Mini Doc Pre Production
Reading
In chapters nine and seven of "The Bare Bones Camera Course for Film and Video," the writer Tom Schroeppel goes over lighting and conducting the shoot.
When it comes to lighting for video, it's important to consider the setting, natural lighting and the tools to have. For exterior lighting, it's beneficial to have a reflector to help reflect the natural sunlight or a fill light to create your own extra lighting. The downside to a fill light however is you would need an outlet to plug it in. When lighting indoors, there are three types of lights that are commonly used. These include focusing quartz, broads and softlights. The focusing quartz light is like a spotlight for movies. It creates a focused circle of light for the subject. Broad lights are less focused and spreads out more light. To soften this light, you would reflect it off a ceiling or wall. However, softlights are more convenient as they can be used anywhere. When placing your lights, it's important to use the three point method. By having a fill light, back light and key light, it adds depth to your subject.
When it comes time to shoot, it's important to use slates and plan your shots to have an idea of what to film. A slate helps mark your shots so when editing you know exactly what to expect in each shot. When planning your shots, it's a good idea to create a script to plan what shots to take. In an uncontrolled environment, like a breaking news story, it's important to grab shots with the best composition as possible and basic sequences.
Research to Inform
The Kid Laroi
This mini doc of The Kid Laroi is a video I chose as a strong reference because it's a profile on a musician that's short and to the point. I like the variety of Broll in the video as well as the flow of the soundbites. The video allowed Laroi and his colleagues to share the story themselves with a variety of bites creating one consistent narrative. This is the goal I have for my final min doc. I also liked the effects incorporated in the interview clips to make it more visually appealing.
Nissi Ignite EP
This is another mini doc on a musician that I found to be really compelling. With an even shorter timespan, the soundbites create one cohesive narrative that's easy to follow with a variety of elements to the story. I also really enjoyed the editing in this video. The variety of shots really made it visually interesting as well as the cuts. The background music also set a tone that made the video more engaging.
Pickles Pub Small Business Profile
This video is a profile piece on a small local business. It's a good story with strong audio and interview clips, except there is definitely room for improvement with the Broll. To start, most of the Broll was shaky. This could've been easily avoided by using a tripod or even cleaning some *slightly* shaky clips with warp stabilizer. Another flaw in the Broll I noticed was a lot of the footage was out of focus. This could have also been fixed if the camera was recording a little longer and the videographer payed closer attention to the focus.
Create!
For my mini doc, I decided to do a profile piece on Jay Della Valle, a musician and entrepreneur who's found success in being an entertainer while providing for himself and his family. Many musicians struggle to make income, but Jay managed to find loop holes in turning his passion into a successful livelihood. Below is my preproduction document.