1 How would you describe the aesthetics of your film? We ask the spectators to build thir own opinion about the aesthetics of our film, since that always depends on subjective perception. 2 Why did you choose to shoot on dv? Especially for documentaries containing long interview sequences, DV is a very capable medium -- as opposed to film. For quite some time we could not foresee "Spiegelgrund" getting sufficient financial support, and we wanted to minimize our personal risk of indebtedness. 3 What was special about shooting in dv (e.g.compared to 35mm, was it your first time with dv or are you used to it)? This was our first time working with DV. Since we have never worked with 35mm, we're not able to share any experiences. 4 Which camera and which editing software did you use? Camera: Sony DSR-300 (DVCam-Format) Videocard: Canopus DVRex-M1 Software: rex edit, Ulead Media Studio Pro, Adobe Premiere, FilmFX, Sound Fourge Hardware: PC, Pentium II, 400MHz, 128MB RAM, IDE HD mit ca. 80GB 5 What was your shoot-edit ratio? Ca. 20:1. But that's no standard. We wanted to make the interviews als detailed as possible, since they are a document of our time, and the use of Dvcam tapes allowed us to do that, financially speaking. We also have a lot of material from the "Gedenkraum" of the Psychiatric Clinic Baumgartner Höhe, as it was one of the last occasions to film there. But we always new that only a fraction of that material would actually appear in the film. 6 Would you have preferred to shoot in another format? If so which? With the adequate know-how and sufficient financial means we could have a deliberate choice (probably 35mm), but the way things were, we didn't have that choice. 7 Does using dv mean that you are considering other means of distribution opposing the established? If so which? We are currently working on the project of putting some sequences on the internet and would be glad if we could use such ways of distribution. Especially as the documentary film is leading a shadowy existence in cinemas and television. 8 One good word about dv (or two): easy to handle, relatively low priced (even though the big corporations get themselves well paid for the professional equipment). 9 One bad word about dv (or two): (for those who can afford it ...) still rather low quality of the tape compared to film (small contrast, and you always need just the projector the cinema doesn't have, and film still outwares the tapes... [Angelika Schuster, born in Vienna on 22 July 1969, gained her initial post-university professional experience doing extra-scholastic youth work. She was involved in numerous video projects and specialised in conducting narrative interviews with contemporary witnesses. Tristan Sindelgruber, born in Graz on 21 December 1966, trained at the Vienna Teacher Training Institute and began teaching before turning to film-making and founding his own production company.] nach oben [impressum]