Observing the Details

So we have reached the second part of our documentary - the observations.

The original plan about this part of the documentary was to give Mike some objects that he had never seen before, and to see if he could figure out what they were, and what they did. In turn, we were hoping that the audience would get a little insight into the way in which an Interaction Design student thinks, and the way in which they approach problems. As previously mentioned, we really struggled to find objects that we thought would be obscure enough to express our idea, so we took slightly different direction.

We gathered a huge collection of items, and tried to find new and old of the same item. We found everything from keyboards, mice, USB Pens, Cutlery and so on. We wanted to keep this part of the documentary as clean and simple as possible. We shot this part in front of a pure white wall, with a three point lighting set up, and two cameras to catch all the interactions as well as possible. We managed to achieve a pristine background, and all the focus is directly on Mike, and what he is saying. This whole session went really well, other than the technical difficulties which we know to expect.

Discussing the future of Digital Interaction Design was the plan, and it really came through. Mike had some really interesting thoughts to talk about, and raised some very interesting points. It was interesting hearing his opinions towards the direction in which he thinks that the design of human-computer interfacing is going to go, and what his apprehensions are about this area.

The feeling I had after completing this part of the production was that what we are doing is nothing to do with constructing a story about the future of Interaction Design, but more about letting Mike express his opinions about what the future holds. We have tried to keep the production as non-intrusive as possible, and completely centered on his thoughts and opinions. I suppose what we are learning here is that we are beginning to understand how any documentary is made. It is about express the truth, in the truest, clearest way, so that the audience have an impartial view of what is going on.

So production is nearing the end. One final short interview, and then gather the extra ‘filler’ material. We are not entirely sure as to what we are after, as this is footage of Dundee that is going to accompany the points that we highlight upon from the interviews.

Organisation is still holding strong as well - GoogleWave has become the sole way in which we communicate our ideas, and collaborate on all aspects of the project. When we are in meetings we can still collaborate on, for example, writing the questions, and the AV Script, whilst being in the comfort of our own rooms. And even when we are in meetings, we are still logged into GoogleWave as it allows us to collaboratively note take, and keep track on what each person is doing. I can safely say that this project would have run very differently if it hadn’t been for GoogleWave.

Next stop interview. See you on there otherside.

Finlay