This blog is going to be dedicated to the start of my pre-production aspects and preparation for the transition into my actual production stage. If you're a little confused, just read a little more, and hopefully, you'll start understanding more soon.
To start it off, I want to talk about the interview questions I have started creating. Obviously, they will vary depending on what interviews I'm actually able to score, but so far I have a rough draft. In order to do this, I decided to brainstorm and research articles on the importance of animals in the lives of humans. Researching these statistics and scientific facts helped me understand more what sort of questions would fit more with a personal connection and opinion rather than just facts.
Before this research, I already had a couple of vague questions in mind (obviously besides the introduction ones), where I could just learn more about all of the interviewees and not yet delve into each of the specific animals and their roles. These were basically a set of questions I would start with no matter who I was interviewing.
Above, are all of my currently made general questions. The first 3 to 4 questions would probably be asked at the very beginning of the interview while the other ones would most likely be intertwined within the role-specific animal questions.
Following these questions, I began making my interview-specific questions. It's kind of hard to explain, but the ones I've made so far are listed below.
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Talking about interview confirmations and the scheduling of them, I began calling this week. Before anything, I made a little list of points I wanted to go over which included a vague topic or what my plan was. The phone call, on my side, went a little like this:
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"Hello, my name is Dana and I am a junior at (my school). For one of my college-level classes, I am creating a documentary where I explore the importance of animals in the lives of humans. To do that, I have to conduct interviews, and I was hoping to spread awareness of the importance of (the specific animal I was calling about). Is there any way I can interview someone who works closely with that animal within the next week or two?"
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Once I memorized "my script" and I prepared myself for the calls, I began by dialing the local police station in my city. After calling and getting re-directed a couple of times, they told me they had a K9 support dog. I got really excited and told them that it was perfectly fine. They ended up telling me that they would tell their supervisor and reach out and that I should be expecting a call, text, or email back soonish. I also decided that if they don't reach out by mid or end of this upcoming week, I may call back because of my limited time schedule.
Apart from that phone call, I also called a local hospital and asked them as well. Before this, I looked on their site and saw that they had support dog assistance listed as one of their characteristics. So, when I called I went over my script again and restated it. The person working at the hospital sounded confused and asked if I was talking about being allowed to bring in my own pet. I restated my point about seeing if they have any support animals in their facility, and he still needed clarification. He then told me that they didn't have any dogs or animals of that nature that they offer their patients. I thanked him and hung up but it got me really confused as their site said the exact opposite,
So, instead of trying again somewhere else and reaching another receptionist that is a little lost, I decided to try and research the actual companies that were offering and training the dogs themselves. So, the next day, I decided to find some companies that offered that and send them a quick email.
-Dana
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