Trump video voxpop

‘Trump and his state visit ban to the UK’

This was a popular topic at the time of filming, it took height of the media at the time with coverage expanding on various platforms. Therefore, I decided to gather opinions from the public on what they thought on the matter, enabling them to have a voice and express their views.

The questions which I took to the public were – “What are your views on the petition to ban Trump from his visit to the UK?” “How do you think it will affect the country if the ban goes ahead?” I chose to use open questions in order to gain more responses from the members of public, leading to a more descriptive answer rather than a one worded response. Closed and leading questions could have produced a biased response which is why I chose not to include this. By doing so, it also allowed me to gain freedom in the editing stage as I was not restricted with their answers. There were a variety of responses which I could work with and cut together resulting in an informing and reflective piece.

The finished Voxpop consists of medium close ups. This allows the face to be shown clearly, however, does not get uncomfortably close to the subject. By using this frame size, it gives the end product a good mixture of facial and upper body language, also showing the environment surrounding the subject. It still reserves the facial detail which a close up gives, but offers more on the eye not restricting the view. The audience has more to look at rather than just watching a close up of a face. “This is one of the most common shots in filmmaking because it provides so much information about the character while speaking, listening or performing an action that does not involve much body or head movement.” (Thompson, 2009: 18).

The rule of thirds was also used in the production of this Voxpop. In order to compose the correct image, the main line of interest (the line going through the subjects eyes), were placed around one third down the shot. By doing this it gave the shot a good balance, with the natural focal point being the interviewee. Due to the fact we are naturally drawn to people’s eyes, I decided to position people who were interviewed off to one side of the frame – showing background as well as their upper body. “The top thirds line should be used when filming people where, regardless of the shot size, their eyes should always be aligned with the top thirds line.” (Cook, 2011: 14).

The idea for this style/approach of Video Voxpop came from VICE videos. ’10 questions you always wanted to ask…’ is a feature on their website which holds a varied amount of short Video Voxpops showcasing interviews with an abundance of people with differing specialities. The frame size used include medium close ups mainly, I liked the effect the frame gives therefore I chose to use this in my own. The interviewer does not speak in the videos, there is text showing the viewers what topics/questions are being discussed, again, like my own. I chose to do this because it gives the interviewees a time to have their say and express what they feel, without being interrupted. It further gives more focus on the subjects.

References:

Thompson, R. and Bowen, C. (2009) Grammar of the edit, 2^nd edition, Oxford: Elsevier.

Cook, K., Waterlow, C., Janvier, P., Kay, M. and Baker, M. (2011) Video Skills the Core Competencies of Videography, 3^rd edition, Essex: Institute of Videography.