Film training and interviewing printers

Tuesday 20th and Wednesday 21st May

In the morning we gathered in the classroom to learn interviewing skills. We were taught how to ask questions. We were told what to do and what not to do while interviewing someone. You must be polite and look interested. You have to nod your head rather than saying “Yes” to enable the editing. If you speak while someone else is speaking, you can’t hear the interviewee! A good interviewer listens and speaks appropriately.

We then had to write some questions that we would use in an interview. Some filmmakers had come to the school so we could practice.

Some of the interview questions we created included:

• Why are you so interested in films? 
• What kind of things would you like to film in the future? 
• How do you feel about speaking in front of an audience? 
• In the future, would you like to make a famous film?
• What would you tell other people about filming? 

We also asked the filmmakers what they learned from their film training. We learned the acronym “wiffle” which stands for White balance Iris Focus Framing Level of Sound.” Wiffle is a checklist of things you need to get right in filming. These things are always needed with a camera because if you get any of those things wrong then the whole film is a disaster!

After break we came back into the classroom and the printers split us into three groups. We interviewed three people, two of which were father and son. We met Ann Field, who worked in a newspaper library in the 1970s and then worked for the Trade Union. The newspaper library is also known as the “intelligence department” Malcolm Lane became an apprentice compositor at the age of 15 and climbed the ladder for 6 years. His son David used to be in advertising. Every Saturday he would go to Wapping to protest against Rupert Murdoch.

David told us that published thirty books about football. He used to work for the Financial Times and he was explaining how different newspapers use adverts specifically designed to attract their audience. A full page advert in the Financial Times costs around £75,000! Small adverts are known as “earpieces” because they are found at the top and sides of the paper where its “ears” would be!

Ann said she didn’t have words to describe how horrific the dispute was for the people who were sacked. It wasn’t just the workers, it affected their families too. It had been an emotional time for her.

Malcolm told us about becoming a printer. It takes 6 years to become a fully qualified printer which is called “Banging out” which is also the name of the blog. When you “bang out”, you get covered in ink and powder by the other printers! He told us that it takes two days to get clean again!

After the session everyone had lots of interesting questions. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed learning new facts. Talking to the different people really brought the events to life!

St Matthews Primary School Year 6 Writers Group