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Making a Mini-documentary, Ep 4: Choosing the location for a video interview

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Making a Mini-documentary, Ep 4: Choosing the location for a video interview

SUBJECTS:  Arts

YEARS:  3–4, 5–6


How do you decide what's a good location for a video interview?

Catherine Marciniak and Benj Binks from ABC Open have some useful information to help you make your choice.

This clip is one of eight on making a mini-documentary.


Things to think about

  1. 1.Have you ever noticed the location used in an interview? Do you think the filmmaker has chosen it just because it is looks good behind the interviewee, or do you think there might be other reasons for choosing it? What might they be?
  2. 2.What does Catherine say is one of the first things you should consider in choosing a location? What sounds can Benj hear at the house and how could he and Catherine improve on what is heard? What's wrong with using a busy street or cafe as a location? What do you need to be aware of in an outside location? What does Catherine say about lighting?
  3. 3.Wherever you are at the moment, look around you to see if there's anywhere you could use as an interview location. What might you need to change about the sound or lighting? Next time you see someone being interviewed, look carefully at the location. Is it outdoors or indoors? Is it well lit? Is the sound clear?
  4. 4.Experiment with filming different locations in different conditions. Try filming indoors and outdoors and at different times of the day to see which works best. Can you use natural light? Which of these environments are the best for good sound recording?



Date of broadcast: 2012


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Posted , updated