Shooting the documentary

By Callum Pearce

Camera AnglesThe camera angles throughout the documentary varied due the amount of different shots that there needed to be. The main stationary shot was the same for both of the 2 interviews which portrayed both the presenter and interviewee in the shot. An additional camera was used to get a second angle giving close ups of the characters talking. For the montage at the beginning, it felt appropriate to use close ups of the dogs in action as this gave the audience a feel for the topic of the documentary instantly.

SoundHaving an upbeat background music for the introduction of the documentary gave an indication of the style that the documentary was going to be presented. We used the non diegetic background music throughout the whole documentary (except parts of Sarah and Wheat interview) as this seemed more of a serious interview, hence putting a quiet piano soundtrack behind the talking when talking about her condition. Other sounds included the voice over by the presenter which was recorded using a Rode VideoMic.

LightingWe used a very standard lighting throughout the documentary to ensure that it was either not too dark or not too bright on the eye. However, as the documentary was set out as ‘lighthearted’, we did feel that it was necessary to make the lighting slightly bright to present the documentary in a ‘happier’ way. In the interview with Sarah, the lighting in her house was a bit too dark than what we anticipated, because of this we adjusted the ISO and exposure of the camera to achieve a brighter feel to the interview.