Case study : Filming documentary style for Waseda University. All about the journey.

Summary

This article will set out how we filmed the Waseda University Summer Session held in Tokyo, with a field trip to Nikko, describing how we managed to not only film with a crew of one but also get photos at the same time that Waseda could use for publicity. Taking a documentary approach meant we could keep the crew size down and get unscripted comments from the students that make for a real, engaging, marketing tool.

Experience the Waseda Summer Session, 2023

What was the brief?

Introduce the Tokyo Waseda Summer Session through the experience of two students.

The Waseda Summer Session is a month long summer course for overseas university students wanting to study in the summer in Tokyo. 2023 was the first time after Covid that the course had been held so the university wanted to renew its promotion. Over the years we have focused on different aspects of the course in various videos but it was felt that an update of the one we made following a student through her time on the course was the way to go this time. The brief was to make a marketing video that shared the journey of the students as they experience the course, include a few facts about the accomodation available, while also taking promotion photos.

How did we structure the shoots to meet the brief?

Regular, short, interviews with two students over the span of the course to show their journey

The easiest option would have just been to interview the students at the of the course, asking them to look back over the experience and to evaluate it to camera. However we really felt that the journey the students go through over the period of the course was worth pursuing.

The nervousness and uncertainty at the start. Will I regret coming? Will I get on with everyone? As the course progresses, the growing confidence and the excitement of spending time with new friends. Then at the finish, the sadness that it all has to end but looking forward to new plans and opportunities that the course will help bring to life.

So we wanted to catch the awkwardness, excitement, sadness and happiness as it happened in close to real time as possible. This wasn’t a reality tv show though so as we weren’t going to be following the students around 24/7 we decided to meet them 5 times, each at a different stage of the course : at the airport when they arrived, orientation the next day, in class half way through the course, at the field trip to Nikko, and at the wrap party on the last day. This worked out well I think, although it did mean a lot of interview footage to edit down.

All documentaries depend on heavily on their subjects for success and we were very lucky this time with the combination of Valerie and Daniel. Valerie’s raw enthusiasm for the course and Japan in general, coupled with Daniel’s considered comments on what the course meant for him was the perfect combination. We just had to give them the opportunity to talk.

One question that worked well was to asked them a question along the lines of “please describe what you have just been doing”, rather than something like “what did you think about the [activity]”. We had footage of what they had been doing but it might have been hard for the viewer to work out what it was - the answer explained it from them. Also, although we asked them to just describe, they almost always added in their own thoughts as well, which made it a comfortable way for them to answer there thoughts, without asking them directly.

The practicalities of filming both photo and video?

Used the one camera for both photo and video, along with a wireless lav mic.

Initially we had thought about filming on the Canon C70 and doing stills on the Canon R5 but decided to do both on the R5, filming in 8k RAW LT for the broll shots. RAW helped pull back highlights and fix colour balance in post but the total file size was over 1 TB so I’m not sure if we would film in RAW for a shoot like this again. The C70 has 4k RAW LT so smaller file sizes, but that means another camera.

Perhaps the perfect camera for this hybrid job would have been the Canon R5 C, although the sound was recorded directly into camera so the time code syncing available on the R5 C wouldn’t have been needed. Sound was via the DJI Wireless Mic, with one channel a lav mic (often just the Wireless Mic as it was, without any mic attached) and one channel a gun mic on the camera just in case, although I think in every case we used the lav mic.

Interviews were filmed looking at the camera, rather than the more common off camera. Getting the interviewee to look at the lens consistently, instead of eyes wandering off to the camera operator or bystanders is actually a bit tricky. Having a crew of one made for less distractions, and I also made sure that any other people were standing out of eyesight of the interviewee, while crouching down, staying as close as possible to the lens.

Using the one camera for both photo and video meant a crew of one was possible, and the ability to quickly get video and photo of the same scene. Interviews we handheld on the Sigma 24-70mm f2.8, though perhaps using a monopod might have been better, although that is of course more equipment to carry around.

Waseda was delighted with both the video and photos and we are happy too how they came out.