Art of the Interview (Podcamp Boston 3 presentation)
July 19, 2008
The interview is a fundamental element of most documentary films and many video blogs. Through examples and discussion this session, which I presented at Podcamp Boston 3, covered practical strategies and techniques including how and why to use interviews, how to choose the right interview style (e.g. walk-and-talk vs. formal sit-down), how to choose a form of address (e.g. first-person vs. third person), tips for prepare for an interview, suggestions for putting subjects at ease, how to conduct an interview, and more. The session was designed for both beginning and intermediate videobloggers and documentary filmmakers.
Related to this presentation, see also my previous post, “Notes on the Interview” (January 23, 1006). This is a set of notes I’ve collected that I use to remind myself of things to think about when I’m preparing to do an interview.
View slides (on SlideShare): Art of the Interview PC3
Download slides as a PDF (from SlideShare): Art-of-the-Interview-PCB3
List of example clips screened and discussed (year, description, roles):
“Student Activities Midway” (2006, video podcast story segment, MIT ZigZag Episode #10, Co-Producer, Director, Editor)
“MIT Freshman Experience” (2007, video podcast episode, MIT ZigZag Episode #14, Producer, Director, Editor )
“Journey to MIT” (2007, excerpt from series produced for 2007 MIT pre-commencement show, Co-Producer, Director of Photography)
Some of these clips can be viewed at: kino-eye.com/about/reel/
Twitter 3D Fail Whale
June 30, 2008
Now this is delightful, like the classic “Bomb icon” the Twitter “Over Capacity” image has been seen by users far more, I’m sure, than the developers intended. This lovely sculpture pays homage to that. Thanks to Karl Long for pointing this out to me.
Organizing a gel collection
December 7, 2007
As you collect more and more gels and diffusion, organization and storage becomes important. I store my gels and diffusion using the following two holding methods (as far as rolls go, those usually live in their original boxes).
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Trade is more important than aid
October 29, 2007
One of the greatest things that developed nations can do to help developing nations is engage in fair trade, and given that coffee is the most valuable commodity we trade worldwide after oil, it represents an industry that for many poor farmers represents their only way out of poverty. But while we in the developed nations continue to pay outrageous prices for fancy Starbucks coffee, the price paid to coffee farmers remains so low that many have been forced to abandon their coffee fields. How can this be? This paradox is most evident in Ethiopia, which, ironically, is the birthplace of coffee. In the documentary Black Gold, we follow the story of Tadesse Meskela, a man on a mission to save his tens of thousands of struggling coffee farmers from bankruptcy. As his farmers strive to harvest some of the highest quality coffee beans on the international market, Tadesse travels the world in an attempt to find buyers willing to pay a fair price. The film follows Tadesse’s journey to London and Seattle, the centers of power in the multinational coffee industry that is controlled by multinational corporations, commodity traders, coffee exchanges, and trade ministers. The film reveal the many challenges that Tadesse and his farmers face in their quest for a humane and lasting solution for the coffee farmers. For Meskela, “Trade is more important than aid.” Wake up and smell the coffee industry. It’s time for a change.
A Conversation with Les Blank
October 3, 2007
While I was at the Woods Hole Film Festival this summer I had a chance to sit down and have a conversation with documentary filmmaker Les Blank. We spoke about his new film All In This Tea, his experiences with Werner Herzog, why he self distributes, and which of his films he considers his favorite. The interview, titled A Conversation with Les Blank, appears in the newly re-launched Independent (the publication formerly known as The Independent Film & Video Monthly, which ceased publication with the demise of the AIVF).
The hidden truth of photographs (or all images, for that matter)
September 26, 2007
Errol Morris gets philosophical in his post titled “Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg?” on the New York Times web site. He begins the post with a T.S. Eliot quote from “The Hidden Men,”
Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow…
very interesting reading on the truthfulness of images.
An interview with Christen McArdle on preserving the Ann Arbor Film Festival
September 25, 2007
This week’s Art Film Talk interview is with Christen McArdle, the Executive Director of the Ann Arbor Film Festival, the oldest festival of its kind in North America showcasing avant-garde, documentary and independent films from around the world. We talk about the festival's fundraising campaign and the censorship controversy the festival has been involved with.
Using SATA drives with a MacBook Pro
July 19, 2007
Need fast, cheap, reliable storage for video editing on your MacBook Pro? Tired of paying a price premium and performance penalty with external FireWire drives? Tired of dropped frames with that USB external drive? Want to be able to move a project between the laptop and a PowerMac or MacPro and keep it on a fast SATA drive? Several interface cards are available for the MacBook Pro to interface with SATA drives.
Summertime gazpacho
July 2, 2007
Summertime is gazpacho time. This cold soup is popular in Spain’s Andalusia during the summer and when Alice and I were there for our honeymoon, I gained an appreciation for it. The soup has its origins in ancient Andalusian cuisine as a mixture of stale bread, garlic, olive oil, salt, and vinegar. It is not always easy to find a flavorful yet subtle gazpacho here in the states, I was once served a bowl at James Gate that tasted like salsa pored right out of an industrial sized container. The best way, by far, to experience good gazpacho is to make it yourself from fresh vine ripened tomatoes in season. Here’s my recipe.
Boston Media Makers, July 1, 2007
July 1, 2007
Boston Media Makers meetings are held the first Sunday of every month at Sweet Finnish in Jamaica Plain. Meeting notes include Len Edgerly’s video of Friday’s iPod frenzy, Christopher Penn’s demo of his new camera stabilization device, and many interesting updates. Here are my notes:
