Art Alert Interview - Planning/OH&S/Footage review

Planning the interview
One of the requiments for unit 32 and 6 was that i needed to film and collect my own footage and audio. As my client has already provided all of the footage for me concerning The Coop Hall, i decided to take my own filming in a different direction.

I decide that as this was a promotional video unit instead of just promoting my clients end DVD about The Coop Hall i would promote the people behind this archive project which were Art Alert. As Art Alert is how i came about promoting Mick Debraski Coop Hall DVD, i already had the connections to Art Alert.

As I not only wanted to promote the Coop Hall project that Art Alert were doing, but Art Alert itself, I felt it appropriate to do an interview with my clients, who are apart of the Nuneaton and Bedworth Art Alert team.

Joanne very kindly gave me her personal mobile number at the start of this production so, I texted Joanne Lole, who is the organiser and head of the Coop Hall Archive Project and asked her if she and Corine Davies (who is also heading the project) would both be willing to be filmed, answering questions about Art Alert, what they are and what they do. Both Joanne and Corine were more than willing.

I didn't want to do the interview in the college as I wanted Art Alert to feel, warm welcoming and impersonal, and doing it in a formal place like the college or with a plain white background does not give off this vibe. Joanne offered her house to stage the interview. I was happy with the idea of this location, because when I was reviewing the interviews provided by my clients I felt the most appealing ones and most relaxed ones were the ones recorded with more than one person in the home.

                      

I found that this interview in the house setting to be more relaxed. I also think that because the interview is with more than one person the conversation flows more that with just one person. Whereas I found the interview with one person in a set location - which is dull - to be more stiff and ridged. No only do I feel that the second interview is less relaxed due to the setting/location I also feel that it is because there is only one person being interviewed. 

When looking through the rest of the interviews that Mick, my client provided me I found that the best interviews were the ones with two to three people. This was because a conversation broke out, making the answer flow more, and giving the interview a more relaxed feel than those with one person. I found that the interviews with one person were stiff and not relaxed. I noticed that they seemed nervous and always waiting for the next question. Unlike the interviews with two to three people who sometime diverted away from the question, and reminisced more about their Coop Hall experience. For the most part this was a good thing, as additional information was added that information to questions that may have not necessarily been asked by the interviewee. Sometimes this was a bad thing as the group went way off topic. 

There was an interview with five people sat in a living room - the interview of the Pinkertons. I found this amount of people to be a bad thing. More often than not people would talk over each other, and cut them off mid sentence. I also found that when one person was talking some others would have their own conversations. This would have not been a problem if not for the boom mic used, which picked up their whispers and amplified them. Also in this interview I found that there were three dominate conversationalist, who prevented the two others from offering their thoughts, opinions and memories of the Coop Hall. 

When planning my own interview with Joanne and Corine I decided to interview them together for the pervious reasons mentioned. I think that interviewing them one their own would not provide relaxed interviews (as neither of them have ever been interviewed before). Also by doing it this way I feel that they can converse with each other, which will also help to add to a more relaxed interview setting. 

Before I went to the interview I made sure that I had a list of all the questions I wanted to ask both Corine and Joanne and had made a note of any additional information that I needed to obtain from both of them.

Question List 
What is Art Alert about and what do they want to achieve?
How did it get started?
How did you get involved?
Tell me about why you decided to archive the coop hall?
Do you have any memories of the coop hall and/or its demolition, and how do you feel about it being gone?
What is the end product, regarding the coop hall?
Do you have any future projects planned?

Additional Information Needed
A website,
Contact number,
Email address, and,
DVD and exhibition dates, times and locations.

I had arranged with Joanne to do the interview on tuesday 16th April 2013, at 1pm. this time suited myself, Joanne and Corine. with the date, time, location and questions set all i needed to do now were the occupational health and safety checks and make sure i knew what shots i wanted - angles and consider the lighting - and what equipment i needed to take with me.

Occupational Health and Safety Before 
When thinking of the OH&S i have to consider both on set problems and traveling problems.

OH&S problems when venturing to set:
As i will be walking to the set from college with the equipment i need to take into consideration that there may be a chance of violence, gangs and criminals on my travels that may pose a threat. So to prevent any harm to myself or damage to the equipment I will make sure to walk to the set with another person. This will not only help if any violence does occur, but it will also help to prevent any damage to the equipment when carrying it to set. Damage to the equipment when moving it to location is another OH&S issue that i need to consider. By having another person walking with me to set, i will have another set of hands to carry the equipment, as it is quite a bit for me to carry safely on my own. 

OH&S problems when on a studio set: 

When on set i need to consider the following OH&S problems; cables, wires, liquids, fires and any object that may be hazardous.

Cables and wires
I know that on set there will be little to no manoeuvring; the clients will be seated and i will be stationary behind the cameras. however i will still need to made to sure that no cable or wires can be tripped over. In this particular incident i will not need to have any wires across the floor as i will not be connecting anything to the camera or plugging anything in, like lights. so when it comes to cables and wires i have to make sure that the charger cables were away in the camera bags and that any pre-exsisting wires and cables that are there already will be pushed back out of the way and taped down. 
by doing this i will prevent any damage to the equipment and any potential harm to the interviewees and/or myself. 

Equipment not being set up properly 
this can cause damage to equipment and risk of harm crew member. i will avoid any damage to the equipment by weighing it down, if necessary. i am only having to tripods with cameras on top, tha twill be stationary. so i don't think that i will need to weigh any equipment down, however anticipating this dilemma before it happens will help be on set, and i will be prepare for this OH&S problem if it occurs. by ensuring that the equipment is secure the crew members and anybody on set will also be safe from injury and risk of any equipment falling on them. 

Equipment
I will need :- Canon 600D Camera x2
                   - Tripod x2
                   - 4GB SD Memory Card x2
                   - MacBook

Before i left for the shoot i made sure that both cameras and macbook were fully charged. this will not only save time when on set, and prevent any unnecessary inconvenience, but also this will reduce the number of wires and cables that need to be present on set - reducing the risk of accidents and injury. I also made sure that the memory cards were empty, giving me maximum memory and, once again, increasing efficiency.
I also typed up and printed out film release forms for Joanne and Corine to sign.


Shot Planning
I want to keep the same feel and look as Mick has done in the interviews he has supplied me. i want to do this because i feel that this will make the two sections blend together more naturally. I plan to have two cameras set up; one from head on and the other from another angle. By doing this i will be able to cut between different shots, questions/answers and comments, without any visible jump cuts. Doing it this way, will make the interview seem more professional as the ones that i had analysed do not have any jump cuts. Also to keep to the set up that my client has done in his interviews i will use static shots when interviewing the clients.
(Hard copies of story boarding available)

All of this makes my planning easy, the only thing i need to consider when setting up the cameras is the lighting, as i am planning on using natural light - like Mick has done - i will need to make sure that i am in a well lit room and that the light bounces off the clients at the right angle.

Occupational Health and Safety After
Traveling to Set 
When travelling to set i had another person walk with me and help me carry equipment like planned. fortunately there was no violence and no gangs present when walking to set. All the equipment was manageable and carried safely between the two of us.

On Set 
Cables and wires
On set i made sure that all wires were safely out the way and/or taped down. I also found that i had to make sure that the camera bags were out the way and their handles were tucked away so that they would not be tripped on. i hadn't anticipated the camera handle to be a OH&S, however now i know for the future that this should be included as a trip hazard.

Liquids
Joanne very kindly offer me a glass of water. i made sure that the drink was as far away from the equipment as possible. Due to is being in a glass it could easily spill onto the equipment, or even just the floor and cause injury to any person in the area, that may not have seen the spilt liquid. for the future i will bring my own bottle of water to sets and locations, as this will prevent any chance of spilling and in turn stop and damage to the equipment or any injury to the crew/actors/interviewees/etc.

Weighing down equipment
Like i anticipated the equipment didntn need weighing down, and all the equipment was set up safely and securely, on a flat hard surface. this prevented any instability and damage to the equipment and crew.

Interview Review

Trying to conduct this interview on my own was hard; having to control and monitor two cameras, asks questions and maintain visual and verbal contact with the interviewees. Because of this, my interview had a few mistakes. There were two major ones.

One. The footage from the left camera is out of focus, an issue that I only noticed when going to edit the footage together. Two. The right camera was set on auto focus, and can be heard and seen focusing during the beginning of the clip, before I realised and turned it off. Another problem that occurred was that the left camera stopped after a few minutes, luckily the right camera continued to run, and when I noticed I simply pressed record again.

Audio problem. This was just a slight problem that has not hindered the interview footage outcome to any extent. I decided not to use the zoom mic, as where I planned to film was very quite with not background noise. When looking over the footage, what was being said was audible however I noticed that it was quieter than the audio of the interviews conducted by mick. I feel that this is not a huge problem, as this footage is not being cut together with any clips with louder audio so it will not be noticeable.

Clients Review 

Mick came in and reviewed the footage from my Art Alert interview. He picked up on the same technically problems that I had and offered some helpful advise. Mick said that the out f focus footage isn't too bad, and that I should use it if I could help it, although if I was to slip a few second into the promotional video he feels that it wouldn't be that noticeable. Also his comments on the footage from the other camera, regarding the auto focus, was that I can just cut that those parts out; they don't really interfere with what is being said. Finally mick picked up in a problem that I had not noticed. He said that the lighting if off, and the two interviewees are in different amounts of light. However, Mick offered a simply solution. He told me to zoom in on Joanne and Corine separately; the light contrast will not be seen.

What I Have Learnt 

From this experience I have learnt that more than one crew member should be present when conducting interviews. This will allow the camera(s) to be monitored continuously and technical problems to be resolved straight away; whilst another crew member is communicating with the interviewees and encouraging them to tell there story - especially with people who are not used to being in front of a camera.