Shots and questioning type

So I ended up finding people to be interviewed and have set up a time to meet. This is a lot later than I wanted it to be but I have to work with someone else's schedule as they are doing me the favor.

I didn't want to waste anytime though and thought I would discuss the shots I plan to implement when interviewing. I plan to shoot from the chest up while having the subject framed in the left side of the frame. I'm going to direct the subject to speak towards the left side of the frame so it can seem as if they are speaking directly to the interviewer.

As for how I am going to ask my questions, I want them to be indirect and have them restate the question in their answer. This will allow for more footage such as B-roll to be shown to engage the viewer.

Finding candidates to be interviewed is hard...

So this afternoon, I headed to the range to find potential interviewees and set up a schedule as not everyone and rarely anyone can do an interview on the spot. Wow was this harder than I could of ever imagined!

The main problem is that shooting at the range begins at 6:00 P.M. and not anytime during the day like a traditional shooting range. This is an issue because if I arrive early, most people are busy getting their weapons ready or not even on site yet until it's time to shoot. Given this time slot, Marksman prefer to get the most out of the limited time to shoot and it's hard getting one to take time out for an interview.

I decided that I'm going to have to try to get someone to interview after the range closes or scout out the area to see when someone finishes. After talking to an employee, I was told that most marksman prefer to stay the whole time the range is open so I'm most likely going to have to film after close.

Revised interview questions!

Previously I had discussed how my interview questions were going to revised and forgot to post the new questions so I'm going to do that now!

1. Does something need to change? If so, what?
2. Are guns as big of a problem as the media makes it out to be? 
3. Do you agree with the CDC study on gun violence being terminated?
4. What do gun accessories do for you in particular? Such as a bump stock or extended magazines?
5. Is enough already in place?
6. Would fewer guns result in less gun violence?
7. Does gun control result in fewer guns?

B-Roll again and possibly again

So two days ago, I went back out to Markham Park to re-film the B-roll at the suggested time slot of 5:00 P.M. to 6:00 P.M. in order to minimize glare and exposure. This would of been perfect if I hadn't switched positions I wanted to shoot in. The spot I chose to shoot in was looking directly at the sun. I was quite disappointed but got the shots anyways. If the sun wasn't an issue I think they would of came out perfect. I plan to come back this upcoming week when I'm filming interviews and re-do the B-roll once again.

Two out of the three B-roll shots were overexposed but at least one came out good as you'll see in this little clip I put together! Enjoy!

As you can tell the footage is very grainy but that can and will be fixed with a simple settings switch!

Discussion

Today I sat down 1 on 1 with my teacher to discuss the progress of my final portfolio project and I gained a lot of insight from her. We discussed the debate of my topic and included both sides to make sure no bias was present in my film. I also decided during this time that Im not going to include both sides in this 5 minute excerpt. Since it is technically supposed to be a TV documentary and not a movie I will have one episode that incorporates the anti-gun control side. It would be quite impossible to fit both sides into a 5 minute film so I think this is an excellent choice.

On my website, I plan to outline each episode in the series I am creating to keep the TV theme going.

I also tweaked my questions to get better answers from my interviewees since some of them needed to be a little more open-ended.

Practice I Guess...

Yesterday I had work and clocked out at about the same time that the sun begins to set. I knew this wouldn't be the best time to film but I still wanted to go out to see if my shots would look good position wise. 

So I went to Markham Park and got shots at the gun range which I couldn't have done previously because m position wouldn't have allowed me the signal to do so. This time I parked much closer to the range but still a little too far for the footage to be good. It was also really windy as their was a cold front coming in and my battery suffered tremendously so I had to get shots quick. 

Despite all these negatives, I did learn where I wanted to get my next shots the next time I came. I decided a pan looking at the range would look best at the beginning and a birds eyes view would complement it as well. 

Here is what I took:

Here I wanted to look directly down at the area where the people shoot from and slowly glide over. However my distance prohibited me from doing so.

I plan to go much lower than I appear here and get a pan of the range facing south. I couldn't get lower because since I was far if I were to go lower the trees would block the signal. 

Equipment

I forgot to mention in the beginning what equipment I will be using to create my 5 minute documentary so I might as well cover that right now!

Part of the documentary will be filmed using a Samsung Galaxy S8 on a tripod and the other portion will be filmed using a DJI Mavic Pro. 

I contemplated on whether I should buy a dedicated camera or not but I realized that we live in an era where smartphones have just as good of cameras as DSLR's in most cases. My whole entire film will be shot in 4K 30 fps to give it that cinematic look. I understand that most people do not have a 4K monitor to view 4K content on but it doesn't hurt to use it if I'm able to. 

I don't own a microphone so I'm just going to use the microphone on the S8 for the interviews. If I can borrow a microphone from a peer than I will do that but as of now I'm going with the basics!

I'm keeping it simple!

The opening

Hi again,
I plan to open the film with some drone footage of the setting and then cut to a still shot of the gun range with people occupying it and add in some gun sound affects or maybe even try to create them using foley. After, I will list the title and then my first question will come. In between the questions and answers I will have more footage of the environment surrounding guns.

Here is the unedited clip I plan to work with for the opening:

I'm aware that this clip is a bit overexposed so I plan to edit it or I might just go back and re-film it. As stated in my last post, I want to go back to get a better shot of the gun range.

Where it's all going down

Location, Location, Location...

I have decided that much of the film is going to be based in Markham Park which is located in Sunrise, FL on the edge of the Everglades, literally. It is a great park with lots of scenery that I think will look excellent for B-roll and the film overall.
Here you can see how close it just is to the Everglades:

The main reason I am filming here is because towards the back of the park there is an open gun range where my friend works where I can easily get access to film. I could of chose a regular indoor gun range but without knowing anyone, I would think it would be much more time-consuming to be allowed to film people shoot.

I also want to get an aerial shot of the gun range and the field. I'm going to have to angle the shot in such a way to make sure my drone doesn't get shot down by skeet shooters. I think this will add to the variety of shots that I plan to have. This will keep the viewer(s) attention and not get them bored.

I got this shot while controlling from over a mile and a half away before I started to lose connection. The reason I was so far was because I didn't want to have to pay to enter the park if I could just fly over. I don't like this shot because I think it is too far so I will be going back this coming week and getting a better establishing shot. 

Sound?

When people think of what goes in to producing a film, they often only think about the visual portion and not of the audio that comes along with it. I want to try to focus on sound just as much as I focus on the picture.

For example, when I shot the B-roll I made sure to film the "sound" if there was any so the viewer can understand where it was coming from. I don't wanna leave the viewer confused as to why there was for instance, wind blowing, instead I could film a tree rustling from the wind therefore explaining  to the viewer what the sound was.

I also got lots of audio that a gun range is associated with. I did however forget to obtain audio of the gun mechanics such as reloading a magazine or clearing the barrel. I believe the right sound could improve a documentary tremendously.

I am still deciding on what background music I will use but as soon as I know, you will know as well! See you guys next week!

Questions!

Below are some questions that I have thought about asking during my interviewing process:

1. Does something need to change? If so, what?
2. Are guns as big of a problem as the media makes it out to be?
3. Do guns kill people or do people kill people?
4. Are you aware of the CDC study on gun violence initiated by President Obama in 2013?
5. Are the gun accessories more dangerous than the gun itself?
6. What gun control laws currently exist?
7. How do mass shootings differ from other types of gun violence?
8. Would fewer guns result in less gun violence?
9. Does gun control result in fewer guns?
10. How often are guns used in self-defense?

These are the ten questions I would like to ask both subjects but they are subject to change as some might be considered bias.

Gun Nation

Based on the title of this post, you can probably tell what topic I have finally decided on. I believe it is a great topic especially since it is on everybody's mind at the moment. My plan is to present the two sides of the argument and let the viewer of the documentary take the information and make an informed decision themselves.

The two sides:
We all know how controversial this topic can get but the arguments to it are very simple. We have the defenders of the 2nd amendment and then we have the gun control advocates. Those two distinct groups are what I want to focus on while creating this film. This weekend I plan to go to the Markham Park Gun Range to get some B-roll of the activity that takes place at such a location. I also want to find volunteers to interview for my documentary while there but I have to come up with questions which I will have this week. My guess is that the people at the gun range will be against any policy that has to do with taking away American's 2nd amendment right so that will be my first target group. My second target group will be those that are for gun control which I can likely find without a problem. I'm still deciding if I should interview an average citizen or someone with some type of authority. I found two films on YouTube, one by The Guardian which is a primarily liberal news network and one by MSNBC which is regarded as fairly neutral when it comes to bias, that I have used to gain inspiration from and would like to share them with you guys. Enjoy!

Choosing a topic

Upon researching on the conventions of documentaries, I came up with these 7 steps that should be followed when making a documentary which I plan to follow when producing my very own documentary.

1. Tell a story you care about
2. Research
3. Make a plan
4. Create a shot list/storyboard
5. Start shooting
6. Start editing
7. Distribute

Many documentaries are created with the intention of changing one's mind and/or bringing light to a certain issue to the masses. Others may very well just be created for entertainment purposes but I want mine to be able to inflict change and to educate people on a certain issue. My only problem as of now is finding that certain issue to be the basis of my documentary. 

My first choice for a documentary that I though about is the current divide that America has on guns. For my subjects I would most probably choose someone who handles guns on the daily basis such as a range officer or an average citizen who carries. My second subject would be an average citizen who has never owned or used a gun. This would help maybe show why there is basically no middle ground when discussing gun violence in America. 

New project, New me

Last year my group was very unorganized to say the least. We put together a film opening that we were all proud of but time management was very bad. We had 6 weeks I believe and did the filming two weeks before the deadline.

This year I have a goal to be organized and finish my final documentary in a timely manner. In order to achieve this goal I will be making a schedule, as seen below, for myself to follow.