Mock Film

Monday 03rd May 2021

Even though today is a Bank Holiday, I am still working on my project (not that a holiday implies that I shouldn't). Although I said in my halfway evaluation that I feel like I have not don

The interviews became more podcast style rather than interview style. I spent more time listening to podcasts like H3 Podcast, Frenemies, H3 After Dark, Off The Pill Podcast, Exposed and stuff like that, compared to documentaries and so in the end the interviews had that sort of feel. Doing the interviews, I also remembered this song that I think relates a lot to a part of the message that I am attempting to portray with my project. It is 'Who I Am' by NIve.

A little quote (though the whole song is relevant):

"You say that I'm too insecure

You want me to be someone else

But if I'm not the one you want

Just go ahead and walk right out the door

Cuz baby I, baby I, I

That's who I am, that's who I am"

One of the interviewees helped me a lot with editing the video as she gave me a lot of ideas that I hadn't thought of before. There are only two interviews featured in the mock film, one was filmed with a camera and using camera audio (bad idea) and the other was recorded, voice-only, with phones on a podcast app called Anchor (which certainly added to the podcast-y feel). The second interviewee did not wish to be video recorded and their microphone had recently broken, so we tried to find an alternative which ended up being that. Since these interviews were not exactly how I thought they would be, I had to think of a different way to edit them. I decided to just not show the footage of the first interview but the second interviewee gave me the idea to use little circle icons to show when and who was talking and also to show the audio waves, I decided to use this idea and to have the heads bouncing when people were speaking but the latter was going to take too long so I decided against it for now but I may go back and add that effect. I used Photoshop to do the icons, Premiere Pro to edit most of the video and After Effects to add the audio waveform.

With a lot of the interviews it seemed as if there was something that was really stopping me from doing them which is why I have only recorded two so far, my camera turned out to be dead on the day of filming, many instances of bad scheduling and sudden change of plans/emergencies, the death of a pet, four instances of illnesses, loss of motivation, missed appointments, and so on. It has been quite a journey to try and get just these two interviews done but I am happy that I have done them. In my project proposal, the original plan was to have the film fully done by the end of this week or beginning of next week but I think if I still want to create what I had originally intended to, that may not happen, so it is great that the deadline has been pushed back by a week which will give me more time to do proper interviews and the editing of them.

Anyway, this is the mock film:

(Note 1: it is long for no reason)

(Note 2: by the time I finished editing it I felt it was too long so I split them into two videos)

I would say I learnt a lot of things that I should not do with those interviews (like where not to place the camera, not avoiding using an external microphone, changing how questions are asked...), I hope I take these things in consideration during the next interviews. I could have removed a lot more of me speaking and it would have become more like an interview but I think I liked leaving those conversations in. However, for the other interviews I should try not to ask as many questions. With editing the Mock Film, one thing I forgot to do was add background music so I will try not to forget that next time.