Today’s Plan:
- A Quick Survey
- Shooting a Simple Interview
- Practice Shot
- Work List #5
Let’s Open with a Quick Anonymous Survey
Even after cancelling Wednesday, quite a few people have failed to turn in Work List #4. I need to know why. So, a quick anonymous survey. Shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes.
Shooting a Simple Interview
Over the next few weeks, we’re going to complete our final two work lists: a simple interview and then a more complicated, two camera interview. We’ll get started with a simple interview today.
There’s two things that make interviews difficult. The first is audio quality. It can be quite difficult to capture quality audio for an interview. In a professional setting, you would use either a boom or a lavalier microphone.
If you don’t have access to those, then you can use a second phone, set up closer to your interview subject. Next week, we’ll learn how to sync audio and video that have been captured on different devices (Premiere makes this fairly easy) and we’ll also play with synching audio across two different video feeds.
We don’t need to do anything that complicated this week (although you are welcome to try). This week I want to focus on lining up your shot for an interview–shooting at enough of an angle to create depth without making your subject feel disconnected from the audience.
Prepping an Interview
Let’s take a look at this Premium Beat article on interviews, particularly their ideas on repeating the question, controlling pace, and deciding an eye line. Essentially, these all fall under communicating and preparing your subject. (Let me add that in addition to having a subject repeat your question in the answer, you can always ask the same question twice–learn to read your subject, if they are stumbling through an answer, but arrive at a good one, then re-ask the question and give them another chance!)
Framing the Shot
As you might imagine, framing an interview shot involves the rule of thirds.
- WP Media, Picking A Frame for Your Interview
- Job Shadow, How to Shoot an Interview (Much more detailed video (jump to about the three minute mark).
Practice Shot
I’d like you to go out and take a photograph that lines up an interview subject. Pay attention to both vertical and horizontal rules of thirds. Pay attention to lighting and background. Instruct your interview subject where to look (and, following Walbeck’s general advice, have them look at a spot and not the camera).
Please take two shots–one of the standard medium shot, the other the close up. When shooting the close up, make sure that the subject isn’t on too much of an angle.
Upload your two images to this Google Slides show.
Work List #5: Simple Interview
For this work list, you’ll be interviewing someone. Here’s the requirements:
- Opening shot with title credits (set up some context). Extra cool points for some intro music that fades out
- ONE CONTINUOUS SHOT OF YOUR SUBJECT ANSWERING QUESTIONS (along with one continuous audio file)
- B-Roll cuts while they answer questions. These can be cuts to you asking the questions. Cuts to your dog running out in the yard. Cuts to a tire fire. Whatever. But before we move on, I want to see people pull off a damn J, L, or U cut.
Work list #5 is due on Monday.
