Documentary - Sound and Interview Workshop With Ferg

 Sound and Interview Workshop With Ferg

On Wednesday 24th of March 2021, I took part in a sound and interview workshop with Ferg. Sound is one of the most important parts of a documentary. It's essential to monitor the space around you, listen to the surroundings, what's going on and any extraneous sounds. Any extraneous sounds (e.g. props, air con, the floor etc.) will need to be minimised for the sound quality to be good. The type of sound quality that we should be trying to aim for is that of the BBC, especially that of BBC Radio 4. Ferg stated that it's important to start conversations about sound with the cast and crew, especially the director, editor and actors, so that extraneous sound is minimised, the quality of sound can be improved and so there are variations and options to choose from. However, sometimes it isn't always possible limiting the extraneous noise as performance always comes first and time is limited. 

Also key is Continuity, which must be thought about. For example, if there is a radio playing in the background of one piece of footage and not in another, it will be hard to get away with cutting the clips together as the sound won't match. 

Within this workshop, we were taught about two different types of microphones, the lavalier (clip mic) and the gun mic. A clip mic is a small microphone that attaches to an individual's body or clothing. They can be either wired or wireless. It was emphasised that sound checks must always be performed prior to putting a clip mic on someone. You have to check that the clip mics and receiver are on the same frequencies and that the settings such as the decibels (dB) are at the appropriate level, which Ferg suggested was usually around -12db. These settings must also be adjusted for different cameras. 

The relationship between sound and picture is crucial to making any film (Lazar, 1998:54) and enhances the process of storytelling. If you want your picture to be effective, the sound has to be of good quality. When making our documentary, I will try to ensure that the sound we capture is of high quality by checking the sound equipment before, during and after shooting and trying to eradicate as much extraneous noise as possible. 

As the workshop was conducted online, it was hard to properly gasp an understanding of how to use the sound equipment with it not being in front of us. However, when it comes to any future in person workshops and shooting our documentary, I will aim to put what I have been taught in to practice. 

In addition to sound, we were also briefly educated upon interview techniques. The most common interview shot is a chest-level, mid shot/medium close up. (Moloney, 2021). These shots allow for the face to be closely captured, which is often telling of people, what their thinking and feeling as well as many other things. Over the shoulder shots are also common. Something that is becoming increasingly common is showing the behind the scenes/the set up of an interview, having previously been a big no go within the industry. The "Prince Andrew and the Epstein Scandal: Newsnight Interview: (BBC News, 2019) is an example of the classic interview technique that also incorporates showing the behind the scenes within the interview. 

When shooting our documentary and any other work in the future that require interviews, I will take into account the common shots used. 

Bibliography:

Prince Andrew and the Epstein Scanda: Newsnight Interview (2019) [Online Video] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtBS8COhhhM&ab_channel=BBCNews (Accessed 10/03/2021)

Kench, S. (2020) What is a Lavalier Microphone and How Do They Work?. At: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-a-lavalier-microphone-definition/ (Accessed 30/03/2021)

Lazar, W. (1998) 'Sound For Film:  Audio Education For Filmmakers' In: Journal of Film and Video 50 (3) pp.54-61. At: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20688188?seq=1 (Accessed 30/03/2021)

Moloney, F. (2021) Sound and Interview Workshop. [University for the Creative Arts 24/03/2021].