Preliminary Task - reflection

We were set a preliminary task of filming interview footage linked to our advanced portfolio task (documentary). For this task, I used a select amount of interview footage with Chris Lloyd, a member of England and Wales Mountain Rescue, which I filmed myself. In my full documentary, I aim to use more of the footage, which covers additional information regarding the topic of my documentary. I chose to do all my editing on CapCut, as it is easy to use, and I find the features useful. At the beginning of the task, I chose to include some pictures of me talking to Chris Lloyd, along with a photo of the location of his mountain rescue centre. On top of this I chose to talk about who he is, the location and the purpose of interviewing him. I did this to give the video context beforehand and address to the audience the topic of my documentary.

For the interview, I chose to film a mid-shot using a DVC camera. The stills were shot on an iPhone 13 by my father. The use of a mid-shot allows for the interviewee (Chris) to be the main focus for the audience, whilst also making the mise-en-scene visible, being the side of a Mountain Rescue vehicle with the words ‘Ogwen Mountain Rescue’ in shot. I chose to film here as it gives the interview context and an overall theme. Unlike other interviews, I positioned the interviewee slightly more angled. This was done on purpose to ensure that the text on the side of the vehicle was visible.

At first, my task was just the intro and the documentary footage, however, I wanted to include more. Throughout the interview, I implemented in footage of Mountain Rescue and mountains. The mountain drone footage in this task was exported from YouTube, due it being only a preliminary task, and its purpose was to compliment the interview. However, in my full documentary the footage will all be filmed by myself. The footage of Mountain Rescue was also exported from YouTube, again to compliment the interview. I aim to use this footage in the full documentary. This is because I was not allowed to film the team acting on a callout with my camera, due to health and safety reasons, so this was the only alternative I had. Despite this, it provides good quality footage, which adds to the professionalism of my interview. The implementation of the footage of both the mountains and mountain rescue, makes the task look a lot more professional, but more importantly keeps the audience interested. An interview on its own would most likely bore the audience quickly, so I chose to resolve that issue.

Another aspect I added to the interview is an ‘outro’ affect. I found that the interview ended quite abruptly, and it needed something after it to make it more professional. I added more mountain rescue footage and using a voiceover, I chose to provide some information myself. I gave a figure regarding the number of callouts mountain rescue has delt with from January to September, to which I presented on screen to develop its significance. I then ended the film with a slide showing mountain rescue’s logo on a simple background. The purpose of this being in closes up the interview, but also reminds the audience of what the interview is about / related to. Finally, I included a slightly dramatic soundtrack throughout the entirety of the film. I did this as originally I had no music and it made the interview as a whole look amateur.

I thorougly enjoyed this task. It has developed my filming and editing skills as a whole as well as providing me with useful interview content for my main interview.