Vox pop, interviews and documentary
This Project will develop your skills in developing visual stories via interviews. Vox Pop is a commonly used technique to bring up public opinion. The usual components are a small introduction of the topic, a public Q & A and an interview with people relevant or proficient in the topic. Vox Pop is used in a variety of genres such as news casts, informational capsules, documentary, etc.
See some Great Tips. One critical tip is to record at least 1 minute of “room tone” for each location.
A. Individual preparation – Before the class period when you meet with your group to share ideas and decide on a topic of interest, consult these guidelines to write a two to four sentence summary of the topic of interest you have chosen. Here is a structure you can follow:
- What? – what’s the topic you have chosen?
- Why/How? – Why is it important or/and how is it a topic of interest?
B. Writing/Brainstorming – During the first meeting:
- *Delineate your PUBLIC Q&A questions – Vox Pop questions are open ended, simple and spike conversation, in other words, they shouldn’t encourage YES or NO answers but should be easy enough to answer. The simpler the better; 2 general questions tend to be sufficient, one asking for an opinion and the second one for a solution. There are many ways to approach this step, just keep in mind that your questions will depend on the topic you’ve chosen.
- *Delineate your INTERVIEW questions – These set of questions can be more complex since they would be directed to someone knowledgeable on the topic of interest. They should be open ended and answered with complete answers, for example:
Complete answer (correct format)
Q: What’s your name and age?
A: My name is Tom and I am 20 years old.
Incomplete answer (incorrect format)
Q: What’s your name and age?
A: Tom, I’m 20.
This is important since you’ll be cutting out the questions from the video recording to make it more dynamic.
*These steps can be done in any order since they feed information to each other depending on the topic.
C. Production
- Roles (working in groups of five people)
- a. Director – If possible, the person who offered the main idea for the script will finalize the script and function as the director. Working with the cinematographer, the director must prepare a shot list of the on location shots.
- b. *Cinematographer – This person will shoot the scene. It is important to work closely with the director and agree on the manner in which the scene is to be shot. Also, is in charge of providing the equipment necessary to achieve the director’s vision
- c. *Sound – Sound is key in this kind of project since the sound tech is in charge of adjusting the audio levels and/or mic position on the go.
- d. Researcher/logistics – This person is in charge of finding and contacting possible interview candidates and organizing any arrangements to have the interviews.
- e. Editor – This person needs to have a clear sense of the production goals and to realize the goals via visual and sound editing.
*These rolls can be done by more than one individual since it can make the scheduling part easier to manage.
D. Final product
- Editor and director consult to create a final cut of the project that will be presented to the class. The running length of the completed video is 5 to 7 minutes.
- The edit of the Vox Pop capsule must include credits.
- Editor and director consult to create a final cut of the project that will be presented to the class. The running length of the completed movie is between three to four minutes.
- The edit of the motion picture must include credits.
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