Vox Pop Interview Task 4

Tyree Webster

Task 4
Researching your Issue- Sound bites
IMPROVED

As part of our research for interview styles and techniques, our class took part in a 'speed dating' style box pop where we ask several members of the class 3 questions related to our documentary idea. We had to use 'provocative' questions in order to catch the interviewees attention. My documentary idea is (potentially) going to be about the Council moving homeless people into a tower block, much to the annoyance of the people who live there already, so I started my questionnaire with 'should homeless people be shot?', in which I got some very interesting answers.

Many of the people I talked to shared my views (a little bit), they all agreed that the Council are 'evil', or tend to 'get things wrong', but do try to resolve things.

The most interesting, humorous and somewhat truthful answers I got were from Barney, when I asked him if homeless people should be shot, he said 'yes', he continued on by saying that 'they don't offer anything or contribute anything to the community, so if anything, they have absolutely no reason to be there.' At first I thought that this sounded quite harsh, and more extreme than any of the other answers I was given, but I actually tend to agree. As awful as it sounds, this answer does have some truth behind it, homeless people don't contribute to society in any way, whereas these elderly people have spent their entire lives working to have a well earned rest, and now they can't even have that without the Council treating another group of people a lot better, without thinking about the elderly. But I digress.

A lot of the other answers that I gathered were all very similar in responses, and also very different. When I asked whether homeless people should be shot, I got a lot of shocked responses and laughs from them, but they all tried their best to answer anyway. 

When I asked whether they though that the Council were evil, I received a lot of mixed answers, some thought that they were evil and only thought about themselves and obtaining the most amount of money for themselves whilst seemingly forgetting about the people they're supposed to be helping, and one person seemed to think that it depends on which Council because according to her, 'her Council is good', so I suppose it depends on which area of the pond you live at. I live in a horrible place, so I guess it makes a lot of sense that our Council should be, too. But again, I digress. I know what the Council are just looking out for the people, so this is why I have mixed emotions about this.

Finally, when I asked the question; 'how would you feel if you were kicked out of your home (by the Council)', and, quite obviously, I got the same answer from everybody I asked, they would be very angry and upset or 'p***** off' as some of them used. They all said that they have the rights to live there and it shouldn't be in the Council's best interest or the Council's decision to get them to move. People should move out of their homes whenever they feel it's appropriate (except if they don't want to, of course)

I think that my line of questioning could have been more 'dramatic' to get some more diverse answers, this is because different people react to dramatic news/questions differently and this allows people to answer with whatever comes to their minds at that time, as a form of shock, for example; 'do you think the elderly see the Council and homeless people as vampires?', obviously, this is a very exaggerated and ridiculous example, but it would let the interviewee come up with an answer right on the spot.

As you can see, I received a mixed and eclectic batch of responses from my classmates, if this is the case for my actual documentary,then it would make for some very interesting footage.

South Norwood Documentary Ideas

Tyree Webster

Social Action Documentary Task 1
Initial Research

SOUTH NORWOOD

POLICE STATION SOLD TO SAVE $$$ AND TURNED INTO A BLOCK OF FLATS
(South Norwood has a high crime rate and the Council thought that it would be a great idea to sell South Norwood's only police station and relocate it to Addiscombe)

This will negatively affect:

• Elderly
• Local shopkeepers
• Families
• Police Officers.

This is because the old folks might find it distressting to find somebody else to rely on when they need help. Local shopkeepers could get robbed at gunpoint with no help. Families could be put into immediate danger with out any help. Finally, local Police Officers will be out of a job and will be unable to save the community.

This will be good for:

• Criminals, as they would be able to get away with murder and stealing

POTENTIAL INTERVIEWS: Police Officers, the public, the old people- we can get their personal views on the matter and how they think it will affect the Town and local authorities

6 MONTH ROADWORKS CAUSING HEAVY DELAYS 
(Happens frequently, and this started in February. The Council thought that it would be a good idea to replace the Victorian water mains underground, this job was supposed to take 6 months from February but has somehow managed to take nearly the entire year)

• School children
• Those who need to go to work
• Emergency services

These three will be affected negatively because the school children and those who need to go to work will most likely be late everyday or will have to travel in a different direction. Also, Emergency service vehicles will also take longer to get to their destinations.

POTENTIAL INTERVIEWS: The public and whoever thought of this, presumably the Croydon Council.

THORNTON HEATH

CRIME RATE IS VERY HIGH
 (There are a lot of drug dealers in Thornton Heath and many underground meth labs, there are also many stabbings)

This negatively affects:

• The general public
• Young children
• Old people
• Police Officers

This is good for:

Criminals, as they wouldn't care either way.

POTENTIAL INTERVIEWS- we could interview the public and obtain their personal views on the drug problems and other crimes and what they think the Police should do about it.

Task 3 Interview Styles

Tyree Webster

Task 3

Analysing Interview Techniques

Jamie Edwards and Bruce Willis- Promotional Interview

With this interview, I am specifically focusing on Jamie Edwards talking to Bruce Willis. The interview centers around the promotion of the action/comedy movie 'Red 2'. The interview is very quiet and has the potential to be a good interview with some good and interesting questions by Jamie Edwards, who seems very enthusiastic to talk to a Hollywood actor like Bruce Willis, face- to- face. But, Bruce seems less than happy to promote his movie and looks like he is going to fall asleep. He even mentions that if he had the chance, he would drive away from the building as he doesn't pay attention to the questions very well. His body language is very slouched and very lazy, he looks like he is ready to leave whenever the interview is over. When Jamie asks Bruce his questions, Bruce just replies with short answers like 'yeah', 'no' or 'no, that was just a line in the movie'. Jamie attempts to make jokes to bounce off of Bruce, but Bruce isn't having any of it and this just makes the interview that much more uncomfortable. The purpose of this interview is to promote a film, and to have a friendly discussion about the film. But, obviously, Bruce can't do that and has to mumble his way through things and create an awkward mood for the interview. However, the uncomfortable tone of the interview could also be blamed on interviewer Jamie Edwards, and his lack of professionalism.

Radio Interview- Howard Stern and Rob Zombie- Promotional Interview
In this interview, which is done on the radio, shock comic Howard Stern is talking to Rob Zombie, a musician/film director about Zombie's 2007 remake of 'Halloween'. In usual Howard Stern fashion, he makes crude jokes about various things that are in the movie; like Rob Zombie's wife who being a stripper in the movie and the multiple teen sex scenes. Howard is, like Jamie, very enthusiastic about the movie, and asks very good questions about the movie's production with questions like 'how different is this compared to the original?' and smaller questions like 'how come Michael Myers doesn't die?'. The two seem to enjoy talking to each other and have a blast talking about the movie and crack jokes. Later in the interview, Howard asks about Rob's previous jobs before he was famous, most specifically his job on 'Pee Wee's Playhouse.' Unlike Jamie and Bruce's interview, Howard and Rob act as if they're friends, which adds to the rapport of the two, and makes for a very good and entertaining interview. Like the interview above, the purpose of this interview is to promote something, but often drips away into friendly conversation about Rob Zombie's early life and career, this only adds to the rapport of Howard Stern and Rob Zombie, also, Howard's professionalism also adds to the interview's success.

Matt Lauer and Tony Romando and Jack Thompson- Hard News Interview
An interview from 2004, on a news programme, an editor of a games magazine, Tony Romando is talking about the then upcoming release of 'Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'. The interview isn't aggressive, per se, but the two do obviously have very opposing views to each other. Tony thinks that the 'Grand Theft Auto' games are just fun entertainment, mixing action/crime and comedy, as the game is essentially a satirical look at crime and American culture. He talks about that the game is for mature adults and not intended for children and if the childrens' parents aren't looking out for what their kids are buying then they're not doing their job. Thompson thinks something different entirely, as he thinks that the game made by Rockstar Games are 'murder simulators' and that the company are training people's children to be killers, but also goes as far to say that murder in real life is inspired by movies and music. The interviewer, Matt seems to agree mostly with Tony Romando, but mentions that Jack makes some good points, too. Jack makes himself out to be a complete moron and continuously tries to interrupt Tony and Matt to get his idiotic views seem more important. The interview is a good interview, but evolves into a small and heated debate, at least from one side of things (Jack Thompson). The purpose of this interview was to have an adult discussion about the game and try to stop the false accusations that the game makes the children who play it murderous thugs, similar to the game's main character.

Quentin Tarantino vs. Krishnan Guru- Murthy Interview

Quentin Tarantino Channel 4 Interview

At the beginning of the interview, Tarantino and Krishnan are very friendly with each other, with Krishnan congratulating Tarantino on the success and positive reaction of 'Django Unchained'. Krishnan asks if he is disappointed with the negative publicity about the theme of slavery being turned into a Western, but Tarantino says that he 'couldn't be happier.'

Krishnan then talks about certain audiences don't like his work and aren't very fond of 'Django' due to its themes, to which Tarantino becomes slightly upset and replies with 'you're wrong'.

Finally, Krishnan asks why does Tarantino enjoy making violent movies and asks 'do you think that violence in film has any impact on violence in real- life?', this angers Tarantino greatly, who refuses to answer the question and 'shuts his butt down', he says that if people want to know what he thinks of that subject, then they can Google 20 years of what h had to say. Krishnan tries to calm him down by trying to ask more questions about the success and production of the film, but sometimes returns to the matter, much to Tarantino's dismay.

The World's End Final Soundtrack

Social Action Documentary Task 2

Tyree Webster

Social Action Documentary Task 2
Analysing the Content and Purposes of Other Documentaries

'Tootgarook'

The first of three social action documentaries that I watched, this 8 minute documentary follows a group of Australian activists who want to save a Victorian Wetland that is a home to 129 species of bird. The documentary is an 'Observational' documentary, this is because the documentary film- maker (who is neither seen or heard) is watching over the events take place and what the activists are doing, but isn't necessarily taking part in the narrative, which switches from the activists cleaning up at the swamp and staging meetings to discuss the overall problem. The film uses a few cinematic shots of birds and wildlife, as if it was from a David Attenborough documentary, so it has a bit of a poetic technique to it. The documentary film- makers/activists intentions are to raise awareness the trouble that is being brought upon to the Tootgarook swamp and its inhabitants, and it is sort of 'advertising' to save it from complete destruction. It is clearly an eco- friendly film, which helps with the observational aspect of the film. This documentary shows the hardships of life and tells us how we can help them, even if we don't live in Australia. Towards the end of the short, there is a link to a website that lets you donate money to help out with the cause, so it takes full advantage of social media and it really shows how social media like this can help people/activists with their fights, regardless of what it happens to be. The target audience for this film is for environmentalists/those who deeply care for the area of the title, and the many birds who inhabit it.

'Geneva: When Poverty is No Longer Hidden'

This film overlooks the increasing problem of poverty in Geneva, and follows the people of Geneva attempting to regain their dignity and get more respect from the Government and their employers. The film is an 'Expository' documentary, and is showing the crisis to people from a specific point of view, in this case, from the poorer people's point of view. As I stated in the first bullet point, the documentary film- makers' intentions is to show the poverty that has stricken certain parts of Geneva, and is attempting to change this and bring better jobs and living conditions to the people. This film and 'Tootgarook' are very similar in tone and style, as both are dealing with a global problem and are both, in their own way, 'eco- friendly (in this case, it is more about the economy). The narrative shows the poverty stricken parts of Geneva and the people who live there as they try to get better jobs and living conditions for themselves through protests and community meetings with the Government. Similar again to 'Tootgarook', the film switches between shots of the current lives of the Geneva people, to their meetings and protests, and also manages to fit in some very informative interviews with the locals. The film has a link to a website called 'Unheard Voices' who have many other documentaries surrounding poverty and issues in poorer Countries, so it is a part of a much larger campaign. The target audience for this film is, again, like 'Tootgarook' is about quite a large area, so this appeals to a ton of people. Many people in Geneva would want to get involved with the film to try and help out with what the film makers are trying to accomplish.

'What Most Schools Don't Teach'

This 'documentary' acts as more of a short film and an advertisement. The film gathers together several different computer programmers and people who have become successful with the use of computer 'coding' (Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, etc.) and gets them talking about why Schools should encourage students to study coding and software, regardless of what they want to do as a career. This is an 'Expository' film, like the Geneva film. As it shows us different people's opinions on a specific subject from their point of view, and it attempts to persuade you with this technique. The film- makers intentions is to encourage Schools to teach computer programming and coding so that the students can live out their full potential and build up their own companies. This film is very different to the previous two that I watched because there are primarily interviews with many different successful people who give the viewer an insight of why it is important to use coding in schools. When the first two films are more about global problems and economical issues, this film centres around education and why computing is important. It has a very uplifting tone, too and is very encouraging, especially to young adults who are looking forward to their future of plan on going to University (although, this seems to speak primarily to American students, but could speak to students in other places. The film features a series of short interviews mixed with shots of University Campuses, and there doesn't seem to be one documentary film- maker at the helm, but it looks like all of the successful people who are in the film took part in it to create it, so it can be seen as performative, even if the people in it didn't make it. The target audience for this film is a lot different compared to the previous two films. It doesn't represent a huge and important issue, it's just a bunch of very influential people encouraging young people to encourage Schoold to teach 'coding' which can earn you quite a career.

Moving Image Soundtrack Quiz

Tyree

Soundtrack Quiz

1a. Dialogue, sound effects and music.

1b. Diegetic sound is sound that is a part of the atmosphere in the film, for example; if a character puts on a CD and listens to music, a good example of this is the controversial scene in Quentin Tarantino's 'Reservoir Dogs' in which Mr. Blonde is torturing a Police Officer and listening to Stealers Wheel's 'Stuck in the Middle With You', we know that the character can hear the song because he is seen dancing along to it and miming the lyrics. Non- diegetic sound is something like music or a score that isn't meant to be heard by the character and is just there to enhance the mood of the scene, for example; 'Gonna Fly Now' that is used in training montages in the 'Rocky' movies, the song is, in a way symbolic to Rocky's success during his training. We know that this is non- diegetic sound because the music overpowers the sound of the regular scene. But, there are also cases in films where the film features a jokes that reverses our expectations of non- diegetic music, at the beginning of Mel Brooks' Western comedy 'Blazing Saddles', we hear an orchestral piece that we assume is just being used over a scene of a cowboy riding into town, until it is revealed that there is an actual orchestra performing that the cowboy rides pass.

1c. Synchronous sound is the sound that is heard on camera and becomes part of the actual shot footage, for example; if a character is talking or if he punches a door. Non- synchronous sound is the sounds effects that have been edited in post- production, a good example of this is when a character brings out a knife and you hear the metal of the knife brush up against more metal.

1d. The three different types of spoken word in film; the first is dialogue, in which every film has a large amount of (unless it is silent, of course), the second piece of spoken word in film is the use of a narration/voiceover, which has been used in films such as 'Carlito's Way', in this, Carlito is telling us his story from the beginning to the end. Finally, the last piece of spoken word in a film is dialogue heard in an interview that's in a documentary, like in 'Bowling for Columbine', although the sound of speech in an interview may sometimes be a little less clear than a narrative film, it is still clear and works well to the documentaries advantage.

Work in Progress

I uploaded my downloaded clip from 'Django Unchained' and began trying to edit in downloadable sound effects, as well as trying to find the best suitable one.

As for the clip for 'The World's End', I tried to download the film to get an extract from it, but I couldn't. So, I was searching for suitable sound effects that I couldn't create myself and I saved my recordings to my folder.

Action Plan- Django Unchained

Action Plan

DJANGO UNCHAINED

*Record and complete both of the soundtrack productions at the same time.

SCHEDULE: Tuesday/Thursday, record the dialogue for ‘Django Unchained’.

This is a double lesson, so I will attempt to record some foley sounds too, for both my soundtrack productions.

I will download the clip I need from ‘Django Unchained’ and save it to my folder on the Arts and Media Folder so that it is ready for editing together on Tuesday/Wednesday.

DEADLINES: This production should be recorded, edited and complete by February 14, I plan on recording all of the dialogue that I need this week, and also the foley sounds I will also record. I will make sure that the sounds are kept realistic and accurate. I will download any sound effects that I think aren't possible to record myself.

EQUIPMENT: The equipment I will need is a sound recorder for the foley SFX and the equipment that is available in the recording studio.

LOCATION: I will be recording the dialogue inside the recording studio, hopefully on Thursday. As for the sound effects, I will find a quiet area around the College to record those.

Action Plan- The World's End

Action Plan

THE WORLD’S END

*Record and complete both of the soundtrack productions at the same time.

SCHEDULE: Tuesday/Thursday, record the dialogue for ‘The World’s End’.

This is a double lesson, so I will attempt to record some foley sounds too.

On Friday, I will get the clip I need from ‘The World’s End’ and save it to my USB so it is ready for editing together on Tuesday/Wednesday.

DEADLINES: This production should be recorded, edited and complete by February 14, I plan on recording all of the dialogue that I need this week, and also the foley sounds I will also record. I will make sure that the sounds are kept realistic and accurate. I will download any sound effects that I think aren't possible to record myself.

EQUIPMENT: The equipment I will need is a sound recorder for the foley SFX and the equipment that is available in the recording studio.

LOCATION: I will be recording the dialogue inside the recording studio, hopefully on Thursday. As for the sound effects, I will find a quiet area around the College to record those.

Documentary Idea Techniques

Tyree

Documentary Techniques

Performative- I will appear in the documentary personally, as well as doing a voiceover and I will express my own personal views on the subject at hand.

Poetic- I could show brief re- constructions of the new people moving in and I could stylise it in a cinematic way so that it seems more dramatic.

Expository- I could get two different views on the matter (when I conduct interviews) from the people that live there already and the new people who have moved in and try to persuade the audience/viewer on the matter from a reasonable point of view.

*I will primarily use "expository" as it fits the style of my documentary better*

Observational- I could film the residents living their lives in their daily routine and get shots of the current community.

Participatory- I could try to get two opposing sides together to discuss the problems and see how we/they can work it out for the future.

Reflexive- I'll explain to the residents that I am making a documentary and ask how the situation effects them personally and reflect on the interviewees answers for later conclusions in the documentary.