Interviews and First Scenes

Beginning with my interview with Jeff, the interview was very nice and relaxed and a great way to start off the first filming bits of my documentary.
However, before filming Jeff for his interview, he helped me to film the first scenes of my documentary where I shave off my beard.

This went well and since me and Jeff are friends I find working together really enjoyable and so my delivery of the lines, although a little bit rushed, is surprisingly natural for me as this is one of the first things I've ever done on camera myself mainstage instead of alongside others.

The interview with Jeff carried on in the same fashion as we played Xbox and filmed during as I'm going to put a narration over some silent shots of Jeff.

Next up I went to my girlfriends and Interviewed everyone there.

Starting with her family I found that they were really helpful and willing to engage fully with my questions. Often people can get a bit nervous and just say short answers but there were no nerves here and so the interview has a lovely family dynamic and warmth to it. The natural humour about Phil's chin etc. really accents this style and I'm really pleased with this as it linked into Phil's interview well too.

With Phil's interview we kept the warmth but looking back after filming you can hear Eden downstairs shout shut up at the dogs for barking whilst we're filming. Although trying to help she did end up being louder than the dogs so we re-shot the interview.

However, after playing the interview back to others they barely noticed the dogs and Eden and said if anything it strengthens the family feel of the documentary. It was a pain that we re-filmed when the original was fine but still it's a good practice to get into just in case and actually this fact came into play as I edited the interviews.

With this work I am going to be doing each scene/subject of my documentary as a mini piece of work so that each subject gets a full dose of focus and detail.
I call this style of working "The Lego Effect" as the practice is the same in that I have these separate scenes as building blocks which I'll put all together once I've got all the pieces I need to to make the final model. :)

I've started this work ethic with these interviews and already edited and put them into an order so that they smoothly progress.
Sadly I wanted to film the interviews with two cameras but could only get one JVC out so instead I have filmed the same questions from different angles and then was just going to put them next to each other but instead have gone one step further and used the pauses and "Umm's and Aaah's" in the speech to link one scene into the next seamlessly.

That's it for now but with these first scenes and interviews edited and ready to be put into the mix I can now focus on the animations which are going to take up most of my time.

Check back soon for the next part of work I've undertaken.

Take care,
Joe.