Evaluation - Documentary Practice =]

Our documentary has both its strengths and its weaknesses, one of the main weaknesses is the angle in which we filmed on the blue screen as the background makes the interviewee appear pale and see through. One other weakness is the audio as in one part of the documentary, you can hear crackling phone noises in the background from ironically a mobile which overpowers the voice of the interviewee. Another weakness is the speed of the cutaways as the majority of the cutaways seem to be slower or fast than initially intended which doesn't make them appear smooth.
However a strength of this documentary is that the answers appear clear as the audience can guess just through the answers what the questions were asked. Another strength would be the lack of jumpcuts due to the cross dissolves that we used. We asked other people to watch our documentary for an outside response, they said how they enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere that it presents and how it can fade into a different background yet still have the relevant audio in the background.

Editing - Documentary Practice =]

After we finished filming, we had to import the recording onto Adobe Premiere, we started editing our documentary first by separating the questions from the answers which took the most amount of time due to the preciseness of the cuts we had to make. When just the questions were left, we added them all together by using cross dissolves to reduce jump cuts. The blue screen allowed us to choose a different background which we decided to choose mobile phones as this was relevant to the nature of the documentary and it's a fundemental convention, however the interviewee appeared see through when on a light background therefore we stuck with a black background which made it look more formal. We put the cutaways in the background therefore audio was still being heard over the clip, we also decided to put the interviewee over the background therefore keeping the attention of the audience whilst making it look technical. We specifically planned to put the song Emergency - Paramore on the background because one of the interviewees answers include this because she enjoyed the irony of an emergency telephone call. Our first shot includes her name and the fact that she is a mobile phone user to inform the audience to who they are about to be listening to and their relevance to the documentary.

Filming - Documentary Practice =]

Due to the lack of time and resources to prepare for our documentary, all our planning changed therefore because of the time we couldn't get outside to town like first intended so we filmed on college grounds. We filmed our interviewee infront of a blue screen so that we could later on when editing, put some relevant images behind her. We also had to change the person we were going to recently use for once again due to lack of time to prepare. We used a variety of camera angles whilst filming as this is one of the conventions of documentaries to keep the audience watching interested. For our cutaways, we had to film within the college therefore we went upstairs and zoomed in on someone playing with their phone and another cutaway of panning from left to right of the entire scenery which took place in The Wicked Cafe.

Planning - Documentary Practice =]

We decided for our location of our documentary to film outside of a mobile phone shop as it would be relevant to the subject matter plus with the background of people walking past so that it was less informal. We planned to choose a stranger to be our interviewee so that it would be less time consuming yet we ended up deciding to choose someone that we already knew because we would be able to find someone quicker of the target population that we chose. Our target population were teenagers due to the fact we would know what would be appealing towards them, which is why we also planned to include teenagers playing on their phones and phone shots in our cutaways.

We planned to include 4 cutaways -

• Close up of a few mobile phones
• Pan through some strangers
• Shot of a mobile phone shop
• A few people talking/playing with their mobile phones.

Codes & Conventions of Filming & Editing Interviews - Documentary Practice =]

There are many certain codes and conventions involved in film interviews, these conventions are shown in the documentaries that I watched "In the teeth of Jaws" based on the movie Jaws by Steven Spielberg and " The Simspons 20th Anniversary Special In 3D on Ice" based on the American television programme The Simspons.

• Interviewees filmed in medium shot, medium close up or close up and as shown graphics are used to show who the person on screen is and their relevance to the topic of the documentary.
  

• Questions are edited out of the final production.
• Each answer expands on a previous question, developing points onto the current topic.
• They are framed left or right of the screen however if there are more than one interview positioning alternatives to create variety.
  

• Framing follows the rule of thirds as eyeline is rougly a third of the way down the frame.
• The interviewee looks at the interviewer not directly at the camera.
  

• Interviews are never filmed with a light source behind them i.e. in front of a window or with the sun behind them; the light is always in front of them.
• Mise-en-scene: background reinforces the content of the interview or is relevant to the interviewee, providing more information about them in terms of occupation or personal environment.

• Positioning of interviewer is therefore important. If the interviewee is on the Right side of the frame, the interviewer should be positioned on the Left side of the camera. If the interviewer is on the Left side of the frame, the interviewer is positioned on the Right side of the camera. In either case, the interviewer should sit or stand as close to the camera as possible.
• Cutaways are edited into interviewers for two reasons - To break up interviewers and illustrate what the interviewee is talking about & To avoid jump cuts when questions are edited out.