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Interview filming suggestion
I’m not sure where this goes on the Forum but I am filming some interviews for a show. I want to do like they have on some of the reality shows where the camera jumps from one focal length to a much closer view of the interviewee. It looks like it’s on the same camera but it doesn’t lose any Fidelity. I’m wondering how the achieve this look on some of the shows that air on channels like a&e.
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5 Replies
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The simplest way is to shoot in 4K and post in HD. Avid has “FlexFrame” which makes this very simple. Other NLEs probably have something similar.
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I don’t have a 4k option right now. It doesn’t seem right that back lets say 5 or 6 years ago they were producing 4k as well.
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Another way to do this is to piggy back a second camera on top of the main one. I sometimes put a Canon Vixia on the hot shoe of my P2 camera, to get a wide cut-away shot of the same subject, or another shot of something different, at the same time, while the main camera handles tighter and changing framings. A 4K-capable gopro knockoff is under a hundred bucks these days. For your kind of application, adding this to the existing camera could be very useful.
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Matching those cameras might be tricky. More power to you if you can do that.
You could also simply ask the same questions several times and film with different zoom settings. You could either be upfront about needing to do this (“We need a safety” or “We need a different angle”), or you could subtly rephrase the question for the second response. And then, sometimes it’s effective to be honest and say “That was great, but I need a shorter sound bite. What’s the elevator speech version?” Or, “You’ve given me a lot of great ideas there. What do you think is the most important factor, and why?”
Or just shut up, and watch how the interviewee obligingly fills the silence.
Bob C.
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On the shows you’re referring to, they use two matching (or similar) cameras, and frame up two different shots.
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