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Interview Questions
SolidNate86
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Ok, since this will be my first con ever I wanted to commemorate it somehow. I've always been a nerd but never really been into "nerd culture." So I've decided to make a sort of mini documentary about a "decent into Nerdcore" so to speak. I'm hoping to give a look at the people that make up Nerdcore, not just the big-wigs (Gabe & Tycho, Frontalot, etc.) I've been lurking the forums for a while and figured you guys would be the best to ask for tips on:
1. General interview-type questions to ask people on the show floor.
2. I use a lot of music and movie clips (cut-aways) in my editing, what are some good nerdy flicks to use? Not just the obvious ones.
3. I'm getting incorporated to start a small production company (I'm clueless on that stuff gotta talk to my tax man this week) and will be buying some new equipment just for this, so any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
1. General interview-type questions to ask people on the show floor.
2. I use a lot of music and movie clips (cut-aways) in my editing, what are some good nerdy flicks to use? Not just the obvious ones.
3. I'm getting incorporated to start a small production company (I'm clueless on that stuff gotta talk to my tax man this week) and will be buying some new equipment just for this, so any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
SolidNate86 on
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Regarding interview questions: first consider who will be watching/listening to your interview, and second, try to anticipate the "mission" each interview subject came to PAX to accomplish -- and structure your questions around helping them with that. Questions to a game developer generally regarding why their next game is going to be So Awesome will likely be received very well. Starting from there -- putting yourself in your interviewee's shoes -- branch out into questions a little farther out of your interviewee's likely comfort zone. Research also helps: get the list of exhibitors and scour the Internet for clues. Write up info sheets on a company's other games, which employees worked on what, etc. If you get someone to agree to an interview, see if you can give yourself some prep time and review your info sheets first.
Regarding video production on a tiny budget:
1) cheap camera onboard audio is usually crap. Consider getting an external mic.
2) monitor audio while you record. Wear headphones if possible -- saves you from returning home and finding you have no audio.
3) if shooting handheld: get a screw-on wide angle lens, get closer to your subject, and never EVER use your on-camera zoom. Instead of zooming, move the camera.
4) if shooting supported: invest in a true fluid head tripod if possible, but these are heavy and hard to travel with. You can zoom if you're on a tripod, but remember zooms are uncomfortable to watch so use it sparingly or plan to edit out all your zooms.
5) all cameras have stupid auto-exposure and auto-focus systems that will try to make ugly looking changes in the middle of your shot. At minimum learn how to let the auto systems choose good levels and then switch to manual, so the camera doesn't try to change things in the middle of your shot. Better, learn to use manual settings exclusively, so you'll be trained enough that you can use either when in the field. Even ONE little auto-focus hunt in the middle of a shot screams 'amateur!' Remember focus doesn't change with zoom, so if you're shooting a screen playing a video, get a wide shot so the AF can lock onto the screen edges, then turn off AF, and then zoom in. No more auto-focus hunting.
6) cheap cameras have crappy tape transports that will break after not much time, so if possible don't use tape. If you can handle the extra equipment (and the power it requires) get an external recorder and record everything to that, or record both to tape and to external. (I just found this for a different thread: http://www.g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/blog/post/683470/Gadget_Pr0n.html#readmore ) As much as possible avoid rewinding or fast-forwarding tape, keep your camera and tape as dust free as possible, buy and use cleaning cartridges, and you may get a year out of your camera. 15 pound SLA battery plus inverter plus backpack equals plenty of power for a few hours of recording, if you have low power gear.
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Because the anti interview police will be hunting you down to check your badge :P
I saw lots of people with home video cameras doing interviews and asking questions of random people.
AFAIK media badge just lets you in early (before show interviews and such) and into media-only events.
The Wizard
TRON
Hackers
War Games
Wizard People, Dear Reader
The Last Starfighter
Flight of the Navigator
Super Mario Bros. The Movie
Good luck! This sounds like a great endeavor. Will you post it online somewhere once it's finished?
I'll be buying at least a new mic, HD camera, and laptop for this. You guys have any favorites to suggest? My comp was fried in a flood from my toilet overflowing, so I'm using my PS3 to post.
I've got a friend who's helping me with the putting it online stuff. Besides maybe youtube or myspace I don't know the first thing about building a website and putting a hour to hour and a half film on it.
Holy avacados! I haven't seen the SMB Movie in like a decade! Gotta find me a copy.
Again, thanks for all the tips guys, I'm always open to helpful suggestions. I've never really taken courses at college for this (thinking about it though) I'm a "learn by doing" kinda guy.
Hey since I got Khoo's attention, and because I have no shame: if this turns out any good are there any chances of a job working on the real PAX DVD? Have a heart man, I got kids to feed!
Youtube and myspace aren't really the best places for long video clips (myspace seems unsuited for pretty much everything, including social networking nowadays, but that's kinda beside the point
Google video generally hosts content that's much longer (I often see documentaries on there that are an hour or longer), but it won't be particularly high quality. Good for a smaller download version, so i'd definitely recomend that.
If you need to reduce your bandwidth costs for a decent resolution version, consider posting it to a torrent tracker, and then posting the torrent itself here. That way, we'll wind up taking care of your bandwidth for you, apart from the initial upload you need to make yourself. Keep in mind that some ISPs block it however (comcast, i'm looking at you here) so make sure you've got a reliable uploading mechanism. Other alternatives include pressing a run of DVDs and selling them (I think that's been done for previous events for official content)
For comparison, tv shows (broadcast in HD) often wind up being 600-700MB for a standard HDTV rip, and upwards of 1.1GB for a 720p HDTV rip, for a 42 minute episode. You'll be able to handle uploading that a lot easier if you're using bittorrent, as once the initial copy has been uploaded, the swarm will handle distribution for you.
Obviously, this depends on how much quality of image you want to retain, the length of the video, the codec you use, etc. Don't use WMV for the video codec. If you're going to distribute high-def content, consider x264 (aka, H.264) for encoding. It'll handle high-def nicely, and should work on every platform, not just on platforms that wmv9 is available on. Unfortunately, I don't have any decent references handy for setting up the encoding, etc, however. (sorry)
Hope it turns out well. I'd definitely love to see some questions steered towards what the exhibitors expect to get out of PAX more than just what content they're exhibiting, what participants get out of PAX, etc.
Good luck!
I always felt the internet had too much video crap on it. I mean, I have a friend who posts 5 minute videos on youtube of her cats! So I was always reluctant to put videos online. Plus the image quality usually sucks and I'm a stickler for that.
I'm just an humble artist who wants to showcase the people behind Nerdcore, and so far it looks like my greatest challenge will be getting it to the people of Nerdcore...
This all depends on the quality of the end product that you want to put up. Smaller file means lower audio and visual quality. That said, youtube are currently experimenting with higher-def content. It's possible that by august, you can put it up, but like I say, youtube seems to be better suited for smaller stuff.
Still, whatever you can manage will be awesome, nevertheless.
If it's any good I could maybe get some dvds done up and send them to whoever asks.
Office Space
40 Year Old Virgin
Blade Runner
Short Circuit
The Holy Grail
Some of those may be a stretch... meh.
1. My camera operator is partly handicaped and will be on a moto-scooter half the time. While I need to test it, I was thinking this could amount to a cheap and dirty steady-cam. My style of shooting is kinda minimalist, in the moment, run and gun anyway so this works out.
2. A recent re-watch of Clerks 2 had me thinking of doing a sing-a-long type thing, like they do at the ends of movies (Evan Almighty and 40 year old Virgin come to mind) Just thinking of a montage with people in line, in cos-play, and around the con in general singing and dancing to ABC by the Jackson Five brings a smile to my face. I figure a pair of portable speakers blasting the tune in line would suffice for getting some good footage to edit in with the full track later. Maybe a number of songs so I'm not ripping Kevin Smith off too much... suggestions? Something classic that everybody knows?
Free Enterprise
Dark Star
Firefly / Serenity
Napoleon Dynamite
Shawn of the Dead
Donnie Darko
Yeah.. those are sorta nerd favorites..
You know what I thought would be cool to see/do at PAX? A WoW-based slashdance (/dance). I mean, people know how to do the dances from WoW, right? I just wouldn't know what music to play.
As long as it isn't "The internet is for porn".
I've been going over my old music collection to find something that is fun, dance-able, and simple enough that everybody knows the words.
"ABC" is winning over my crew but I want something original.
"The Penny Arcade Theme" is a safe bet that everyone will know the words but it not very dance-able.
Pretty much any old Micheal Jackson is in the running.
"Johnny B. Good" is great but I'm afaid all I'd get people doing is air guitar or I'll hog the camera everytime. It's the only song I ever got a standing ovation for at karaoke night.
"War, What is it good for?"
"American Woman"
What you guys think? Any suggestions?
moe, you have to invite me to this, oh man