Hello,
First of all, congrats! You have something you can work on. I have seen the video a couple of times and I will now give you my feedback on it. Keep in mind, you are the creator so I would say listen to your heart, if you feel like I am wrong at any point.
1. I love the choice of music here. The overall feeling of it goes extremely well with the theme of the video, which is her story so far.
2. Amazing job at getting the answer out the way they have come out. I have worked on documentaries and I know it is an art to get the subject talking from their heart, to make them forget about the camera. And here, I can feel that she is doing exactly that. Her story is from her heart and this is what we need to get closer to the subject and her story.
3. This point is for the first part. Till the part she says ' ....the rest is history.'. You already have a strong foundation that can be converted into a short doc. I would suggest pepper the video till this part with B rolls of her pictures from her past. Find those moments where you can place them. Such as at 0:24 when she is talking about her school and college days. Just one picture is enough to cover this part. Would also recommend playing around with pictures, like jump cut closer to the face according to the beat of the music. I would suggest to keep the numbers of pictures down (4 to 6 i think) since her answer is already very genuine and we don't want to break that flow as well. Another great point would be when she is talking about her old office. at 1:05, when she is saying 'door to door', maybe a shot of a neighborhood with rows of houses? I am from India and I love it when I get a taste of other places in such shots. When she is talking about her family,one can be placed here. Again, this very much depends on your heart. If you feel like putting more, put more. If you feel like putting less, put less.
4. After this I would suggest not to put any b roll video or picture till she says 'I was always prepared'. From this point onwards, till she says ' Push through it' (2:53), you can insert very quick snippets of b rolls that go well with that particular section of the video. The music is also reaching a critical point, her way of saying the whole thing also has sincere meaning to it. By putting a few fine placed quick shots or pictures of her past, basically in a few frames, you capture her story visually as well here. I feel that this will nudge the overall feeling a bit more up and will give more impact to this particular section.
Shoot-wise, just a few suggestions for your future shoot with phone:
1. Try to cover the whole shoot with 2 camera angles at least. Each camera angle can be assigned to one particular question. You can mark on the script. One suggestion would be to have a perfect 3 quarter shot as one back up, with the whole head being in the frame. In other angles, you can go close, high, low or level. Totally depends on what you feel is good. This way, editing will be easier.
Please disregard everything if you feel I am wrong though. Only you know the answers to your questions since this is your work. I can already feel her storyline here so I feel you are on the right path. Good luck!
drive.google.com
