Three Takeaways From My Mini Doc Assignment

​Probably the biggest thing I learned was the importance of headphones. Honestly, I didn't think the room sounded that echoey when I was talking to my talent before the interview started. I meant to bring headphones, but ended up forgetting them. I didn’t really think of them as much priority on them because I thought the room sounded okay in person. Overall, I’m very happy with my mini doc, minus the audio. For a mini doc, done in this style, the audio of the interview is so important. It will literally make up the majority of the sound the audience hears. In the future, my headphones are never leaving my camera bag! Great audio makes for a great finished product.

The next thing I learned was not talking over talent. It’s such a strange situations to ask a question and just remain silent until they’re done making their point. I would actually love to know the professionals handle this. To me, it seems like talent is more likely to stop talking, if you don’t encourage them to continue. I could be wrong, but I know it would make me uncomfortable. This is something I will try to not do in the future. I think I need to do more research on how to be an interviewer.

Finally, making this mini doc has taught me that I will likely use two cameras in the future, if I know B-roll will be hard to come by.  I will inevitably make cuts in the interview footage. By having a second camera, that will give me another options of cut to, in case I don’t have b-roll. It will also increase the production value without making too much more work for me. I would probably just bring my DSLR and a small tripod (since that camera is smaller than our FS5s).

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