Preparation for Filming

This evening I met with my group to finalize plans for our second day of filming tomorrow. After the transcribing was completed over the weekend, Elliot highlighted the best parts and began a rough assembly of the interviews on the timeline.

Highlighted transcript

In the meeting we produced a list of questions to ask Ralph. We also created a shot list based on shots we didn't have time to get last week, shots we needed to re-shoot due to white balance or framing, and cutaways to link to what we read in the interview transcript. For example, there is a framed letter on the wall of the living room which we would like Ralph to read out, and at the end of last week's filming I noticed Ralph had a lot of clocks around the house which could be used as part of an opening montage or sequence involving his wife passing away. We also had the idea of shooting some garden shots from the same angle as it appears in some of Ralph's photos, dissolving between them to infer the passage of time.

Shot List

Some topics which came up during casual conversation or at the end of our stay we also wanted to ask about, such as his difficulty learning German and some of the stories behind the objects in his room. To avoid some of the difficulties last time with repetition, we changed the questions to be more specific - following a discussion last week during our tutorial. For example, during our first meeting he mentioned an interesting story about a sergeant during the army, and so we will ask him specifically about this to trigger the memory.

Questions and topics to cover

Similarly, to get clarification from him about certain details of his family and memories, I will make sure to ask him details such as where and when this is, and if it is a photograph, where he is in it.

As the primary focus of the second shoot was to get cutaways, I planned our day accordingly. I will take a camera and film cutaways in the upstairs bedroom, whilst Alex and Saul shoot around the living room, kitchen and side room. After this we will interview Ralph either sat or standing in the kitchen for a change of environment, using the rest of our time to cover all the questions we have planned.

After we agreed that the still photos of the albums were unsuitable, we had planned to film them on the table and have Ralph turn the pages. However, I contacted Ralph earlier today to confirm shooting tomorrow and managed to get permission for us to take away the albums and scan them similar to what I did for the poetic film. This will be a significant help for us as it not only ensures that we can get the highest quality possible but also that we can spend more time tomorrow either on the interview or cutaways.