Documentary Interviews

We filmed in downtown Wilmington on the night of Valentine's Day, so we had some good opportunities for interviews. We did not yet get an expert interview, but we filmed a few street performers and got some vox pops of passerbys and people around Wilmington. The question we decided to use for our vox pops was "What do you think of Wilmington's music scene?" We had some interesting people to ask since there were so many people out. Among our interviewees were some cosplayers who provided pretty great answers and a man who just moved to Wilmington who was very eccentric about it.

The cosplayers ended up inviting us to The Calico Room, where we could film their Valentine's Day event. This event provided some awesome footage of a rapper's performance and some bizarre characters wearing intricate costumes that really contributed some cool color schemes to our documentary.

Overall, I'm happy with what we were able to shoot. I'm pretty excited about the sounds of downtown Wilmington that we captured and I feel that they'll really add a lot to the whole vibe of the documentary portraying the town's music scene.

Documentary Interview Plan

Your Documentary Interview Plan:  Who will be your expert interview?  Where will you shoot?  What tone do you want to set with your subject?  List 10 questions you will ask your interview subject.  Where will you do your vox pops?  List three questions you will ask your vox pop subjects. 

Our plan for the documentary, rather than focusing on Carolina Beach State Park, is to focus on downtown Wilmington, mainly the street performers and bands that play there on given nights. We are hoping to get lucky and come across a street performer or a few on the nights we plan to shoot, but if not we have back up plans to interview a local musician. We want to capture the streets of Wilmington at night because it'll provide interesting lighting and give the documentary an idealistic feel while still incorporating elements of a professional interview. 

A few questions I'm brainstorming for the interview are:

• What is your name?/age?/basic details
• What do you like about playing in downtown Wilmington/Why do you choose to play here?
• Do you find that the citizens of Wilmington are enthusiastic about the music and eager to tip?
• How long have you been playing, for yourself and for the public?
• Do you think the music scene in Wilmington could be better?
• What genre do you play/do you find gets the best reaction among the crowds?
• How long do you usually play on a given night?
• How did you get started performing for the public?
• Do you find anything especially cathartic about playing on your own with no obligation?
• Are you involved in any other musical organizations or do you just enjoy doing your own thing downtown?

For vox pops, I think it would be cool to ask questions to passerbys of the performance. We could ask a few questions like:

• Do you enjoy the kind of music generally played?
• Do you like Wilmington's music scene?
• Does the music give downtown Wilmington a different or better feel?
• Do you usually stay for or tip an artist if you like their performance?

Our shooting schedule so far is:

Friday Night 2/14 (7 or 8-11, while the nightlife is bustling): Shoot vox-pops and hopefully find a street performer or someone to interview.

Saturday Evening 2/15: Follow up with the prior night's footage, shoot more B-roll

Monday 2/17: Scheduled back up interviewee

Tuesday and Wednesday: Edit footage