- What is the quality of my interview footage?
- What is the quality of my B-roll footage?
- Are there elements we need to film again?
- Why should we transcribe our interviews?
- Can we now establish a final 3-act narrative?
If you are on schedule and following our recommended timetable, you should now have all your footage. The quality of this footage is really important; poor framing, camera angles & camera movements will impact significantly on your final mark. You need to check every shot you filmed. For each shot, ask yourself the following questions;
- Did we follow the rule of thirds?
- Is there any unnecessary 'dead space' in the shot?
- Have we left appropriate 'head room' and 'talking space'?
- Is our interviewee inappropriately placed in the middle of the shot?
- Is out interviewee looking slightly left/right of the camera, towards an off-camera interviewer on the opposite side of the frame?
- Does the interviewee use the question in their answer? Does their answer make sense when you remove the interviewer's voice/question?
- Have we filmed the interview in an appropriate location? Is there an appropriate background?
- Does our B-roll contribute to issues of representation for our target audience?
- Are all camera movements smooth?
- Have we always used the most appropriate shot distance?
- Is the shot held steady throughout? Did we use a tripod?
- Is every shot in focus?
- Is lighting appropriate? Can we see the facial features of our interviewees?
- Is sound recorded cleanly? Are there any distracting noises in the background?
- Could this shot be improved?
If you answer negatively to any of the above questions for ANY of your shots, it WILL impact on your final mark and, therefore, you should film that shot again!
Transcribing Your Interviews
You have to transcribe your interviews so that you can analyse what was said and decide which bits you are going to use. Transcribing involves typing up a paper copy of the interview; the questions and the interviewee's responses. It is quite time consuming, but it is the normal way in which documentary makers and researchers analyse the responses they have collected. You should include an extract from one of the transcriptions in your Production Portfolio.
Establishing a 3-Act Narrative
Now that you have an accurate record of your footage, you can start to establish the actual narrative for your documentary. Effectively, you are adding more detail to your pre-shoot script, including the theme of the content. Remember, you're documentary should have an Introduction, Development Section & a Conclusion/Summary. Discuss this as a group as, next lesson, you will have to complete a detailed Post-Shoot Script (see example here).
