Major Project - Interview w/ F4 Ginetta Junior Champion Jamie Caroline
Conducting The Interview With Jamie Caroline
Today we visited two different locations - Waldingham & Tonbridge. The reasons for being in Tonbridge will be detailed extensively in the following post, with this post focusing on the events of the morning.
One of the contributors that we were able to secure as part of our 'DreamChaser' documentary was British Formula 4 Ginetta Junior Champion - Jamie Caroline. He's a young racing driver with a lot of experience and success behind him, including an incredibly supportive family and friend network that we were able to get a glimpse into over the course of our time with him this morning. One of the things that attracted us to Jamie as a contributor was his recent appearance in the BBC documentary 'Driver' following young British amputee Billy Monger, who has continued to follow his passion for motor-sporting despite his severe disabilities. Given what we had seen from the documentary, we felt that Jamie would be an incredibly valuable contributor not just for his experience, insight and perspective into the industry, but also his notoriety. We also wanted to be able to support him during his upcoming season as he is struggling to find sponsors for his team, by being involved within our documentary we hope to provide some additional exposure for him through Alex's YouTube channel.
Connor Winfield was with us today helping us out in camera operation, I had him on a shoulder-mounted Panasonic FZ330, focusing on getting a low angle Close Up (C.U.) of Jamie from a 45 degree angle in relation to the main camera during the interview sequence itself. Upon arriving at Jamie's house we approached the door and greeted Jamie for the first time, at which point he took us through the house into the living room where we were initially going to conduct the interview, however during the time we were setting up the equipment, Jamie informed us that he'd cleaned his room up substantially and we could do the interview there instead surrounded by his trophies and canvas pictures. We had previously seen his room during the BBC documentary so it was somewhat surreal suddenly being there, however in retrospective it definitely offered a better mise-en-scene than the living room, giving the viewer a much deeper sense into the kind of person Jamie is.
The interview itself went really smoothly in all of our opinions and we were able to have Alex and Jamie discuss some really poignant topics surrounding the motorsport industry. An example of this was when Alex asked Jamie what it's like for young drivers with a lot of talent but little money, trying to find a footing within the industry. It was clear that during Jamie's answer that he was taking a very honest, genuine approach to the interview and his answers seemed completely detached from the kind of PR-trained responses a lot of people have come to expect from more prominent or popular racing drivers - we believe this honesty to be in line with our own beliefs when producing anything we work on. I strongly believe that within the context of a documentary, honesty and transparency to the viewer should be the No.1 priority and we want to avoid any kind of manipulation, mischaracterisation or implicit bias within the making of 'DreamChaser'.
In accordance with our storyboards and camera plans, we utilised a 3 camera set-up during the interview segment itself. This consisted of Connor on the aforementioned Panasonic FZ330 on a Close-Up (C.U.), the Sony AX53 with a master shot with Jamie Centre of Frame (C.O.F.) on a Wide-Shot (W.S.), with the last camera being a Mid-Shot (M.S.) with Jamie Left of Frame (L.O.F.) shot on the Lumix G7. In terms of audio, we used a clip-mic that was fitted on Jamie by our producer George N, plugged into a phone which was inserted into Jamie's pocket to conceal the wire as effectively as possible. This technique was previously mentioned in a blog post if you're interested in more information - the audio was recorded through the iOS application 'Voice Memos' which natively supports any microphone with a 3.5mm jack.
The interview itself consisted of about 16 minutes of total dialogue between Jamie & Alex, however this will be substantially edited down for the final cut due to time constraints required by the project brief. It is for this reason that it is becoming increasingly clear that this documentary deserves an extended, perhaps even feature-length cut. This is something that I will likely undertake following the May hand-in. As a favour to Jamie, I plan to edit together a full-length interview over the course of the next week, which will then be uploaded to Alex's channel as a thank-you towards Jamie, but also a preview to his audience for 'DreamChaser' documentary. It will be good to get some feedback on what people are liking about the project, and any criticisms that they may have so that we can attempt to address them as best we can as production continues.
Following the interview segment, Jamie walked Alex around the house and showed him several poignant pictures, trophies and awards that he has received over the years, whilst I filmed B-Roll on the Sony AX53 of actuality, Alex and Jamie.
Overall I think the Jamie interview went incredibly well and is currently one of the strongest elements of our documentary aside from track day material, though this will likely change as we have several shoot days at Brand's Hatch that are upcoming, and likely to be incredibly visually interesting, so I'm looking forward to it immensely!
Today we visited two different locations - Waldingham & Tonbridge. The reasons for being in Tonbridge will be detailed extensively in the following post, with this post focusing on the events of the morning.
Connor Winfield was with us today helping us out in camera operation, I had him on a shoulder-mounted Panasonic FZ330, focusing on getting a low angle Close Up (C.U.) of Jamie from a 45 degree angle in relation to the main camera during the interview sequence itself. Upon arriving at Jamie's house we approached the door and greeted Jamie for the first time, at which point he took us through the house into the living room where we were initially going to conduct the interview, however during the time we were setting up the equipment, Jamie informed us that he'd cleaned his room up substantially and we could do the interview there instead surrounded by his trophies and canvas pictures. We had previously seen his room during the BBC documentary so it was somewhat surreal suddenly being there, however in retrospective it definitely offered a better mise-en-scene than the living room, giving the viewer a much deeper sense into the kind of person Jamie is.
The interview itself went really smoothly in all of our opinions and we were able to have Alex and Jamie discuss some really poignant topics surrounding the motorsport industry. An example of this was when Alex asked Jamie what it's like for young drivers with a lot of talent but little money, trying to find a footing within the industry. It was clear that during Jamie's answer that he was taking a very honest, genuine approach to the interview and his answers seemed completely detached from the kind of PR-trained responses a lot of people have come to expect from more prominent or popular racing drivers - we believe this honesty to be in line with our own beliefs when producing anything we work on. I strongly believe that within the context of a documentary, honesty and transparency to the viewer should be the No.1 priority and we want to avoid any kind of manipulation, mischaracterisation or implicit bias within the making of 'DreamChaser'.
In accordance with our storyboards and camera plans, we utilised a 3 camera set-up during the interview segment itself. This consisted of Connor on the aforementioned Panasonic FZ330 on a Close-Up (C.U.), the Sony AX53 with a master shot with Jamie Centre of Frame (C.O.F.) on a Wide-Shot (W.S.), with the last camera being a Mid-Shot (M.S.) with Jamie Left of Frame (L.O.F.) shot on the Lumix G7. In terms of audio, we used a clip-mic that was fitted on Jamie by our producer George N, plugged into a phone which was inserted into Jamie's pocket to conceal the wire as effectively as possible. This technique was previously mentioned in a blog post if you're interested in more information - the audio was recorded through the iOS application 'Voice Memos' which natively supports any microphone with a 3.5mm jack.
The interview itself consisted of about 16 minutes of total dialogue between Jamie & Alex, however this will be substantially edited down for the final cut due to time constraints required by the project brief. It is for this reason that it is becoming increasingly clear that this documentary deserves an extended, perhaps even feature-length cut. This is something that I will likely undertake following the May hand-in. As a favour to Jamie, I plan to edit together a full-length interview over the course of the next week, which will then be uploaded to Alex's channel as a thank-you towards Jamie, but also a preview to his audience for 'DreamChaser' documentary. It will be good to get some feedback on what people are liking about the project, and any criticisms that they may have so that we can attempt to address them as best we can as production continues.Following the interview segment, Jamie walked Alex around the house and showed him several poignant pictures, trophies and awards that he has received over the years, whilst I filmed B-Roll on the Sony AX53 of actuality, Alex and Jamie.
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