[Olivier Prudhomme]

Loved Orson!!!!
Thanks for liking what I did… I had to say you came to my mind several times as I was setting up… “what would Mike say/do?…. What did he tell me to do”… I even remembered to shoot the talent w/o set up as I thought it was an awesome idea!!
I’ll look into the prompter TV idea… The laptop bugged me too…
Today at least I won the water bottle battle, thx to you again since you suggested to add a little table on the side… which I did!
It’s funny how simple solutions don’t always occur on set since we have so much to think about.

Last question.
My client would like to have an empty office turned into a permanent “studio” with backdrop and lighting.
They do mainly standing “interviews” in front of a backdrop.
What Lowel kit would you suggest so it is versatile?

In the meantime…. merci milles fois as they say back home.
Do you have an email address you could share by private message so I can thank you more materialistically 🙂

[Olivier Prudhomme]

today…

so? Doc? 😉

[Olivier Prudhomme]

I understand what you’re saying as far as “it’s only for internal use”…. I’ll keep that in mind.

Good idea for the bottle of water and I”ll see what I can do for the sweaty fronthead.
I also love the idea of the “here it is w/lights and sound”…. and here it is after you paid me”. Great great idea!!

I hired a pro for the sound. unfortunately we had to have a fan on since the AC wasn’t working and the room was exposed west….
I know too well the importance of sound vs. visual (I’m a an editor in a network so if I never shot before at least I’ve dealing with footage, great footage…. and bad audio = bad cut)

[Olivier Prudhomme]

You’ve seen worse?… 🙂 well… I was expecting better…. I thought it looked nice!!! 🙂
What would improve the shot do you think?
I can not control the laptop.
I worked on the bottle of water all day so it’s not on the shots.. but it is very often.

I pulled down the black curtains to control the sunlight as much as possible.
No room for hairlight.
The key and fill light are against the wall.

The client is happy because it’s only for internal use and they were going to do it themselves with a regular camera and no audio recording device.
BUt keep being hard on me!!! The day I’ll read “great” I’ll know it IS great 🙂

[Olivier Prudhomme]

Day1 over.
Screenshot, no color correction.
The room was in full sun. BG was originally white but I improvised what I consider a decent backdrop.
It was so hot that the speaker was sweating…. shining.
No make up artist….. 4 hour meeting so no way to stop.

what do you think Doctor?
🙂
Day 2 tomorrow… I could use any tip!!!

[Olivier Prudhomme]

LOL!! Thx!!!

[Olivier Prudhomme]

Just read again all the wonderful stuff you took the time to write.
Thanks again and wish me good luck: shoot this wednesday and thursday!

[Olivier Prudhomme]

I like everything you say! So helpful.
With all this info I am really starting to see what I am going to do. It gives me options and it makes me think about things I wouldn’t have until I would have been faced with them.
I actually do have a flip camera that i never used and been trying to sell! I knew I was meant to keep it … and use it.
I need to see if it goes to a sleep mode or if i can just press record since it won’t be on the whole time (4 hrs is too long).
I also thought of keeping a log on a pad to write the time when the speaker goes to the slides but also to mark pauses, and things like this so I can find them easily in post. I’ll have at least 8 hours of video and I don’t want to have to go through the whole footage to find these moments I’d have to get rid of.

As far as framing I think I’ll stick with the Medium shot because even though I love the idea of creating space on the right, I won’t know when to widen the shot. I’d rather keep things simple/clean/under control for now.

Good point regarding the eye line and the laptop… I need to talk about this with the client.

Creatively: Even though the client “bought” a one-camera shoot, I was thinking I should bring my DSLR as second camera so I could enhance the presentation with B roll shots in post and give my client “more” than he purchased to kindda do a great job since it’s my 1st one…
I don’t want to do a whole A-cam B-cam. The DSLR limitations in recording time would make it a nightmare in post. And also the footage looks deifferent between my DSLR and the A cam – HMC40.
But how do you think I could use the b-cam?

[Olivier Prudhomme]

Hi Mark
I love your ideas about the backdrop!!
I just need to invest now in some c-stands or strong light stands…. BUt i want to explore this idea.

with the new set up, i have a new challenge: since the TV will now be 90 on the left of the speaker, I need to find a way to go from her to the tv when she shows slides… Originally i thought i’d just get the PP presentation (which I’ll still do) and insert in post but realized that it would make myself crazy trying to time it right. I’d need a visual reference to know what slide she’s showing as she speaks.
All this to say that I realize now that I’ll need to go to the TV when she’s show slides…. SO the camera will have to travel 90degres, which I don’t like…

Great idea too as far as the rolling down the curtains right in front of the speaker

[Olivier Prudhomme]

are you sure you’re not Mike Suzsko? 🙂 Sorry about that!

I actually have another alternative in this room. Instead of the speaker in front of the TV with the windows on her left, she could be sitting camera left (based on the original pict posted), facing the windows…

Do you feel like it would help?

And by the way I bought shower curtains as you recommended.
BUt in this new setting this means I’d have to control the light on pretty much all windows. Which could be ok as these curtains are cheap.