product is very successful and I have created a good quality documentary that is both informational and enjoyable for the viewer. Over this production phase I have been able to use my initial research, pre-production and action research to guide me through this production phase. I think that the filming phase was very successful because I used a large range of shots, I captured more then enough footage and I think that all of my footage was good quality. While filming I also had no problems with my equipment like I have in most of the previous projects. I think that this was because I am a lot more experienced with using this equipment now. I also think that there was no problems with the equipment because I tested all of it throughout my research by creating audio tests, storyboards and test scenes. During the production for this project I can also see that the editing phase was very successful. This is because I structured my documentary so it is easier to understand for the viewer. The edit also includes a range of B-roll, video effects and even effects like colour correction that help to make it more cinematic and professional. Overall, I can say that I have successfully completed the production for this unit and I have also created a good quality documentary that is filled with a large variety of shots and is entertaining for the viewerer. I was also successul at spreading my overall message that I was trying to spread which is about 'preserving' musical talents and skills and passing these skills down to younger generations.
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