P&P 6: Discussion Journal

Week 1

I'm scheduled to film my interviews on Friday. Right now I'm just organizing my b-roll. As well, I'm working on a shot list for my shoot on Saturday and Sunday at the film festival.
Since I’m doing a mini doc for my project it involves me conducting interviews. In the past, when we had to do our mini docs for Full Sail, one of the issues I had was not talking to the talent when asking them a question. It was super difficult to not say “uh-huh,” like you do in normal conversation.  For that particular project, the space was very small and the talent couldn’t really make eye contact with me, so that made it even more difficult. I think that my talent felt kind of awkward just ranting in front of a camera. Without me verbally agreeing with them, I felt like they would cut their answer short. Has anyone else experienced this? I haven’t really found a good way to deal with it.
One tip I will offer is to always carry around your Full Sail student ID. It's saved me many times when people want to see credentials. Most states allow students to  film with no permit necessary if you can show you're a student. I usually print my assignment as well, to show anyone who asks what I'm doing. An example of this would be when I was filming outside a public library, who gave me permission to shoot there. A police officer just happened to be driven by and asked what I was doing. Once I showed them my paperwork, they moved on. It was a real time saver. If you live by the school, you should be able to get them their. Since I don't, I got mine by filling out a form on Full Sail's website. (They're also useful for getting student prices for submitting to film festivals!)

Week 2

Last Saturday and Sunday I shot some footage of the cast and crew of the documentary, One Vote, at the Nashville Film Festival. Possibly one of the strangest parts was bringing a camera into a movie theater, considering that’s a usually a big no-no. I was apprehensive in spite of having permission from the film festival. I also wasn’t the only one filming. One problem I encountered while filming on their red carpet was the strange white balance issue I was having. Everything was sort of purpled colored and I couldn't really seem to fix it. Has anyone else experienced this? It’s also difficult to fix in post.

As I posted last week, I also shot my interviews early Saturday. My plan was in to shoot in the basement, so it would be quiet. However, unlike Illinois, I don’t think Nashville requires basements, because this very nice condo the cast stayed in, didn’t have one. I used the mic we received in our launchbox and attached it to a mic stand I got whilst in Nashville. It did a great job acting as a boom pole operator since my crew was so limited. There was a little bit of chatter in the background, but the mic worked really well to eliminated it. My background was also pretty boring. I wish I could have done better. I had originally planned put the film poster in the background, but didn't think I should put tape on the walls since this was someone's home (originally, we planned to shoot in a hotel but instead used an Air B&B). I had also wanted to interview everyone in different locations, but that also wasn't possible.
​
Here’s my lighting and mic set up. I interviewed about 8 different people, some in groups.

​Here's how it looked on screen. I was really happy with the hair light.