Unfortunately during my first shoot with Terry and his band Buffalo Fish I was unable to film an interview due to the lighting in the venue and the acoustics of the room and the background noises levels being very high. This however allowed be to give more time to preparing my group interview. I decided to get in touch with Terry after the filming of the gig and arrange the interview to be at Terry's house, as this would allow me to control both the sound levels and the lighting levels on the cameras better. I shot this interview last due to the difficulty of rounding up all of the band members together because of their clashing schedules. I finally shot the interview however on the 23nd of March, a few days after Doug's interview.

Conversation with Terry

I arrived at Terry's with Shahid, who would be assisting me on the sound operating and lighting, at around 3:30pm, which allowed me an hour or two to set up and get some additional shots for instance interesting ornaments, images of the band, instruments and so on. 

Cutaway/additional shots filmed. 

We began shooting the interview at 6:00pm. The lighting was set up by myself and Shahid and I operated the main camera and Sony A6000 whilst Shahid operated the boom microphone. The interview itself lasted over two hours and I noticed that it got a bit darker during the filming, however I was not too concerned as I knew the EX3 and Sony A6000 handled low light very well from previous experience with the cameras. I felt the questions I asked were sufficient and I got some very interesting responses from Terry and the members of Buffalo Fish. 

On further inspection on the footage I found that it got very dark during the second half of the interview, however I was not too concerned as I knew I could fix this in post-production and would discuss the possibility of Shahid correcting the image when it comes to the editing process. This was worrying at the time however due to the bands busy schedule however I was optimistic that the footage can be tweaked when it came to post-production. 

Screengrabs from my film. 

I felt the shoot was successful however as I got some very interesting responses from Terry and Buffalo and I got some nice cutaway shots to support what they are discussing and to place into the film at different points. 

Due to Doug's busy schedule because of the recording of the new Airforce album and his job I could only shoot on weekends meaning I ended up filming Doug's interview on the 19th of March, A few days before Buffalo Fish' Interview. Even though this was a lot later than the early interviews I did and later than I expected, it gave me more time to research into Doug's career even further and plan the shoot more efficiently.

I arrived at Doug's at around 1pm with Julia, who was assisting me on the shoot and operating the boom microphone and helping set up equipment. We got around to shooting the interview around 2:30pm. From following previous setup's I had done in the past, I set up the interview a lot quicker than before, and perfected the framing to the best of my ability to make for an aesthetically pleasing shot.

Still from the interview.

Question List and Notes for Doug Interview by JoshuaSampson

  Document used during the interview. 

I felt the shoot went well and of all the shoots I had done this shoot had come out the best visually and audio-wise as the levels were a lot more accurate than previously due to Julia being able to operate the boom at a closer position. I also shot the introduction to my film, which in my head would begin with exterior shots of a suburban street, pleasant and calming which would soon cut to Doug playing drums loudly and obnoxiously. I filmed additional shots of Doug drumming for a few minutes to add as a cutaway to the film. In addition to this I filmed little aspects around the home, for instance plaque's, posters, ornaments and so on to add a variety to the shots I could choose from. 

Additional shot examples. 

The first part of my Buffalo Fish shoot involved filming a live performance at The Monarch in Camden Town, in addition to shooting an interview with the band before they went on stage.

Interior of the venue

Shooting Schedule Buffalo Fish Live at The Monarch 2016 by JoshuaSampson


Interview
For the interview itself I came up with a rough list of questions and facts on each of the individuals so I could bounce off of their responses and also be prepared when knowing what questions to ask.

Buffalo Fish and Terry Wapram Notes by JoshuaSampson

Interview

We arrived a few hours before the performances to set up the interview. When arriving at the venue in the evening we found that the lighting inside the venue was not sufficient enough and the lights and stands we had brought would have made for a harsh, bright light on each of their faces. Additionally the noise around the venue was difficult to lower through boom positioning meaning that it would be very distracting and difficult to pick up their voices, even though we had gone to the quitest part of the venue. Because of these issues I decided to make the decision to postpone the interview to a later date but film the performance which would be very beneficial to my film. Next time I will come down and inspect the venue in the evening to double check the lighting is efficient. I will also look into further techniques of muffling the background noise if I want to shoot interviews in a venue in the future.

Live Filming

On shoot I had myself, Julia and Katherine on the shoot and for the performance I decided to operate my camera, the Sony A6000, have Katherine on the main static wide shot (EX3) and Julia on the Canon 600d which she is most familiar with. I was at the left hand side of the stage, Julia was at the right and the main camera was positioned in the middle of the pit. Additionally I had the Zoom H4N recording from the mixer to get the best possible sound. I feel the shooting of the event went well however when further inspecting the audio recordings on the H4N I realised that the sound had been recording at too high of a level due to the sound engineer changing the mix as thr performance was going on, which meant the tests I did had different levels so the recording was crackly and the levels were so high that the sound became muffled and inaudible meaning I would have to rely on the Sony A600/600d for sound. When closely inspecting the footage I found the sound recording on the A6000 came out surprisingly well so I am going to use that sound to give my film a raw, live atmospheric feeling to the cutaways of the performances I will incorporate into my documentary.

Screenshot of Sony A6000 footage. 

Overall I am very satisfied with the outcome of the footage I got and I feel that it was actually a positive outcome not filming an interview at the venue and persevering to film at a later date helped as I could go away and arrange an interview in a more secluded location that would be more aesthetically pleasing due to the fact I could have more control on the image quality. 

Reviews and Research into Documentary film 

Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, 2014)

To inspire my film and to further my knowledge of documentary film styles I decided to watch a music drama based on a true story. The film itself follows an young ambitious jazz drummer put through the reins by a harsh, critical instructor. The film itself incorporates different editing styles and a variety of unique camera angles which makes for a visually exciting film. The build up to the narrative is inspiring, as we are put through an emotional journey supporting our budding musician, Andrew (Miles Teller) through a series of difficult, life-testing experiences that pushes him to the limit. The narrative structure itself is quite basic, however through the imagery the film and symbolism, I find the film very complex. The end sequence is particularly inspiring as it builds up to this moment and ends fittingly with Andrew  playing an extended drum solo. 

This inspires my film as Doug is an experienced drummer so it would be interesting to represent that through his facial expressions and movement whilst playing the drums, which is exacerbated throughout Whiplash by Andrew’s movement and facial expressions whilst playing the drums. Overall Whiplash has been a major influence for my film through the interesting use of varied camera techniques in addition to the soundtrack which reflects the importance of a good soundtrack, which is why I put emphasis on taking time for picking the right music for my film. 

The History of Iron Maiden – Part 1: The  Early Days

To build upon the factual information I already know of Iron Maiden I decided to watch a feature length documentary film following the complete story of Iron Maiden from start to finish. The film itself took a number of years to make through the collection of archive material collected for the film, in addition to the 20+ interviews that were shot. The film itself is very simplistic through its use of interview footage, archive and music which is something I incorporated into my film, however I will be making the narrative flow slightly differently, through the jumping between characters frequently. The re-occuring ‘Metal’ essence within the film is represented through the sharp cuts and graphics used throughout the film.  This is also something I intend on doing throughout my film. 

This film however is particularly useful when it comes to finding out everything about Iron Maiden, from their very first gig to the present. Every member that ever was in Iron Maiden features in the film, and most discuss their time on camera which I find fascinating as I aspire to talk to as many ex-Iron Maiden members as I can throughout my project. The film itself however I find quite long-winded and bland, but this is because of the inclusion of so many ex-iron maidens sharing their stories, and sometimes it can be hard to keep up with all of them. This is something I intend on avoiding though the use of graphics and titles to accurately depict which character is which clearly and effectively. Additionally because this film is predominantly looking at the past factually, it can be difficult to keep focus and take in all of the facts being discussed. This is something I intend on avoiding through quick cuts to different characters to keep the viewer enticed in my film. Overall however I feel this film is a good starting point for myself regarding finding out as much information about the ex-iron maiden members as I can. 

Since November I built up my contacts further and after the dissertation I went to Tony's house in South London to shoot the main interview with the assistance of Julia. When I arrived at the shoot it took me a while to set up and get the lighting right, which I had researched into previously regarding how to set up an interview correctly:

Interview Setup Diagram 

The first issue I found was the lighting of the room due to the natural light coming through the back door and the windows, which was dampened by the curtains however sunlight still got through quite easily.

Location for the shoot

Setting up the interview took some time as there was only me and Julia however I feel we did this efficiently and accurately. Julia operated the boom microphone and main camera (EX3) which was positioned in the middle getting the main wide shot whilst I sat and ask the questions, additionally checking the second camera that operates from the right hand side, getting close ups of Tony for the added option of cutting away to.

The interview itself lasted an hour and the interview with Ilona lasted around twenty minutes. When listening back to the recordings on shoot I was satisfied with the outcome, however I could see some light changes throughout the film due to the sunlight changing, however I can fix this in post-production through color correction.