Skip to main content

What are UFO's: The Boy's Interview Process

The team decided to interview a range of children between the ages of 7 and 18 upon realising that a diverse choice would provide various answers and give more insight into a child's mind and imagination.

The team went in expecting the younger children to be more imaginative and flamboyant than the older kids. But what happened in the interviews turned out to be something quite different.

Each section was approached in a specific way:
Boys Brigade
   The Boys Brigade is a uniformed organisation that is made up of 4 sections:

  • Anchor boys (5-8 years old)
  • Junior (8-11 yrs)
  • Company (11-15 yrs)
  • Senior (15-18 yrs)
To cover a more diverse range of children, the team decided to interview boys from the junior and company sections, along with two senior members. The boys seemed quite happy to be interviewed, though some were shyer than others.

Since aliens and space is seen as a 'boys subject' it was thought that these kids would have much wilder and more imaginative ideas than the girls that had been interviewed. However, this wasn't quite the case.


 The boys were interviewed in pairs in the hope that this would allow them to bounce ideas off each other and draw the audience in further, as sometimes putting a kind of relationship on screen (such as friendship) can captivate the viewer more than one individual would be able to.

 The interviews took place with an adult volunteer present. The process was simple:

  1. Ask the boys if they knew why they were being interviewed and what the interview was about.
  2. Explain the film to them; what's included, how it will be put together etc.
  3. Have a small chat whilst the camera's being set up.
  4. Start the interview.
If an interviewer stands up and is above the interviewee's eyesight, then a sense of intimidation is instilled. So for the younger boys (ages 8-14), the interviewer sat on the floor at the side of the camera so that they were level to, or below, the boy's eyesight. 

The questions were asked one by one and the boys were given time to think before giving their answers. Some talked to each other and the team to explore their ideas further.

The most common ideas from the boys were that:
  • Aliens came from really, really far away
  • They eat metal or planets
  • The boys would take them to play laser tag, or to Nando's
There was a large age gap between the youngest boys (8) and the eldest (aged 18). In this case, the younger boys were more imaginative whereas the older ones seemed to reply more on logic and scientific facts and conspiracy theories.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DRAMA REVIEW: STRANGER THINGS (S1)

If you haven't heard of ' Stranger Things' by now you must have been in the Upside Down with no wifi signal to tune into Netflix. One year ago the world was plunged into an epic 80's sci-fi thriller world where Dungeons and Dragons, VHS cassettes and BMX bikes were all the rage, and now, with the eruption of Season 2 hitting our tv and mobile screens, it seems fitting to look back on where this journey began... Since the late 1890's the imaginations of people all around the globe have been fascinated by the possibility of life on other planets and visitors from outer space. Thanks to the great early science-fiction authors such as H.G. Wells and John Wyndham, the books ' War of the Worlds ' and ' The Crysalids ' taught us that the scientifically impossible could be found perhaps not only amongst the stars, but amongst ourselves. From then on humanity looked upwards, wondering, researching, hypothesising about things that should be left untouched.
Post a Comment
Read more

WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES: REVIEW

It's been nearly 50 years since the Planet of the Apes franchise first started, and although making sequels and prequels appears to be the norm nowadays, the prequel trilogy starring Andy Serkis in the role of Caesar may prove to be one of the most popular and successful reboots to date. Despite finally coming to the end of a brilliant new trilogy that tells the story of how the Planet of the Apes came to be, the third installment did in no way disappoint. War for the Planet of the Apes delivers an emotionally driven story that is accompanied by stunning cinematography, incredibly technical visual effects and a hauntingly beautiful soundtrack composed by the amazing Michael Giacchino. Directed and co-written by Matt Reeves, the film delivers what everyone has been waiting for: the final battle between Apes and Humans. Having survived a disease that wiped out the majority of humankind in Rise of the Planet of the Apes , the remaining survivors are faced with a choice: to sp
Post a Comment
Read more

Writer's Block - Part 1

How it all started... Last year my sister wrote a 1000 word short story for the BBC Young Writer's competition. Meanwhile in university the current assignment was to create a short narrative film. At the time I was thinking of creating a half stop-motion animated short, and when I read my sister's story I found great potential. We then collaborated and created a script based on her original piece. In the interview below she talks about her inspirations and how she came up with the idea: Q1: How did you come up with the idea for Writer's Block? A1: Coming up with Writer’s Block was a funny process really. I was trying to come up with a story for a writing contest and nothing I came up with was good enough. I said to my mom I had writer’s block and being the sarcastic lady that she is she said to me "I've never been there, what's it like?" And I thought: ‘What if the Writer’s Block was a place!’ Q2: Were there any other novels, artworks
Post a Comment
Read more