Introduction
Whilst continuing research on cinematography and DoPs, I came across a website named 'indiewire' that had an article regarding essential tips for documentary shooting. This website reviews an interview with experienced and successful cinematographers, such as Ross Kaufman, an award winner for Best Documentary in 2005, multiple award winner and Sun Dance festival winner Maro Chermayeff, Kristen Johnson and Rex Miller. This review consisted of these cinematographers giving essential advice for those whom are looking into making documentary film, making this very beneficial for my research.
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| Taken from Indiewire. An image showing the 4 cinematographers being interviewed for their advice and tips for documentary film-making. |
Detach and Listen
Although sounding reasonably simplistic, Miller explains how you have to "you have to detach emotionally from your subjects" and make sure that you're always recording as emotions in some cases can never be repeated again. In my case, this isn't entirely relevant due to all the emotions being fixed. However, having this idea of rolling the camera constantly may enable me to capture realistic moments from our actors which in a way could be used as footage. For example, if the camera is rolling during rehearsals, some emotive footage could be captured but may never be as good as the live recording. Therefore, I will keep this in mind when filming in case we find footage that is actually realistic and better than the real thing.
Johnson then went to quote that "Being a DP is being a listener. You're never where you're supposed to be. You have to always be listening so you know where to go." This too may seem irrelevant but keeping this in mind may enable me to revise the shot list on the day and try a different shot if it is suggested by one of the actors or crew. Or, if filming a rehearsal or test shoot, keeping an eye on everything which is happening may enable Kate and I find a way to improve the scene or in a way make a shot seem more effective.
Shoot Blind
The next part of the article explains a story when Johnson was shooting a film called Born to Fly however both of her contact lenses came out, causing her vision to be very impaired. However, she continued to shoot and focused just on the shapes she could just about manage to see she managed to shoot something in a different vision which intact turned out to be more effective than her scripted shot list. Although I won't film with my vision impaired, this advice is beneficial as I can then look at something in a different angle to see whether the shot could be more effective. The article quotes that "The blurry, opaqued shapes helped her see her subjects differently."
Sit Down, Stand Up
The article then explores about the significance of zooming compared to the significance of moving around. Miller quotes "If you need to get closer, get up and move closer" suggesting that zooming isn't always as effective as it may seem. He says by doing this you are then able to view things at a different angle and perspective, to which you wouldn't see from a zoom. This could be quite beneficial for our production as we will be using frequent zooms, so it could be nice to move the camera towards the subject every once in a while to gain a new perspective and not being repetitive.
However, Johnson then explains how this needs to be limited - she says how young filmmakers for the move Born to Fly were literally running around all day attempting to find new shots, which in the end made the shots seem jumpy. She said they weren't as beautiful as Albert Maysels - an 87 year old man (at the time) who instead sat and framed his shots which proved to be more beneficial in the end. Thus, this could be something to experiment to see whether zooming or move would be more effective.
Conclusion
All in all, this article provides some beneficial facts and tips to keep in mind whilst filming. Hopefully by learning these tips we can find new and different perspectives when filming which could be much more effective than my original shot list. I am aiming to add in a few test shoots on rehearsals to experiment with different styles of shooting i.e. moving instead of zooming.
Reference: http://www.indiewire.com/article/attention-filmmakers-essential-tips-on-shooting-your-documentary-20141120
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