Documentary Production

Documentary Production part one - Filming

Basic information

Hey guys! Ok so last time we talked about the process of planning that I had to go trough for the documentary now today were talking about the actual production part or well the first part of it.

So this documentary came with a lot of issues. At the begining of filming everything was going well I was able to schedule my interviews with the main subject easily and I even began recording a small part of it but we ran into an audio error and due to this error I had to re film the whole process which actually ended up giving me an idea lets get into what happened.

Main subject

So the first part of filming was shots at a skate park and the interview at the end of the production with the main subject. The reason as to why I wanted this part of the documentary to be the first part filmed is since I tough it would make it more real. Let me explain, if I would have intereviewed the main subjects friends before he could have gotten an idea as to what they questions I would have asked might have been and overall he would have developed an unreal answer instead I interviewed him first so that his response as to how music has been a key part of his life was more real and came from the heart.

Picture from the interview

Skate park shots 

Now the second step I did when filming was recording broll shots for the skate park setting part of the documentary I was actually pretty exited for this since the weather was nice and I really enjoyed the vibe the place had. So we tried a couple different ideas and even come out with some pretty cool shots. Sadly I was not able to use all of the shots in the documentary but I enjoyed filming these shots and found it entertaining to do.

Here is one the shots we taken

School Interviews

The next part of the filming process was to record interviews that would be used as itroductions to the actul setting. Although I know it sounds confusing I filmed this section of the documentary second because the opportuinity came at hand the day after filming the main subject. In this part of the documentary it was a very simple process. I began the filming process of this section by asking various questions in a longer recording allowing me to select various clips from the interviews to make the recording process easier. Some of the questions asked in the interview were "has music had any impact on your emotions" "is music important to your life" and "what does music mean to you". The responses to these questions were not planned at all and luckily for me they came out percectly. Overall this process was pretty easy, entertaining, and fun to do I really enjoyed filming these interviews and just being able to film again. 

shots from school interview

Main subjects friend's interview

The last part of filming was recording interviews based on the main subject to his friends. This part was filmed in a plaza since it was easy for me to gather them all up since they were all hanging out together. The only issue we had with this filming location which I wish I would have though about was that in one of the unused interviews there was way too much back ground noise therefore I was not able to use the interview. Apart from that issue everything else was simple and fun the interviews were open ended therefor the viewers of the documentary were able to hear the questions. So in conclusion apart from the audio error it all came out good in the end and it was an overall fun part of the project

shots from interview 

So that was all of the filming production part of the documentary. It was a lenghty process with some complications but it was an enteretaining thing to do and I overall enjoyed it so much. Being able to produce the piece and talk and interview people was an amazing time and I enjoyed this so much. Next time I will be talking about the editing process of the documentary but until then see you guys next time!