Lincoln... Documantary tutorial week 2, with Nick Grey

Today I had my second and final class with award winning documentary maker Nick Grey.

Today we focused on interviews.

We looked at interviewing techniques, lighting set up and framing.

These are some pictures I took of the set up...

Here are my notes from the class.

Interview types:

One on Ones.

• Get under a persons skin
• Understand there world
• Reveal character

Informal.

• Follow some one, chip in questions
• choose moments to ask

Fly on wall.

• Contributers forget your there

Formal.

• Staged
• Suitable place
• Studio
• Home
• Long
• Voice Over
• Quite, good sound
• Easy Edit

Vox Pops.

• Street
• Public
• Ask open questions, yes/no answer

Setting up an interview:

Camera.

• Set up/Positioning

Lighting.

• Soft light
• position
• set up

Framing.

• Shot size
• Eye line

Respond to director.

• Have signals
• plans, for zooms etc.

Audio.

• Mics
• Boom, Neck
• Use of questions
• Voice over

The Edit.

• How will it be cut
• Direction
• The Line

Style and Mood.

• Lighting
• Camera in View
• What mood?
• Colour
• Darker
• Brighter

Location.

• Pick it well
• Cutaways
• Able to control the interview

What not to do:

• Don't set up a camera and equipment without informing about what you are doing
• Don't let the interviewee wait around
• Don't encourage unnecessary bystanders 
• Don't fire straight into questions
• Don't give evidence of own insecurity's
• Don't be unprepared
• Avoid interruptions
• Don't forget the interviewee's name or important details
• Don't ask closed questions
• Don't as too many questions in the same sentence
• Don't be to relaxed, watch your posture
• Don't give verbal feedback
• Don't ask irrelevant questions
• Don't write things down as a person is responding
• Don't make the interview to short or to long

Rules:

• Know what the film is about
• Prepare, Prepare, Prepare
• Build Rapport
• Active Listening
• Interview for the edit

Hints:

• Plan the questions
• To produce responses
• answer in whole sentences
• wait at the end of a response, for the edit or for the interviewee to add something
• Questions can be skeptical but not sarcastic
• Maintain eye contact
• Listen to the questions
• use follow up questions
• interview for the edit
• sound bites
• Don't give control to the interviewee
• Listen to the subtext
• Use researchers when possible
• Use silences
• breathing room
• wait for answer
• interviewee's dont like silence
• Ethics
• fair
• represent fairly what they say in the edit
• inform the contributers the truth
• Opportunism
• Take opportunity's

It was great to have these lessons. Nick was a very nice man, and i learnt a lot from him. He always listened to my ideas with enthusiasm, although perhaps with a look of confusion...