Yianni – reflection of trust

Reflecting on interviewing skills when looking through the captures of Yiannis’s tapes, the build up of our relationship with Yianni was changed. When we all were on the film-set, Yianni was aware of us as doco makers being there. However, when the director did it alone, we could clearly see that he was more relaxed and less aware of the camera. More or less careless I would say and I believe this is because of the trust he has to the director as a friend in comparison to me and Diane.

Just to cross this over to the course TV Journalism, creating the trusty and honest relationship with an interviewee was something I managed to do successfully with a girl called Meenakshi Balan. On the first encounter, she was quiet, nervous and thought it was strange to talk about being an overseas student, representing a South Pacific student network. And this was just radio. But as time went she opened up and wanted to talk and share information – after 10 weeks of emails, phone calls and encounters, Balan was more than happy to be interviewed and appear on Television. Developing trust is not impossible – it takes time.

In terms of Yianni, when the director filmed, it was less acting and more the actual portrait of our subject. To mention one example, is when the Brunswick bicycling filmmaker is in the studio with his brother, engaging with the world, his brother, his filmmaking and the cameraperson “look at that, she still filming how annoying is that!” and then he laughs.

But I would not say that the other tapes have been spilt at all. After Robin gave us feedback on the filmed subject and the expectations he had as a tutor, I knew what he looked for and what we had to improve – we needed more Yianni than ‘La-Ra’s flat-mate. Robin was not 100 % convinced but after comparing the shots we had did so far and showing them, both we and Robin could see the developing relationship with Yianni and that we were close to get there – the moment of capturing the Brunswick filmmaker was coming into action.

Chatting with the group about it, we compared the materials we had gathered so far and what to do next. We have enough material for a rough-cut wit stills, sounds, interview, observational interview, and generic footage. Now were putting it together and in terms of group collaboration, varying between individual and group tasks works well for us. We think that the amount of work will be equally done in the end of the day as we shift between filming, sound design, production and post-production and editing.