Production Process Analysis: A Tasmanian Treasure

This essay discusses the production processes involved in the creation of “A Tasmanian Treasure,” and outlines how the various issues that arose during these processes were addressed and overcome. It primarily focuses on the issues regarding interviews and access to interviewees. This essay acknowledges the importance of balanced reporting, but proposes that when constrained by a time frame or a deadline, it can be difficult to gather all relevant voices to contribute to an issue. Furthermore, it summarises the media skills I have developed during the production processes, and the problems that arose when experimenting with new technology and software to tell a story. This essay proposes that I achieved the goals outlined in my project plan;

I was able to practice setting up a camera to follow the conventions of a generic news journalism interview style with medium close-ups of the interviewee and interviewer. The backdrop was carefully chosen to add extra layers of meaning to the film - for example, Peter Norris, was seated with jars of leatherwood honey behind him, and Colin Shepherd with a map of Tasmanian World Heritage area behind him. A collection of close-ups, long-shots, and pans were filmed for the B-roll footage, which added further narrative to the story. Despite having outlined in my goals to use a single camera to film all the interviews, I found that out of respect for the interviewees time and the added difficulty involved it was easier to use two and to leave them rolling the whole time. I was able to experiment with new software and technologies, such as lapel microphones and Adobe Premiere to tell a compelling story. This was excellent preparation for eventual employment as a multimedia journalist. I was able to learn how to set up a tripod and camera for an interview and how to adjust the angle of the shot and adapt to the lighting. Moreover, I learnt handy tricks, such as clapping three times before beginning an interview to allow me to see exactly where the footage and audio from both cameras and lapel microphones aligned when editing in Adobe Premiere, or to mute my own microphone in Premiere to ensure a “less boom-y” sound from the interviewee’s microphone when they were talking and vice-versa. Editing was another key skill I began to develop through this project. Although it was not extremely difficult, it was more time consuming than I had previously anticipated. Also, having no previous experience editing, it was a steep learning curve. In “How does an editor think and feel,” Tony Zhou describes editing as an instinct. “I have to think and