Footage and Image Resources
- The Library of Congress (for iconic photographs from American history that are now in the public domain)
- Online free source of stock footage here
- Sources for moving images, film, etc.: Internet Movie Archive and thePrelinger Archive
Surveys and Interview Resources
1. Colorado State University’s site on survey design, testing, and analysis of surveys. Click through, in particular, to the pages on closed-ended and open-ended questions.
2. Tips from a documentary filmmaker:
- technology: if you’re not using a external mike (which you should if you can), then you have to get CLOSE to be able to hear your interviewee. EXPERIMENT with your camera ahead of time. Be aware of ambient noise, as it will all be in the footage.
- figure out if you intend to include yourself asking the question in your video. If you choose not to, you’ll need to devise a way for your audience to know what the interviewees are responding to.
- Will you script your questions and ask everyone the same ones? Will you ask open-ended questions or closed questions? Do you intend to ask follow-up questions? Sometimes the most interesting information is there.
- Where do you want your interviewee to be looking? Straight into the camera? Off to the side? consider having someone else film the footage while you ask the question and stand where you want the subject to be looking.
- Remember to frame your subject. Be aware of what’s in the background, and whether the subject will blend into it, or stand out. Lighting? Things growing out of their heads?
Inspiration
Todd Haynes’s Superstar
Fight Club Chemical Burn
LCD Soundystem’s Dance Yourself Clean video—with Muppets
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