Cameras & Audio

This week we focused on cameras, working out how to set up and use them for shooting documentary video. I’m quite confident working with DSLRs already, but the Sony X70s we were introduced to today proved to be a much more of a challenge.

When we were tasked with simply assembling and dissembling the camera and tripod, I jumped in thinking that it would be easy. It actually proved to be a little tricky, at least to do quickly, and as I learned today, there’s a need for quick set-up in the documentary industry.  Unlike on narrative fiction film sets, where there’s a fixed schedule for setting up and filming, documentary filmmakers don’t always know what they’re filming or where. Interviews can come about quite spontaneously, and it’s important to be able to get everything set up as quickly as possible, so the interviewee doesn’t become impatient.

There were plenty of camera features I’d never come across before that we learned today, such as white balance and iris. Playing around with them made me realize how much of an impact colour can have on the tone of different footage. Since we’re filming documentary rather than fiction, the main aim would be not to create a specific mood through colour, but to match what the camera sees exactly to what we see, in order to truthfully represent the location.

We explored the various methods of recording interview audio (shotgun mic, radio mic) and found that the right choice depends on the location. For our one minute project, we’ll be shooting indoors for the interview, so the issue of background noise shouldn’t be a problem. Usually, a radio mic would be one of the preferred choices, but we found today that attaching one can be difficult if the interviewee is wearing clothing that’s hard to clip onto, such as hoodies. Since our interviewees for the one minute project will be university students, and the way we dress generally isn’t particularly ‘radio mic friendly’, we’ll be opting for the shotgun directional microphone instead.

In regards to interview technique, I learned from an exercise that the interviewer’s body language is incredibly important, and has a much greater influence on the interviewee than I realized. If the person being interviewed is closed off and nervous, the interviewer can relax them by mirroring their body language. By synchronizing with the interviewee, the interviewer is able to psychologically calm their subject, and subsequently make them much more cooperative. Asking open questions rather than closed ones is equally important. Since I’ll be the one asking the questions when we interview for our one minute project, I’ll keep these things in mind, staying conscious of body language and phrasing our questions in an open but specific manner.