Documentary - WORKSHOPS
21.03.20 - Interview workshop with Helen and Ferg
Today we did an interview workshop with Helen and Ferg, due to the current circumstances we are now taking lessons over Microsoft Teams so we are able to still continue learning.
The aim of the workshop was to see the advantages of LED lighting and to learn the importance of creating visually aesthetic interviews and shots to ensure we are shooting to a professional standard. This was really important for me to learn, as it has allowed me to understand some interview aspects and what makes good lighting for specific documentaries styles.
I also have learnt the benefits of using LED lighting and how using the three point lighting system, can create profession lighting to fit our documentaries.
It is important for us to remember the key parts of setting up for example:
Exposure - Amount of light allowed through the camera lens
Lighting - The set up in which we may use the Key Light, Back Light and Fill light
Composition - The elements within the frame, talent, props etc
Camera Placement - The placement of the camera and were it looks best.
This really helped me as it meant I learnt to always remember the fundamental parts of setting up your shoot and the key things to remember to ensure I'm setting up promptly and ensuring everything is ready before you bring in the talent. I will ensure when filming my documentary with my group, that we are looking at all key aspects of setting up the shoot to ensure we do not miss anything and we are setting up within a decent time frame so talent isn't waiting.
Helen and Ferg also showed us how different lighting set ups can impact the look of your documentary and included the do's and dont's. For example;
Shadows - Harsher lighting can create shadows and without a fill light, it can cause disturbance in the background and take away the professional look for the shot.
Busy Background - When setting up the interview process, Helen mentioned the background needs to be relevant, having a busy background will also distract the audience and show the shot is unprofessional. Within the powerpoint which we were being taught with, I have included a picture below to show how a busy background can be distracting.
Framing - We were also taught that framing is really important when it comes too interview set ups and lighting. It's important to make sure that the framing of the talent is either to the left or right of the center and not fully centered. Ferg mentioned also that it's important that your talent faces the Key light.
This has really benefited me learning about the set ups of interviews and what things can potentially go wrong. Especially learning about shadows, Framing and also how important the background to the interview is. I am going to ensure that I use this within my documentary as a group so that we ensure the background is relevant, there is no reason to have a background that isn't relevant to what the interviewee is speaking about. As an example one of our interviewees is Barber shop owner who has been affected by Fake News which caused loss of business, so it's important we tell this with the background also by potentially using his shop to further our story.
They also discussed the benefits of using LED lighting over Tungstens.
As I know with previous projects using Tungsten lights, they can be overly bulky and require a huge amount of wattage and eletrical power. As Ferg mentioned there are many benefits of using LED lighting when you're on a location:
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Today we did an interview workshop with Helen and Ferg, due to the current circumstances we are now taking lessons over Microsoft Teams so we are able to still continue learning.
The aim of the workshop was to see the advantages of LED lighting and to learn the importance of creating visually aesthetic interviews and shots to ensure we are shooting to a professional standard. This was really important for me to learn, as it has allowed me to understand some interview aspects and what makes good lighting for specific documentaries styles.
I also have learnt the benefits of using LED lighting and how using the three point lighting system, can create profession lighting to fit our documentaries.
It is important for us to remember the key parts of setting up for example:
Exposure - Amount of light allowed through the camera lens
Lighting - The set up in which we may use the Key Light, Back Light and Fill light
Composition - The elements within the frame, talent, props etc
Camera Placement - The placement of the camera and were it looks best.
This really helped me as it meant I learnt to always remember the fundamental parts of setting up your shoot and the key things to remember to ensure I'm setting up promptly and ensuring everything is ready before you bring in the talent. I will ensure when filming my documentary with my group, that we are looking at all key aspects of setting up the shoot to ensure we do not miss anything and we are setting up within a decent time frame so talent isn't waiting.
Helen and Ferg also showed us how different lighting set ups can impact the look of your documentary and included the do's and dont's. For example;
Shadows - Harsher lighting can create shadows and without a fill light, it can cause disturbance in the background and take away the professional look for the shot.
Busy Background - When setting up the interview process, Helen mentioned the background needs to be relevant, having a busy background will also distract the audience and show the shot is unprofessional. Within the powerpoint which we were being taught with, I have included a picture below to show how a busy background can be distracting.
Framing - We were also taught that framing is really important when it comes too interview set ups and lighting. It's important to make sure that the framing of the talent is either to the left or right of the center and not fully centered. Ferg mentioned also that it's important that your talent faces the Key light.
This has really benefited me learning about the set ups of interviews and what things can potentially go wrong. Especially learning about shadows, Framing and also how important the background to the interview is. I am going to ensure that I use this within my documentary as a group so that we ensure the background is relevant, there is no reason to have a background that isn't relevant to what the interviewee is speaking about. As an example one of our interviewees is Barber shop owner who has been affected by Fake News which caused loss of business, so it's important we tell this with the background also by potentially using his shop to further our story.
They also discussed the benefits of using LED lighting over Tungstens.
As I know with previous projects using Tungsten lights, they can be overly bulky and require a huge amount of wattage and eletrical power. As Ferg mentioned there are many benefits of using LED lighting when you're on a location:
1.
Less Wattage
2.
Easier to create softer lighting with diffusers
3.
Easier to set up and less heavier/Bulky
It was important for me to learn
the benefits of LED lighting when using them to light your interview subjects
because it means we can set up efficiently when filming our documentary as this
should save time and worry by planning. By using the LED lights that are
lighter then Tungstens and easier to use to diffuse lighting if too harsh, it
should mean we are able to set up efficiently. As Ferg mentioned before that ‘time
is money’. So, it is important we also do not leave our contributors waiting.
With the advice I have learnt above it means we can avoid that by ensuring we
are planned and using the most efficient equipment.
Overall, it was really interesting to learn about how we should set up our interviews and the best way to efficiently conduct the interview. As it is important we don't leave our contributors waiting, I need to ensure as a group we are planned, set up and prepared with the best equipment. We had decided we would use LED lighting and as DP I would create a camera set up plan to follow along with the lighting set up created by Sydney who is our gaffer. I also went into further research to back up the information and what I had learnt from this process within my content research blog.
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