filming- mikes interview

I filmed Mike’s interview over a morning. When I arrived the first thing I did was to set up the shot. I decided that I wanted the interview to be casual within the setting of the pub therefore choose to situate it on arm chair where the background was large section of the pub and bar. I felt this was important to the mood and atmosphere I wanted to convey and the casualness of interview means Mike is able to express his view rather than being viewed as spokesman for the company. Another important aspect that I had to keep in mind when filming was lighting. It was essential that my shot was well lit yet parts of the pub are quite dark due to the dark interior so I picked a arm chair that was near the front of the pub next to the windows.
Before we began filming I told Mike to look at me –who was sitting to the right of the camera- and not the camera. This is an important technique to the documentary genre and also important to ensure that interview is relaxed. By telling Mike to ignore the camera it diverts his attention from it being there thus meaning he is more relaxed and gives honest responses rather than playing up to camera. I also asked Mike to reiterate all the questions in his answers; this was so that in the edit his answers are self contained so that I don’t have to include my voice as would go against my documentary style.
There was very little that I had to re-film as I had made it clear how the questions should be answered. However I found that Mike was so relaxed during the interview that he was talking really fast in sections. The only part I felt need to be re-filmed was when he lists johns responsibilities as I knew that I wanted real time images of john doing this tasks over the descriptions.