Hey there,
I have been given an assignment, which is to do a 5 minute portrait. The focus is pretty heavily on "real," "emotional" and "personal." I had an interesting subject lined up, but that person has now not gotten back to me in 4 days and I really need to shoot it in the next few days, so formulating a plan B.
My idea is to focus on a flatmate's financial struggle this year, and the socio/political/economic issues around student financing, housing and employment where I live. I considered doing an interview with said flat mate, and juxtaposing that with a few on-the-street interviews representative of the typical dismissive attitude of the issue in the general population. I also considered making it kind of self-reflexive, drawing attention to the constructed nature of documentary making, for a bunch of ideologically wanky reasons I won't explain.
But I talked to my tutor about it, and he emphasised that it needs to be personal, to the point that subject is almost a backdrop to the exploration into the individual. And so the focus pretty much needs to be on the interview with the flatmate, with maybe a few supporting statements from friends and family.
That said, I'm not a huge fan of the talking head format. What are some ways to minimise the talking head-ness? I can obviously juxtapose certain images with what he's saying (e.g. when explaining how much our rent is, show a few images demonstrating how shitty our house is). But that only goes so far in making it a little less dull.
Any general ideas that could tie in and make the structure a bit more engaging?
My flatmate is also quite reserved, so I'm unsure if I'll get much of an emotional response from him. Are there any general techniques/sorts of questions I should be asking to provoke a more visceral and engaging response?
I have been given an assignment, which is to do a 5 minute portrait. The focus is pretty heavily on "real," "emotional" and "personal." I had an interesting subject lined up, but that person has now not gotten back to me in 4 days and I really need to shoot it in the next few days, so formulating a plan B.
My idea is to focus on a flatmate's financial struggle this year, and the socio/political/economic issues around student financing, housing and employment where I live. I considered doing an interview with said flat mate, and juxtaposing that with a few on-the-street interviews representative of the typical dismissive attitude of the issue in the general population. I also considered making it kind of self-reflexive, drawing attention to the constructed nature of documentary making, for a bunch of ideologically wanky reasons I won't explain.
But I talked to my tutor about it, and he emphasised that it needs to be personal, to the point that subject is almost a backdrop to the exploration into the individual. And so the focus pretty much needs to be on the interview with the flatmate, with maybe a few supporting statements from friends and family.
That said, I'm not a huge fan of the talking head format. What are some ways to minimise the talking head-ness? I can obviously juxtapose certain images with what he's saying (e.g. when explaining how much our rent is, show a few images demonstrating how shitty our house is). But that only goes so far in making it a little less dull.
Any general ideas that could tie in and make the structure a bit more engaging?
My flatmate is also quite reserved, so I'm unsure if I'll get much of an emotional response from him. Are there any general techniques/sorts of questions I should be asking to provoke a more visceral and engaging response?
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