New to documentary : need advice

R

redghost

Hey everyone,

I’m currently in high school, and would like to do a fun documentary project for experience, but I have a few questions. First of all, I haven’t done this before so any tips and advice would be greatly appreciated. Secondly I have a question about the interviews. If I were to interview someone do I need them to sign someone kind of paper or document saying we’re allowed to use them on film? If so…How do I write this “waiver”/ “agreement”. What does it look it have to have on it? We’re using a digital camera for the recording process… any advice on the equipment is appreciated…again its only a side project, we don’t have the money to spend hundreds of dollars.


Thanks
 
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'sup, good redghost :cool:

You will indeed need written permission from each of your interviewees.

It's called a "release".

You can get a generic one from SonnyBoo.com, in the Downloads section of the site. There may be more specific ones out there, but SonnyBoo.com is a good place to start for pretty much any form/paperwork you may need.

Make sure anyone who is going to be on-camera signs their release before you start shooting. The last thing you want is to have some hard-hitting questions get awkward, then have your subject stop the interview. Good luck getting a release signed, once that happens.

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As far as equipment goes... you want good lighting and you want good sound. For interviews, good sound is even more important than good lighting. (You can always cut away to alternate footage/stills if the image is bad... there's no saving bad audio)

At worst, you should have a cheap lapel-mic for your subject. Relying on the camera's mic is never a good idea. Ideally, a boom & shotgun. I'm sure others will have ideas for non-expensive setups.

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Scott Spears has a set of articles on his site, that talks about lighting... and how to do it inexpensively. You may want to do some dry-runs/tests with lighting, if you've never played about with it before.

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What kind of interview/project are you working on? :cool:
 
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Zensteve said:
'sup, good redghost :cool:

At worst, you should have a cheap lapel-mic for your subject. Relying on the camera's mic is never a good idea. Ideally, a boom & shotgun. I'm sure others will have ideas for non-expensive setups.
Click to expand...

Zensteve is right, the lapel mic is a worst case scenario. An XLR mic on any kind of boom (mop handle, broomstick, dinasour bones) will likely sound better. We did some interviews with some lav mics and the sound wasn't great. They pick up lots of clothing rustle and tended to muffle the vocals.

It isn't horrible and everything depends on what you have available but if you can get an external mic, it's worth the money.
 
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Having them sign a release is fine, but if they are under 18, then their legal guardian needs to sign it. If there's a spot for you to sign, and you're under 18, then your legal guardian needs to sign it. You can get sample releases over at SonnyBoo's site: http://Sonnyboo.com
 
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Thanks everyone you are all a great help! I have another question regarding an external mic... if i'm using a digital cam corder will the external mic be able to connect with it?
 
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