Anangu youth shows off during shoot for healthy eating documentary in Yalata
Change Media Training Toolkit: 5- Best Shots
Identify the shots you need and practice the different camera techniques so your film shines.
Ngarrindjeri Elder Tom Trevorrow being interviewed for Ngarrindjeri Ruwe – Working On Country.
Change Media Training Toolkit: 5. Best Shots – Interviews
How to set up an interview indoors and outdoors.
Rita sets up an interview with one of her Ngarrindjeri Elders.
OVERVIEW:
This tutorial covers the basic steps you should follow to ensure you get the best interview possible.
Printables/ PDF worksheets
Coming soon!
Hank explains basic indoor interview set up.
Jen works with Hank and Jeremy to set up an indoor interview. She covers the basic steps you should follow to ensure you get the best interview possible.
Rita explains basic interview set up
Rita works with the team to set up an indoor interview. She covers some basic steps you should follow to ensure you get the best interview possible.
Stella explains basic interview set up
Jen works with Stella and Jeremy to set up an indoor interview. She covers the basic steps you should follow to ensure you get the best interview possible.
Training Tips: Interviews
Stella demonstrates indoor interview.
Before a shoot ALWAYS check:
• have you got your interview questions prepared
• have you got mobile phone numbers for your interviewees
• have your interviewees agreed to participate
• arrange comfortable space for the interview
• allow enough time for each interview to take place, at least 30 to 60 minutes each, don’t forget to plan for set up and time to get to know your interview partner
In Recording My Elders Pam sets up an interview with her uncle in the Pilbara in Western Australia. On this page you also find her tutorials on setting up cameras, tripod and how to upload your footage to computer.
When you do an interview, ask your subject to sum up in the end. This way you often get the most concise and vibrant statements.
Use your prepared questions if you must, but you will get much better and more authentic answers if you can ask th questions more spontaneously. Everybody wants to feel special – you need to show your interview partner that you are really interested in what they have to say.
Otherwise – why bother making the film and wasting their time?
Sometime this can be hard, make sure you talk with your team about who is best suited to be the interviewer.
Do some research about the person you are about to record on video, what they have done, worked on, what their mission in life is etc. Works wonders.
When selecting a space to shoot your interview in, make sure it has as little ambient noise as possible.
In some cases you may need to ask your interviewee to turn off the fridge [can be very noisy and suddenly start up a compressor cycle] or turn off the radio [you won't have the rights to use the commercial music playing on the radio - and you can't edit it out later...]
2011 NAIDOC award winner Best Event: Moogy’s Yuki canoe making in Kalangadoo.
Change Media Training Toolkit: 5. Best Shots – Event Coverage
How to plan and shoot at an event, using one or more cameras.
Participants demonstrate how to shoot a culture bush walk guided by one of their Ngarrindjeri Elders, Tom Trevorrow.
OVERVIEW:
This chapter covers the key steps you should follow to record good event coverage.
• Discuss the main issues of the event with your team
• Go through all stages of the event before hand
• Can you shoot it – do you have access and permission to film?
• Bring sufficient equipment
Printable PDFs
Coming soon.
Johanis explains screen language essentials.
This tutorial covers lighting, camera angles, 3-D of space, depth of field, rule of thirds, breathing space and other screen-language basics.
Jen explains event coverage for Camp Coorong Bush Walk – coming soon.
Our team worked with the Ngarrindjeri team to shoot a 90 minute bush walk guided by their Elder Tom Trevorrow.
Johanis demonstrates camera moves.
In this Change Media Training Demo, Directing the Hero Within – Cool Camera Moves, our host and peer mentor, Johanis, explains the basics of camera movements for community and youth film making.
Training Tips: Event Coverage
Event Coverage: Cultural Bush Walk.
Change Media mentor Jen explains the best workflow for outdoor event coverage on the example of the Camp Coorong Cultural Bush Walk.
Before a shoot ALWAYS check:
- visit location prior to familiarize yourself with a new environment
- have you got mobile phone numbers for key contacts?
- how long will the event take [do you have sufficient batteries, tapes, memory cards]
- what weather can you expect – and prepare accordingly [bring water bottles, umbrellas, rain coats
- allow enough time for arrival on location to set up and time to get to know your interview partner
In Moogy’s Yuki the Ngarrindjeri Change Media team produced an event documentation about the first traditional canoe making on their country in over 100 years, guided by Ngarrindjeri Elder and cultural teacher Major ‘Moogy’ Sumner.
In Camp Coorong Bush Walk the Ngarrindjeri media team produced an event documentation about the cultural bush walk at Camp Coorong, guided by Ngarrindjeri Elder Tom Trevorrow. In just 90 minute, the team had to follow Tom as he introduce a group of 30 Primary School students and their teachers to the Indigenous flora and fauna of his land.
Sometimes it is possible to film a test run, for example the dress rehearsal of a performance can give you a great overview what will happen the next day on stage – and you might find that some of the footage offers you the necessary other angle in the edit later…
Whitney, Edie and Latoya shooting Bushtucker re-enactment in Meningie
Change Media Training Toolkit: 5. Best Shots – Re-enactments
How to plan and shoot re-enactments.
Whitney demonstrates how to re-enact a scene for a bush tucker recipe shoot.
OVERVIEW:
This chapter covers the basic steps for shooting re-enactments or dramatized sequences for documentaries.
Printable PDF worksheets
Coming soon!
Whitney demonstrates the re-enactment for Bush Tucker.
Jen works with Whitney, Edie and Latoya to set up a dramatic re-enactment for their Bush Tucker video.
Training tips: Re-enactments
Whitney demonstrates the re-enactment for Bush Tucker.
Jen works with Whitney, Edie and Latoya to set up a dramatic re-enactment for their Bush Tucker video.
Nuikkan. Kungun.Yunnan – Ngarrindjeris’ Being Heard is a great example of the use of re-enactments. Check out the fishing scene, the coins dropping into Lake Albert, the women running in the shallow water near the jetty, the people lying on the cracked mud bed of Lake Victoria in the Coorong.
When using real people to act out set up scenes, it might help to get them comfortable by doing an ‘everyday task’ while you film them, ie doing an easy job task or house activity.
Re-enactments are very common in documentary; when you see an expert typing on his/her computer in the office, the scene is most likely a re-enactment for the benefit of the camera, as it is much harder to shoot a documentary scene in a ‘real’ office, being noisy and busy.
Make sure your actors fully understands what you ask of them [as do your camera person], so best is to step them through each scene and explain what you are hoping to achieve with the scene. For some people re-enacting scene can be challenging and make them feel ‘phony’ – but acting is pretending while making it look believable, so the more authentic your characters can portray themselves, the better the result for the story you want to tell.
Daryl records pick up shots at Wentworth for Murrundi River Spirit.
Change Media Training Toolkit: 5. Best Shots – Pick Ups
How to plan and shoot pick-ups.
Change Media mentors demonstrate how to record pick-ups and why.
OVERVIEW:
This tutorial covers the basic tips you should follow to ensure you get enough coverage for your edit later.
Printable PDF worksheets
Coming soon!
Jen explains pick up shots.
Pick Ups are additional shots you record to get enough coverage for your film in the edit. Often they cover subjects that were not in the storyboard or that the team had forgotten to ‘pick up’ during the initial shoot.
Training Tips: Shooting Pick Ups
Jen explains pick up shots – coming soon.
Pick ups are the editors best friend. they give you more option to visualize a location, cover over an awkward edit or add a fun angle to the sequence.
At the Wentworth Weir, the Ngarrindjeri Media Team made sure they shot lots of pick ups, as it would have taken us several hours to return to the location, once back in the edit at Camp Coorong.
Make sure you make list of possible shots that are not essential but good to get anyway- and give it to your camera person.
We often get someone to shoot pick ups, while waiting for an interview to start or during odd hours, to catch that glorious sunset etc.
Biggest tip – if you see something and have the slightest doubt if it could look good in your film, SHOOT IT!
It will make your creative process so much easier.
Screenshot from Nukkan.Kungun.Yunnan with archival photos.
Change Media Training Toolkit: 5. Best Shots – Archival Media
How to incorporate archival material.
Change Media mentors demonstrate how to incorporate archival video and photos into a film.
OVERVIEW:
• Research – how to find the right footage
• Copyright and moral rights
• Creative choices – what to use
• Formats – analog to digital
Printable PDF worksheets
Coming soon: release form for archival media!
Jen explains the use of archival media.
Archival media is often your only way to visualize the past.
Training Tips: Using Archival Media
Research – how to find the right footage:
Firstly you need to decide what you are looking for.
Do you really need to go through hours of old VHS tapes?
Being clear on the reason why you want to use archival media is crucial. Often it can take hours of your time to trawl through the web or old archives to find this one shot.
Ask yourself – can it be re-enacted?
Will it improve our story to show the past?
Archival material can be used very effectively:
In Nukkan.Kungun.Yunnan – See.Listen.Speak. it was important to the Ngarrindjeri team to give evidence on how the water level of the Lower Lakes have changed. To demonstrate this, they found old photos that clearly showed their jetty being submerged. They then shot footage of the current water levels at the same spot decades later, to juxtapose.
