Words from Cheung Hung

Today we have Cheung Hung, a renowned docu- maker
Here are the tips she gave us:

1. set up the camera before the people arrive, it will be easy for people to get use to the camera, treat the camera as a piece of furniture.
2. only use small camera, minimal disturbance, no intervention
3. compare to main stream TV, Tammy does not use voice over, no music, i.e.elements that lead to a certain emotion or conclusion. Try to stand back, it is funny that even no obvious emotion is embedded in the video, people from different backgrounds will be able to make their own intrepretations, and these can be quite contradictary and very different.
4. no need to steal any shot or take long distance voyeur shot, it is an ethical issue.
5. only film when people know what they need to do or will do. Don't tell them what to do when the camera rolls. Act natural.
6. It is ok to start from a personal motive. Write a half page letter to ask for permission. It is simple, you just need to write down the number of hours, the number of crews, facts etc
7. People can intrepreted the same film differently. Allow post film discussion. People's feeling towards "Secondary School" can be angry, funny to shock.
8. Ask yourself : How would you frame the reality consciously? How much intervention is done in editing table?
9. Art does not equal to art. When answer to May's question, "is documentary an art?", Cheung Hung said the most important aspect of art is to move people. Documentary may not look beautiful, one of the theories even want to anti beauty. Tammy further comment that"This is an extreme too, in my video I want it visually looks natural, sound should be as clear as possible but the most important is the content, whether it can move people.