Practice Session on Filming 09/03/2020

In today’s lecture we began with the challenge to utilise any knowledge we had on filming, in attempt to produce a well presented interview clip, taking in turns being the interviewee and interviewee (somewhat a trial and error for when the time comes for doing the real thing in Amsterdam). Our group was straightaway familiar with the need to have the participant as the main focus in the video and to ensure that there was good lighting and that the setting of the environment looked natural and not too staged or forced; plus we thought that filming the interview on the side rather than straight on, made the interview more natural (with the interviewee looking in the direction of the interviewer rather than the camera). However, after looking back at our interview video, it was recognised that there was a bottle in the corner of the video on the table, which turned out to be distracting, also the participant felt that the angle was unflattering, which shows that it is important to check the angle with the participant perhaps before filming or by filming a few seconds and showing it back to them to make them feel as comfortable as possible. What’s more, is that the bottle being a distraction led us to think about the usage of significant props in the video, such as if there was a logo on a bottle that linked to who and why we were interviewing that person, it would add to the image and purpose of the interview, or perhaps having a background with relevant posters for example. What have I taken from today’s trial run? – it has most definitely allowed us to be conscious of not repeating the same mistakes, as well I have gained further insight and awareness on what steps to run through before filming, meaning that I will be more confident in putting it into practise. Also, we came to the decision that we would not film an interview, as we felt that it was overall intimidating and adds unnecessary pressure to the interviewee, having experienced being the participant ourselves it helped us come to terms with what makes a participant more comfortable and willing to engage. But we did agree that filming for the visual side of our research, was a great way to capture the full experience of the transport in Amsterdam, plus the idea of combining short clips to make a 1 or 2 minute video, showing the forms of transport side by side, was spoke about in today’s lecture and I believe that this would be a great way of recording and demonstrating what we observe.