Contextualising statement:
With this Interview with graphics task, the main aim during filming was lighting and how best to make use of the lighting equipment that is available. Due to the nature of the interviewee’s story, he wished for his identity to be kept a secret, so as to maintain his own privacy and that of his family. This ethical issue required extra planning and forethought in terms of how we would go about providing a similar product to one where the subject is not anonymous. In order to do this my group opted to use background lighting to set the tone of the footage due to the fact that the viewer would be missing out on the facial expressions that would have otherwise provided some form of tone. To do this we placed him in a designated seat and worked with the lights to best create an atmosphere that both emphasised the harrowing nature of his words and helped the audience empathise with subject, the aim being to reflect the mood. This was difficult to achieve due to the short length of the interview and the fact that his face was blackened out.
One major issue with the final product is that the audio files were found to have a noticeable buzzing in the background virtually throughout. As a group we felt this may have been down to having issues with room bookings which led to having a more rushed recording session during which questions ended up being read from a mobile phone as opposed to paper. Despite this, risk assessments remained in place, as the room that we managed to use was of a similar type to that which we lost. Therefore, the risks remained similar and were easily remedied: cables were kept tidy; lights were handled with the correct equipment provided; and the camera and sound gear was handled with care and set up in the required fashion. The use of the graphic at the beginning required the use of post-edit software that proved complicated and time-consuming, but the addition of the caption at the beginning and during the footage further aided the ethical issue of keeping the subject anonymous.
In terms of editing solutions I felt that in order to remove the buzzing I would have to compromise the remaining audio as too tinny and quiet, I opted to keep the buzzing and add sombre music to maintain the mood of the overall artefact. Though this means there is an obvious buzzing throughout, I feel the artefact still retains its overall effect on the viewer due to the content, tone and lighting. Also, due to the sudden ending designed to highlight the harshness and stark nature of the topic at hand, the lack of buzzing as the footage stops further emphasises this underlying nature that is depicted throughout the piece.