Week 3- Filming

Today I was going to Manchester city centre with Josh and Imogen to film vox pops and general views for our VT's. We met up in college and started writing up consent forms for the public to sign to ensure we are able to use them for our VT's. This gives us protection against any legal claims that maybe be pressed against us so we can't get into trouble for putting someone in our VT who didn't want to be in it. Luke had some consent form templates and so did Imogen and my self so we printed them out and ended up with more than what we needed which was ok just incase we got more vox pops than we needed. So we headed out to Manchester from college hoping we could find some willing people to comment on our subjects.

Firstly, Josh was up and he decided to pick his area to set up for the interviews and decided to do it around the corner from the big wheel. It was a good area because there was a lot of depth in the picture and the sun was shining so there was a lot of people out. I was the camera operator, Imogen was on sound and Josh was the interviewer. Immediately we had an issue with trying to gather people that were willing to give their views on the subject. I believe the reason for this was because of the way Josh approached people and who he approached. I think he should have approached people that seemed a little younger and would actually look interested and not actually trying to ignore him when they saw him coming. It took us around 20 minutes before we got our first person for an interview. I decided to frame them on the right and Josh on the left with him giving his interviewee the iPad to use while they give their views. In total it took us around an hour before we completed his three vox pops.

After Josh, Imogen went next and this time we decided to station ourselves just outside Piccadilly gardens. This was a well populated area as well and there was a path just next to it where a lot of people would walk past so we could get a lot of interviewees. Imogen was a lot better at picking people to stop and we were done a lot quicker this time. Josh was the camera operator, I was on sound and Imogen was the interviewer. Imogen did very well and was welcoming towards her interviewees, and they responded well. It took around 30-45 minutes for Imogen to complete her vox pops, then we went for some dinner before I begun my work.

When we went back out to film I started by looking for a place to set up for my vox pops and found one just next to the big wheel next to a busy sidewalk. I think its important to station your self next to a well populated area and also choose somewhere where people are likely to walk past your spot so you can pick them up. For the third set of vox pops, Imogen was on camera, Josh on sound and I was the interviewer. I spent 45 minutes trying to find someone to interview and a lot of people did not want to comment on the subject and others did not know anything about the subject so I ended up without any vox pops. This was very disappointing for me, not just for the obvious reason that I had no vox pops for my VT but also because I had no idea that people were so clueless on the subject or just had no interest in it because it is one of, maybe the most talked about and controversial subject around the world. I now understood that what people saw on BBC News or Fox News was probably all they knew about the subject and this was worrying because it is pretty much a one sided view, which is not what news is about. News should be objective and not subjective so people are able to hear both sides of a story and not just what one side thinks of the other.