Looking at the teacher’s timetable for the remainder of the week the third day of filming was by far the most crucial remaining, as we had to gather all of Mr Rodgers interviews and the remainder of Mr MacKay interviews. The pressure was really on to ensure this day went as smoothly as possible as the teacher’s timetables for Thursday and Friday didn’t have any room for error. Fortunately to help with this alongside myself and Tommy both Scott and Callum came along to filming. Upon arrival we mirrored the positional set-up we had for Mr MacKay’s interview yesterday. With Callum monitoring the sound, I was taking the PA notes and asking the questions, Tommy operating the main Cannon camera and Scott using his DSLR, we very efficiently got through all of Mr MacKay’s remaining questions. With Callum’s help we then recoded Room Tone. Straight after this we moved on to setting up for Mr Rodgers interview and Callum attempted to fix the SQN mixer to allow us to use this to record and monitor sound on Mr Rodgers interviews however he was unable to do. This made me feel less guilty about not recording high quality sound on Monday’s filming as Callum who is a highly knowledgeable in using the SQN mixer was unable to fix the issue prior to the interview with Mr Rodgers. I decided therefor that we should maintain the same roles as the earlier interview with Mr MacKay with only small changes being made when Tommy felt fatigued he would swap with Callum. The interview with Mr Rodgers went very successfully and he gave highly detailed answers to all the questions and also allowed me to ask him to touch on specific areas in his answers which I felt was really relevant but also that matched with the cutaway shots we have already gathered. Personally this week was the first time I’d interviewed people who I hadn’t known on a personal level prior to the filming. I was proud of how I handled this throughout the week and with I felt I grow in confidence enormously as the week progressed and on Monday morning I would never have had the confidence to prompt for more detailed answers from the teachers. I felt this was helped hugely by the bond I build up with them as the week progressed and also through the interviewing techniques and skills picked up from my research.
After the interview with Mr Rodgers concluded the classroom still empty so we simulated a few shots of a student working at their desk by getting Tommy to write in a notebook and pretending he was a school pupil. After the lunch break we filmed the final footage critical the documentary interviews with two students who were in 5th and 6th year. I briefed them on what the questions where going to be and asked if they felt comfortable in answering them and both consented. Also given the time they had given up and to prevent an unsettling situation I felt it only fair to ask for answers in English only. I felt both would give the best answers possible under the least amount of pressure possible. This was effective as both students gave excellent informative answers. We concluded our filming on day three by getting a few shots of the students working at their desks and interacting with Mr Rodgers. I had learned today the benefits of being kind and showing respect towards all the contributors really pays off and I was delighted with the answers all the people I interviewed gave. This has taught me that if leading into a production and I have an area which I’m feeling concerned about I can research it and cope brilliantly on the filming days.
Se Gaidhlig no Gaelic 