To Do This Week
Read: Visual Evidence, A/B Roll Editing” and “A Short Sermon about Interviews” (PDF)
Watch: The Devil’s Playground (1.5 hour doc)
Blog Prompt: This 2002 documentary by Lucy Walker is about Amish teens. It was shot on a consumer video camera over 5 years and involved a lot of time spent with the subjects building trust (Amish are very closed to the public). The challenge with any documentary is capturing the “visual evidence” for a meaningful narrative made out of fragments.
While watching, take notes on techniques of framing, continuity editing and montage that help in the storytelling. Write a blog post about the camera work and editing of one scene. What is the visual evidence? How much of it is just captured reality and how much is staged or directed for the story?
Job/Hobby Profile – please have your idea for a subject ready before class
Montage (5%):
As an element of film language, montage (the juxtaposition of discontinuous fragments) can be a powerful tool for storytelling: getting across ideas or emotions, summarizing events, conveying the cyclical or simultaneous, making poetic associations and creating rhythm and tension. Because juxtaposed images act on our subconscious, montage is effective in propaganda and marketing as well as storytelling. In other words, be free to juxtapose images for narrative/expressive effect, but be aware and sensitive to how those juxtapositions will be perceived. In this assignment, pay attention to Eisenstein’s methods of montage: metric, rhythmic, tonal, overtonal, intellectual.
Option 1: Idea Montage
Option 2: Spatial Montage
Option #3: Temporal Montage
Video Talk
Friday Class (Zoom)
View Montage assignments…
Discuss Hampe reading – visual evidence
Examples of visual evidence in documentaries
The Interview
Notes
Visual Evidence
Discuss Hampe readings: Visual Evidence, B-roll, Interview
The Devils Playground
Visual Evidence in Documentaries
Harlan County, USA
The Interview
examples:
Covering an Event/Action:
- Cover what you can of an event and always look for opportunities for continuity cuts.
- Move around the subject(s) and vary your camera framing: tight (CU), medium and wide (establishing).
- For covering processes -like somebody making something- think of five shot variations for each sequence:
Michael Rosenblum’s 5-Shot-Sequence
- A closeup on the hands of a subject – showing WHAT is happening
- A closeup on the face – WHO is doing it
- A wide shot – WHERE its happening
- An over the shoulder shot (OTS) – linking together the previous three concepts
- An unusual, or side/low shot – providing story-specific context
Previous Student Job Profiles:
Interview (A roll) + Visual Evidence (B roll)
Prep/Research:
- talk to your subject without the camera, find the story
- use the interview to support, not replace, visual evidence
Plan the Story:
- make an outline of the story: hook, intro, complication, climax, resolution
- make a shot list of the visual evidence you need
- make a list of questions for the interviewee. remember, no simple yes/no questions
Camera Setup:
- find a good location with decent visuals, good lighting for the subject and minimal or no background noise
- use a tripod or keep it still if you have the camera on a monopod
- change camera angle/zoom between questions for shot variety, but keep to a standard medium shot (leave enough head room)
- follow rule of thirds for framing (leave some space on the side interviewee is angled toward)
- pay attention to the background (give a sense of place)
Mic Setup:
- get external mic close to the subject. three feet is ideal (or aim directional mic)
- test your levels
- remember to push record!
- no bumps, ticks or hisses near mic
- do not let subject hold mic
- here is the manual for the Zoom H1
Lighting:
- find a good key light to fall at an angle on the subject’s face. near a window or lamp, for example. try to avoid overhead of fluorescent lighting
- With a basic DIY light set up, have a Key Light and Fill Light at a slightly higher angle than the subject. And then, if you have another light, use it for the Background Light. See Lighting on the Fly
- never shoot a subject in front of a window!
- “bounce” lighting off the walls for fill and backlighting, or use reflectors
- avoid heavy shadows
- down-and-dirty-lighting-kit
The Interview:
- start with getting full name (perhaps spelling) and other relevant info (position, title, job)
- let people talk. keep silent for a few moments after a question has been answered. when you are silent, interviewees will fill the void with something perhaps more authentic
Visual Evidence (B roll):
- do not direct actions, follow and anticipate
- don’t move the camera off the talking subject when they are showing/pointing to something. you can get the shot later
- look for visual evidence at location of interview, capture “telling” details
- vary the camera angles and positions: long, medium, close-up, over-shoulder, close on hands, cutaways, establishing shots
- ask questions while shooting visual evidence
- listen and be attentive to your subject
Job/Hobby Profile Assignment (10%):
no more than 2 minutes
Rough Cut Due March 19th / Final Cut Due March 26th
In this assignment, you will do a 1-2 minute profile of a person at their job or doing their hobby, like gardening or painting. What does this person do at their job or hobby? What is the activity? How often do they do it? What experience are they getting? What experience did they need before getting the job or starting on the hobby? If the person works at home, how do they manage home life and their work? How might you tie the job or hobby to larger questions about work or creative activity?
The two areas of focus in this assignment are 1) moving with the camera and 2) conducting an interview, but you should, of course, pay attention to framing, sound, continuity editing and/or montage. Choose a subject that does not spend the day sitting in front of a computer, even though most jobs do include some of this.
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- First, have a pre-interview discussion with your subject. Find out some things about them and their job.
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- Prepare a story outline, interview questions and a shot list for visual evidence.
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- Then set up a time/place with your subject and conduct a sit-down interview at a good location for lighting and sound recording.
- After the interview, get the visual evidence you need by following the person at work or, even better, as they work on a particular project. Continue to ask questions while following the subject with the camera. You may find that the answers are more interesting than in the sit-down interview.