Filming: the public reaction:

How successful was the filming?

Our first attempt at filming the publics reactions went reasonably well. Whilst I (James) sat on a bench with the paper, Neal sat 20 feet away with the camera hidden under his arm whilst reading his own paper so people did not become suspicious. People tended to just walk by without glancing (which we expected would happen) but those who did look, took a long hard stare, clearly interested in the story of the Gherkin being blown up. However, people simply kept on walking, so the reaction was nothing more than the glance, which we both agreed wasn't that effective, especially in terms of our final presentation, as it would just be a series of clips of people looking interested in the paper.

Whilst on the way home from the filming we decided to see how effective it would be if we were to read the paper on the tube, we decided not to film it however as it was very obvious as the carriage wasn't very busy. This achieved a far better response, the people that did see it became very interested in the article, some getting others to look at it as well, creating discussion about it etc.

The underground obviously allows for a better reaction, as the onlooker is stationary and can take time to look at the paper, which gives time for it to sink in, as oppose to the brief glance of a passerby. The best reaction that we received was from tourists, who seemed to take the article as truth. Underground journeys are generally speaking very boring, so people are constantly looking around them, at posters, books and newspapers, so it is more likely that somebody will look at the paper, than somebody who is walking past.

Considering this preliminary work if we do decide to use newspapers in our final project we would want to film on the underground, but this would be very difficult, we probably do it secretly, but it wouldn't be certain that we would get good footage, and might not be as effective as other methods, which gives us something to think about.