[Mark Suszko]

I would have tried Febreze as well: the unscented original version.

My best guesses as to what happened is A: the gasses they use to blow the foam are not well-regulated (and they pass the savings on to YOU!!!!!”) or B: Adhesives used to attach the foam are outgassing. C: the molds that shape the foam cavities are lubricated with something nasty and again, they pass the savings of not working under American standards on to YOU.

[Mark Suszko]

Conventional cutting, removing spherical distortion and re-framing the shots, perhaps adding motion.

[Mark Suszko]

You’re very welcome. And if the science-related show ever needs a scriptwriter for “explainer” videos, I did that for three years for NASA and the National Institute of Aerospace. Check out their old podcasts of “Innovation NOW!” Perfect kind of stuff to go along with kinetic typography.

[Mark Suszko]

If you can, get an arm so th on-camera light is actually a foot or more off to the left or right: this looks much more flattering. Better yet to have an assistant with a monopod hold that light.

[Mark Suszko]

I’m going to give you two answers.

Answer one: this is a bad idea overall and your money is better spent hiring a guy or gal who already has good gear to come in and shoot on just the days you need them. A side benefit of this approach is you can stand next to them and learn by watching them do their thing, without risking making an ugly mess of the actual project. So that eventually, you WILL be able to take over for less and keep quality high.

Ask: “is it cheaper, really, to make our own crappy product because we’re working outside our area of competence, to make a product that represents our company in public, everywhere?”

When it looks like crap, and someone from a prospective buyer to a CEO asks why it looks like crap, does the answer: “but we saved 400 dollars doing the crap version versus a pro version” actually GET you anywhere? Beyond fired, I mean? How many board meetings do you know where someone says: ‘It’s crap and an embarrassment, but at least we didn’t spend a lot on it.” I don’t know of any.

But people that ask these “what to buy” questions never seem to take the good advice. Maybe you’re exceptional. Hope springs eternal….

Second answer, to the point of your question, without the fatherly advice, from someone who has seen people fail at what you’re about to do…

For something as rudimentary as what you are doing, where you can’t count on expert operators, but still want to do it yourself… A Canon Vixia series camcorder will be fine. It has great full-auto results that are idiot-proof, yet retains manual setting capability for someone that knows what they are doing. Most Vixias come with a jack for an external mic input, and you definitely want that. Vixias run between $200 and $400. Budget another $150 for media cards.

Get a battery-powered, wired lav (tie clip) mic and cable to reach 25 feet. The Vixia is of little use beyond that distance. Lav mics of quality will run from $80 to $200, wireless lavs are more, but you really don’t want one at this stage.

Any tripod will do, because you’re not going to do pans and zooms: you will set a shot and then leave it alone, change the shot and then leave it alone, etc. and fix it all in the edit… But if you can’t help yourself and want pans and tilts and zooms, a light DSLR tripod with a decent fluid pan head runs North of $200 and can go into the thousands.

Lighting is something you really need to make vids better than home movies. I suggest one of the Lowell Rifa lights or the cheap knock-off imitations that run on Fluorescent bulbs; you can find these on ebay for around 50 bucks. What these big, soft lights are good for is making a CEO, interview guest or presenter look good during interviews at close distances, anywhere, without a lot of work or ability. Just plant the light at a distance of 2 times the diagonal size of the diffuser, set at a 45 degree angle above and 45 degree angle to the left or right of the person’s face. This is a classic starting position; adjust from there if needed but it often it works fine just like that.

None of these make ANY difference though unless you spend some time on a good script. Your best investment may not be in any gear, but in hiring a consultant to write your script for you. They don’t cost money: they MAKE it, by making a product people are interested in watching and listening to.

[Mark Suszko]

The monitor shot has all manner of ways to “fake” it. You really just need five minutes or so of the subject in the background talking about “anything”. If you find you don’t have tight enough DOF control between the monitor in very close-up, and the speaker wayyyy back, it’s very easy, since this is a locked-off shot, to draw a simple feathered mask around the monitor and add gaussian blur to the BG later. You can also corner-pin the video into the screen later, of course, but that takes it another step away from “realism” in documentary.

The walking shots should have some walking directly towards from a long ways off on telephoto, pretty much maintaining one frame size for the head and shoulders, as well as some more side-on tracking shots at a distance, which can be wider… The neat thing is he/the two walking, can pause to put emphasis on a point, or bring one idea to a close by either coming to a stop, or launching off into a walk out of frame when they are done making the point. All this requires a bit of advanced choreography on the part of the interviewer and interviewee. James Burke was great at this kind of thing in his documentaries, and I have to think it’s influence by doing more news type pieces.

[Mark Suszko]

Love Bill’s selfie-collecting idea!

Your visuals won’t be as good as the past year with the higher budget, get used to that right now, so you need to make extra sure your AUDIO is PERFECT. Spend what you need to, to get clean podium audio as well as clean sound off roving mics.

Think about a monopod. Makes it fast and easy to move thru a crowd, yet get stable interview shots and telephoto candids. Even a piece of wood or pipe with a 3/4 bolt is better than nothing.

Shoot with a theme already in your head for the edit. Be sure to get enough variety for good cutting.

It is a great idea to buttonhole/draft a Marketing person to assist you, because then you have corroborating testimony later about what it costs to really do the project well. Next year,they may up the budget a bit in response, but they have to UNDERSTAND what they’re getting when they cut this much.

Finally, don’t let Zellin read your question, and if he does… run the other way.

[Mark Suszko]

Your plan to put all the others to the same side is the first thing that came to my mind. You can also play with the lighting and background to give them a more separate identity. A dominant color theme is another idea. If they are all sitting, maybe take your main interview while walking, or standing outside, versus inside.

Something I’ve played with is to get a 2-shot with a production monitor in the foreground, the interview subject visible in the background but blurred from tight depth of focus. I know that means a second camera, but this could be a cheaper one, with 1K or sub-1-k resolution. You don’t use it for very long, the shot, I mean, but in a few key places as a transition.
You could fake the second cam, and use you primary cam for this, if you’re willing to stop the interview and use the monitor to play back a recorded segment. That’s something you could save for the end of the shoot day, if you pre-log where the clips you will need are.

[Mark Suszko]

How much does it cost to attend the workshop? How many times willthe workshop be held? What’s the typical attendance?

[Mark Suszko]

I think you did everything right. The producer’s problem was she didn’t get a line of credit to sustain her expenses while waiting to get paid.

Just as you would never stiff your contracted guys, but rather, pay them first, so should she have paid you first. Making you wait to get paid until she does, is asking you to be her bank, giving an interest-free loan.

Some people will cave and wait for the money. Most of them can’t afford to stay in this business.