Shooting Interview -- any tips?

[poker]

I'll be shooting an interview which will be part of a wedding montage in the Fall. I'm starting off interviewing the bride and groom separately.

Camera A on tripod for a medium shot mid torso and up.
Camera B handheld on monopod (for weight) for tight face shot. I want the casual shaking handheld look as a b-roll.

Background will be olive green curtains clipped to my background stand

Using my cheap SV tungsten light set.
- background light on curtains
- 250watt for flood
- 250watt for key light diffussed with SV white plastic attachment
- Camera WB on tungsten or custom WB using white card if better results

i'll be putting my shotgun mic on a small tripod to get really close to subject
- can it be knee level pointing up??? so it is out of the frame?
- should i use the omnidirectional mic instead????
- XLR into Camera A

Shooting in HDV at 60i. I'm considering using Tv at 1/60 to decrease video like appearance but I know the true film look takes more effort work

Although shooting in HDV, I'll be downconverting to SD when I capture for post work for Vegas. I found this plugin from VASST to manage multicam post work for Vegas. It's really cool and easy to use!

Have any tips or warnings for me??

Thanks in advance!

[Skyman]

shoot some cover shots in case the direct views of the interview get boring. the shotgun mic is best and on a tripod is a good idea so you can further reduce background noise by dropping the gain on the mic.

[poker]

Thanks for the tips. I got lucky last night because my Cinema Club meeting included a tutorial on interview setups. The guy is the technical director at a local station. He showed us how to do stuff with inexpensive gear. I better write it all down before I forget

[MJS]

Good luck with the shoot. After setting the microphone at what you think is a good distance, zoom out till you see it in the shot, then zoom in till it disappears. That way you can be sure its not in the shot. As Skyman suggested, keep it as close to the subject as possiblem you don't want to crank up the gain (volume) and risk getting a bunch of ambient noise. I always tell my kids the best place for decent audio without picking too much ambient noise is 4-6 inches from the base of the chin of your subject. Close enough for good audio, low enough to keep out of the closeup.

[poker]

I always tell my kids the best place for decent audio without picking too much ambient noise is 4-6 inches from the base of the chin of your subject. Close enough for good audio, low enough to keep out of the closeup.

Wow, 4-6 inches.....well the bride cancelled the interview today and is asking to do it on Tuesday. Maybe I have time to buy a wired lapel mic so I don't have to use the shotgun mic.

Hope to share the priliminary video soon.

Thanks for the help :thumbsup:

[MJS]

Tjhe 4-6 inches is for a handheld or a lavaliere. You can get the shotgun further from the source because it will cancel out some of the ambient noise with its restricted pickup pattern. Get the shotgun as close as your shot will allow. If you are single handing the shoot, go to a music store and look for a folding boom mic stand, it will let you get the shotgun close when you don;t have a helper or a boom handy.

Sorry about the confusion.

[kkolbo]

For indoors, as long as there is carpet, the shotgun is best if it is overhead. If all else fails I work with the shot gun at knee level all of the time and the results can be excellent depending on the camera's audio.

You never mentioned what video camera you are using for HDV. Your audio results will vary.

The one problem with shooting the monopod camera is you need a second person to do that. YOU need to stay seated or standing at eye level with the interview subject just to the side of the primary camera. It helps them focus and be more comfortable if they are just talking to you. If they are standing, put a mark on the floor for them so that they know not to move around. Engage them in conversation and never tell them that the camera is rolling. Cover the red lights on the camera.

HDV edits nicely in Vegas if you are using V7. The VASST scripts work well, but since I demo and teach them for VASST I am probably not very objective. Edit in either HDV or in HD Cineform, then do your final render down to SD. Make sure that you do seperate renders and color correction for web, DVD and tape. Each needs a little tweeking to look good.

[poker]

For indoors, as long as there is carpet, the shotgun is best if it is overhead. If all else fails I work with the shot gun at knee level all of the time and the results can be excellent depending on the camera's audio.

I may do knee level using a tripod. I currently do not have the means to do over head unless I use th emonopod for it but if I asked someone to do it....it would be our first time and none of us have do it before

You never mentioned what video camera you are using for HDV. Your audio results will vary.

XHA1....XLR everything.

The one problem with shooting the monopod camera is you need a second person to do that. YOU need to stay seated or standing at eye level with the interview subject just to the side of the primary camera. It helps them focus and be more comfortable if they are just talking to you. If they are standing, put a mark on the floor for them so that they know not to move around. Engage them in conversation and never tell them that the camera is rolling. Cover the red lights on the camera.

Yes, I will have someone else do that for me as I orchestrate the interview. I was fortunately enough to attend a "how to video tape an interview" crash course at my cinema club. Similar things were mentioned.

HDV edits nicely in Vegas if you are using V7. The VASST scripts work well, but since I demo and teach them for VASST I am probably not very objective. Edit in either HDV or in HD Cineform, then do your final render down to SD. Make sure that you do seperate renders and color correction for web, DVD and tape. Each needs a little tweeking to look good.

I'm enjoying Vegas 7e but I have lots to learn. I don't want to use Cineform since can't afford it right now....and I don't want to get hooked with the trial version. I want learn the tools that I have now.

Thanks for your post and welcome to PR.

[kkolbo]

Since you are use V7e you can easily work in the HDV natively. It is a good idea to transcode to the Cineform intermediary if you are going to do several layers of compositing. Mpeg2 does not hold up well to compositing and the Cineform intermediary holds up very well. You do not need to buy the Cineform product to do this. If you are going to do several layers of compositing (I doubt you are at this point) you would simply place the HDV clips clips on the timeline and render them out as Cineform intermediaries. Vegas comes with a version of the CODEC for this purpose.

With your Canon A1 (a fun camera) you should have gotten good audio from the knee position. For folks who are reading this and are newer to this, remember to disable the automatic gain control on the audio. Manually set the audio levels for an interview (or any other time in my opinion). With an interview, the gain control will pulse up and down between statements and words adding background noise and hum.

Did you take any pictures of your set up?

BTW here is a fun look at setting up interviews that are a bit more complex than I think you were doing, but still offers some good tips. The video is easier to refer back to than getting your whole cinema class back together.

DJTV Interview Episode :thumbsup:

I am glad to be at PR although I am a video guy rather than still. I am here to help in anyway that I can.

KK

[poker]

Manually set the audio levels for an interview (or any other time in my opinion). With an interview, the gain control will pulse up and down between statements and words adding background noise and hum.

Did you take any pictures of your set up?

I'll probably shoot this 1 1/2 weeks from now. I'll take pictures of the setup and share.

I've been reading so much on the A1. Everything I read about it advises on fully manual controls....so yeah manual audio levels for sure.

I just watched the DJTV video. It's great! Thanks!

[kkolbo]

Just a side note for when you finish your reading. VASST (www.vasst.com) has some nice training materials on the Canon A1. It is usually a bit dry, but Douglas Spotted Eagle is a friend of mine and you can take what he says to the bank. IMHO

I was thinking that you were doing this last week. Sorry. That gives you time if you have any other questions.

One tip with interviews for event video. You only have to worry about getting short pieces of the interview that look good, as long as the audio is good. with one camera, it is not uncommon to shoot the interview from one spot, but to use a closeup for one statement and then zoom out for a med shot for another etc. In the final edit you are going to rearrange what they say and take snips from it. You will stay on the interview for only very short (3-5 second) places and then let the audio run under b-roll from the event. (The exception is if you get them crying, then you stay with it)

Shooting with HDV has a real advantage for event video that will be delivered in SD. You can shoot wider and then use the pan and crop in Vegas to re frame to a tighter shot or even a slow zoom in. In film, this was called an "optical." HDV has extra resolution beyond SD to allow you to do this up to as much as 200%. In Vegas, set your project properties to progressive before doing this. This will deinterlace the footage before zooming which is important for a good look.

[poker]

I shot the interview last night. I didn't transfer to the computer yet but I'll try tonight.

Here a few things that came to mind. Hind site is 20/20.

My shot was too tight. I didn't get their hand movement which was very expressive.

Their phone rang once in the house so it probably messed up that string of dialogue.

I forgot to ask two of my interview questions.

My backdrop was so boring, I wish I used a gobo somehow.

It'll take me a few days to work on the clips. I'll share some when I can.

[kkolbo]

If that is the worst you found looking back at it, I would say that you did very well. Don't be concerned about how tight the shot was until you see it cut together with the other footage. You may like it in the end.

[poker]

If that is the worst you found looking back at it, I would say that you did very well. Don't be concerned about how tight the shot was until you see it cut together with the other footage. You may like it in the end.

I watched the footage the other day afte moving it in to my computer. Here are things I noticed.

THE RODES shotgun mic is awesome!!!! I love that thing!

The background wasn't perfectly even and a shadow is a bit prominent.

The acne on my subject is displeasing. I should've been more forward and asked her to do something about it. We may have to reshoot her interview with more makeup.

The color in the Canon HV20 B-roll footage is more saturated than the color from the Canon A1. I'm assuming I can do something about that in post.

I'll be working on the clips tomorrow. I should be able to upload a sample then.

Stay tuned

Keith -- I did crop the shot in Vegas and was much more happy with it

[MJS]

Much softer light will help with the acne along with a good foundation make up. We used to call it pancake makeup, helps get a nice even look to the face. Have you had a chance to edit any of the stuff yet?

[poker]

Sorry guys. I owe you some work. I'll post it soon.

I actually had a paying gig last Saturday. It was a birthday for a sweet 80 yr old lady at a nice restaurant. I'll be buring the midnight oil to finish that project by Saturday. It was challenging.

Since I need to finish birthday by Saturday, I'll share the highlights video in a few days.

Thanks for the tips MJS. We will be reshooting the interview next week.

Much softer light will help with the acne along with a good foundation make up. We used to call it pancake makeup, helps get a nice even look to the face. Have you had a chance to edit any of the stuff yet?

[poker]

I apologize for not keeping up with this thread and site. I've been so busy trying to get this business going. Not moving as fast as I want it to but at least it moving. I just dropped off a DVD with my client this afternoon. It was of a birthday for a sweet 80 year old lady I recorded two weeks ago. I'll be working on this wedding reception video for the next few weeks.

Finally, here is a little clip of raw footage take with a Canon HV20 and XHA1. I haven't done any post processing to it since we are reshooting it this week. Maybe you all can watch it and give me more tips?

Sample Video

I rendered it at 15fps at a lower quality to control file size. It's an AVI in ZIP.

[MJS]

My son and I are traveling, looking at colleges and I wasn't able to download the file. I'll try again when we get to our next location.

[poker]

My son and I are traveling, looking at colleges and I wasn't able to download the file. I'll try again when we get to our next location.

Thanks Michael. Hope the college search is doing well.

[MJS]

I just tried dowloading the file and can't seem to unzip it on the Mac. I'll have to ask the deckcadet for help at my classroom tomorrow.

The college search is going well. It's senior year for my son and engineering seems to be his pick. I tried to convince him that the University of Alaska would work for me, we live in Miami, but he didn't go for it. Imagine that.

[Skyman]

the only way i could get the video on this file to play was to import it into premier but even then the vision was quite corrupted and hard to see, so the only thing i could say for certain was that the blandness and the creases of the background become distracting. if you can't afford some sort of textured muslin background then try shining some coloured light on it. for the sort of look you are going for a black or darker background would work better. colour variations between cameras are not uncommon, so if one of them has a way to control the saturation and you are halfway there, but the rest can be achieved in post especially if both cameras are 3ccd. the interview itself is ok, but my guess is that it could get boring easily enough if there aren't any cover visuals to break it up. shots of the groom, shots of the couple together maybe the place where they met, that sort of thing.

[MJS]

I couldn't see it in Final cut or Avid, sorry about that.

[Skyman]

mjs incidentally i had to import it as 1080 60p footage before i could watch it.

[MJS]

Thanks. No luck that way either.

[MJS]

I am getting only the audio, no video.