Lessons

Lesson Info

Interview Setup and Prep

This is a live shoot and we're doing until you shoot where we're enhancing the story it away too um basically add another dimension to their film and they can basically share like center in faras I can share some of the intimate you know, many stories and we can use that in the film cool so we're here this is like and just a very minds I just met rebecca here so in normal circumstances we would spend the time to get to know them there would be ah whole journey but you know rebecca's lovely I just met her she gave a bit of an inside sons of how she actually she actually is married and she had has a a partner and she gave me a bit of an insight in terms of how they met so what I'll do is I'll show you what I do as soon as I walk in obviously the cameras won't be ready here but because we have a limited time to demonstrate this thiss shoot they're here now because we can show you the things that we need to so the first thing is when we walk in I generally I don't walk in with the gear I k...

nock on the door if we're doing the shoot at their house so we're pretending that this is their home I walk in there say hi and just kind of establish myself there and said how you doing and observe thie just again just have a look at the space that you want to work in and look for certain things that you may want to use for props your positioning where you wantto what how you want to use the key lights and this set up we're going to use natural life so I've got rebecca here and there's a there's a key light coming from her left so we got the camera here on the right, but the first thing is a setting the space and seeing what we can work with and at the moment there are a few little for me there's a few little destruction to you that I would make sure that I remove obviously including the radio mike cecil, we'll move that so the first thing is you need to clean clean, clear your honor, you're shot make sure that you don't have any distractions you don't have like chords hanging and things that kind of take away from talking about his story. You know you don't want to distract you don't wantto have distractions for the viewer you want the viewer to be drawn to, you know, to the story and the actual interview because essentially we use interview as a technical term but it's meant to be a casual chat, you know you've spent all this time, you know, getting to know them and andi establishing a connection this is really I perceive find that it's it's a cool way tio sure it's part of the shoot it's part of you know why they have hired you but it's it's it's nice because you're you're taking it to another level you know? And you're really tapping into the personalities and become more worthwhile so we'll just move this and we just clear out the shot and usually what I do is I have my audio on a little bench bring that there before even mike her up what I do is when I'm setting up the scene I actually don't have her there, so I'll just say, hey, do you want to like I don't know if you need to do something I actually need like five minutes to set up last thing you want to do is have her there and she's like waiting and then you're kind of sitting up around here it's like they get awkward you ready? You know, give you fidgeting so and I won't do that because they're busy and you know, it's out of respect so look, I just need five, ten minutes just to sit up and she will do anything she might need thio folsom shirts, whatever so she'll do that wow, I said that I'm going to get a comment you think you are living a friggin men dominated will don't believe in that just so you know, okay, I just happened to say that anyway, I'm digging the hole even deeper, and I'm gone anyway because when she goes to the garage to work on her yes, yes goes and yet doesn't break dancing. So first thing is assessed the scene, so I'm going to go hell, look, I've got the camera there, she's not really there, andi, just having a look, okay? It's kind of cool, but, you know, there's there's like that cord, that power court there and that those things on that coffee table, they're just, like, kind of hang in the shot like it's, like ever in or they out, so remove that and so what I'll do is I'll just show you what I'm going to do here and clean prepare my shot, I shall get some help from awesome cruise, I'll get shown yes, so first thing, we'll just be careful with things, you know, you don't want to break anything, and then they get upset and it's all over, I hate you, I shouldn't have hired hell, you're terrible, okay, so we'll just move this on down there, okay and again, she's not here, she's not seeing this she's doing her thing you and I purposely left it he I didn't want to like have it all ready to go because that's kind of like in a way cheating I want to show you what is happening so what we'll do is let's move this let's put it this is to destroy her home and rearrange everything and then we just leave them we'll leave now I'm drinking and then this is you know this is destruction now can I take this out? Guys? I got thumbs up alright, so I'm not going to get bash that's I creative live and they wouldn't do that awesome! I'm just joking. I can't. So then I had a look at this I noticed this thiss hanging thing and I thought, okay, I could use this as a set design, right? Um the idea here is just to kind of give it that homely phil I don't want to just shoot the war when I have, like, a bit of a homely feel, so okay, this is cool. So I'm gonna get sean to adjust that while I look at the frame and again, this is this is happening in normal time. This will be happening a lot faster, but I thought I kind of invite you into the whole process, so then you can see what is happening so okay um why don't you say that does well I don't like those will so I will just kind of like bringing a little bit closer and usually what I do is instead of having like the bride to be sitting they'll have you bring an assistant with me and I'll get the assistance to sit down and go and you want to jump in okay so what I want to do is actually wantto hide those wills okay, I'm gonna try something so rebecca is stand up and I'll get um dustin I failed there you're gonna hate me so good all right so what I want to do is let's rotate it this way a bit that's it okay then we'll bring this here and hopefully this works otherwise it like alfio you don't know what you're doing and you said that you wanted to make this like a homely phil and you failed let's have a look brescia okay so so look this is not working so basically we just ditch the current angle and we'll just have like maybe a lamp very simple on dh a little think for it to stand out sit on so uh we'll get that that little thing there I mean obviously when win their home when they're at their home that they would have like usually a war like this so yet bring that cool and we just put that down so we don't break anything cool and then we get time there's a lamp I think over there we'll get that put it there and then we'll just write out this back cool put that on top there awesome and I get she teo yeah we'll just leave it as it is okay, so we get rebecca back in assistance back in there and what we'll do is we'll move this coding a set up yeah bring that in sweet all right okay, now what I'll do is cool thanks sean when you sitting up the tripod you want to make sure you don't shoot up okay you want to have it like slightly above eye level especially when you're shooting females females eh? They prefer that you don't shoot upwards it it's it's not ideal and it's also for guys as well it doesn't look pleasant and it's not really it's just not a pleasing shot you want to have a slightly above eye level never shoot low and up its special interviews it it doesn't look flattering at all so cool we got a shot here andi got key light coming from the left so does that correspond so they know the left and right okay so it's on the left and basically you want to have the camera on the other side you never shoot in the same direction as yuki lie because by doing that you don't have you wantto have shaped in her face now normally we would have the house lights off very minimal houselights when were shooting these things because we wantto don't want to make sliding, but because obviously you want to see me doing what I'm doing, then we have the house lights but I did kind of make sure there is some sort of shape and that the camera is on an angle on the other side of the key light, so once that is done you want to make sure that you get your focus like images that are out of focus is just rubbish so things here which will go through and discuss they called the security on dh there awesome because you khun be very precise with your exposure and your focus now normally we would have there's like a special divide attachment you put on the camera and actually sticks on don't have that today that's cool so what I do is I'll click it on and get my focus and she will be talking to just to her right off the camera and you want to be seated basically right next to the camera she's not talking into the camera but it's slightly to the side and that's here you humane shot and then what we do before actually set up the audio then we can set up a secondary shot and this could be like a tight shot where it's great to you you don't always have to do this but it's good to demonstrate because the one that you just saw with center and far they didn't have that they didn't have that and but this is something you can do if you think it's worth doing but what I will do is bring this secondary make sure the trip on these cords I've got a one thirty five today like the idea is not here is not to say what lenses it doesn't really matter for this example, but obviously the one three five it's super sharp but you can also use the seventy, two hundred which I have before an advantage over the seven, two hundred in this case the you can if you have another person operating it, you can actually get a bit of the hands if they might be like, you know, moving them about it kind of that accentuates their character a little bit bit like when I got those twitching of the feet off sandra when she was on the skype call it's good to do that so I have that arm, so what I'll do is I'll get rebecca just to look to the just by the left you're right of the camera, okay? Cool, so we just aren't going to sit up leave that for a moment, so I'll feel when we're getting as we're getting the tethering set up I just wanted to mention that you do have a bonus like pdf with this lighting setup and you talk a little bit about that that's included in the bonus because it is so it would explain it will show you where you would position your camera in relation to the key light and also thie your secondary camera which is it could be a close up so it's basically a lighting set up a floor plan with the cameras I can be for for this set up so there's no I'm not saying this is the only what you can do it this is generally the most common way you can do it this is like a standard setup you can get extra creative and you could go or tight depending on the content that you're that you're showing or your your your produce like you're making from from the interview but generally this works really well with the wedding couples because you know that for example I like to use the fifty mil because it's a field view too close it's the fuel filled view close to your eye s so it's it's very pleasing lends to use for interview or even the eighty five but we'll get into lenders later now the next thing is by this stage case we're having over the shot and the settings here that I the idea is I'd like to have you want to have your shutter speed at fifty the speed of fifty is in relation to it's basically your standard shutter speed that you wanna have because generally like when you go to a high shutter speed, I mean, not in this case, but you get that stick staccato look and it's the most standard shutter speed, you know, to to shooting, I would recommend that you shoot at least five apple shop because you don't want it super shell oh, if you do want to go for that super super shelagh look, you just gotta bury mind that if they are going to move that you just don't want to have it out of focus like, well, then out of focus it's just not it's I think it's a destruction, especially when they're talking about an intimate thing or like a something about their journey that's quite profound, you don't want to have them out of focus in the view was like that was out of focus. You want them to be completely drawn into the scene. Okay, so move this across here, and what I'll do is I'll get one of the students here too. I wanted to this camera on dh that looks awful the shot not you, erica, that day you talk to me, okay, okay, so gentle with framing when you're doing these close ups, you don't wantto cut their necks it's not very pleasing you wanna have a slightly on an angle so they show a bit of a little bit of shoulder and it's it's cool to cut the top of their head that's generally pretty placing but once you start cutting next it's looks pretty doesn't look natural looks doesn't placing at all now that's a two point eight I wouldn't shoot at two point eight I would now we'll go we'll talk about I recommended I so sittings later on but you want to like stick to your native ices and your native life says he's won sixty three, twenty six, forty and fifty that's kind of cool um I would even like bring it a little bit higher and this is just more kind to accentuate certain moments when there like talking about something in the showing emotion this is this is what this is for this camera that's what some make sure getting focus on I think you're getting focus you don't no you don't that's cool so we got out main camera set we've got our and disappearing just a note I change the profile sitting the picture profile, sitting to having the contrast a little bit lower having the saturation lowered a little bit not too much you don't want to completely flat but you don't want to have too much you wanna have it at the standard saturation level of the camera that way you got leverage to kind of give it more shape when you're editing you go through that will show you how to tweak your arm your interview shots so we're pretty much ready to go in terms of the actual shot. The next step is you're ready to bring in your subject, okay, so you should be already shouldn't have to like do any major like changes of your set up because that's kind of oak offended, you know it's better just to be ready before they come and let me know for this example we're going to use the wireless system and lapel mikes. Now we'll talk about how the sound is picked up with these mikes later, but I you can use a shotgun and have like a boom, which you could use for you no different shoots, but I personally think if you position the if you play still a pill in the right spot, which I'll show you, it will work perfectly. Obviously you saw sandra and firoz it's film and sound was pretty good and I use the lapel and you know we'll talk about how it's only direction on what that means, but what we do is in this etiquette with this because specially when you're with your miking up a female, you know you need to bear in mind and be very you need to respect their space so you know just looking okay, so I'm just going to mic you up just just move that you know, like it's makes him feel uncomfortable so what I do is even though I've established a connection with them I'm still going to be polite and say all right, so you're ready to go coco so what I need to do is I need to put this mark on you s o if you don't mind, could I just kind of like could you just maybe clip it on your sweater over there? Yeah that's about right on dh there you're ok to have you here like not hanging down on that side so it doesn't like interfere so you just kind of like it let them so I get you to do that so that that's like a height you're going to get good audio anything like really low then because it's an omni directional it's going to pick up your prone to pick up like other things and it's not going to be as it's not going to be as the audio you best have it there basically then you got this chord here it's like our it's gonna be the shot no, so what you do is okay, rebecca I'm just gonna like if you just put that underneath there cool, just lift that orson, thank you so much on you just kind of put all together that shouldn't be in the shot that can just stay there and welcome is going to leave that there that cool with you cool and then from here I just checked my settings I like tio have them we'll go through settings later on in more detail, but with these lapels, you wanna have them either, like minus eighteen minus fifteen d b uh, I'll get from minus eighteen and then I'll monitor it and I'll get my headphones. Obviously, the last thing you want is for your sound to be it's better to have it, I mean, you're monitoring it, but if you had to choose between having it a little bit lower, you're better off doing that. You can bump it up a little bit than being a little bit too hard and then if they saying something, where if they're saying something where it's accentuating like more volume but getting excited, you want to have that leverage? Yeah, the one you levels to be about halfway so then you got that kind of buffalo there like, oh, you know, like, this happened and you know, and you can compensate for that, I do a really bad female voice, I really apologize for that, and I'm going to get at least comments on the chat rooms say this guy is weird and what the hell way I'll just want to hear your american accent yeah, I could do that it's no problem I'm confused like where I'm from in michigan in chicago it's the same thing right shadow is missing actually, I I guess so I've got my resume ready I got my resume ready I've got this's the so there's a transmitter there that's transmitting the signal to the receiver and then the signal is recorded on one of these things now I'm using at age six but you can also use an age for or something equivalent they're the ones that we use next thing could someone pass me the headphones it's like that soft case yet under the one next to it yet so important make sure you bring your headphones you can't just go by the levels it's crazy like I've heard people say yeah, just look at the level than they write what happens if there's like an interference? You know they shouldn't happen but you want to be sure so you have your headphones and I recommend you get good had crew you don't need to spend hundreds of dollars but just make sure it's got the, um the isolation aspect does that make sense? What's the term again it's noise cancellation yeah, just so you can you can isolate the sound that you need to monitor it's really important all right, so again this all wouldn't have happened thiss this speed but it's important for me to kind of demonstrate on this so what I do is I okay, so I get you to say something rebecca again okay alright so there's not getting a level so I'm going to check in may be the frequency is different so this is six six seven zero to five so I come over here I just need to check something right and then I come back here hey, guys, I'm just gonna remove this for hope they're not getting upset at me uh my kid that's what I did speak now again all right, we got we got sound well wide the sound wireless for sound does that make sense anyway? And then we put the headphones on so if first established that there is a level because when there's no level in the beginning then you need to kind of tweak maybe the frequent suite is like a little bit out it's all the same and then you put your headphones on, I'll get you could count to three for school so that's just count to ten again one, two, three, four, five unhappy with that happy with that and that's ready to go cool now what don't do it I'll just quickly demonstrate I have we have time we work time just to show you what I do prior to this time when we were getting to know the couple and certain things that the conversation that we have to establish you know the story and what we need to ask so I briefly met rebecca early obviously so you know, this is this is not what normally happens, but I can explain to you what goes on when we are getting to know a couple so we're not actually shooting yet we've got it all ready to go so I'm just very quickly kind of demonstrate and this could be like, you know, part of it could be over the phone part of it could be an email and in part of it could be your consultation beforehand when you catch up so we just you know, we were having the meetings hey has things going good awesome so has all the planning coming? T yeah busy okay, cool, cool and you know, kind of killing each other now now you're good, you're good, okay? So small talk so usually like it's really important just to kind of like not make it is if you're investing your time so you're there because you want to be there obviously, but you want to make him feel comfortable and there's nothing wrong with a bit of small talk I mean everyone like small talk everyone's like that have a chat you know, I have a few beers and all that stuff that kind of concept obviously not the meaning may be after the film we could have some champagne and we'll go through what we do when we do a special screening that's another thing so yeah told me you briefly mentioned earlier about how you guys kind of grew up as kids and you met through church? Yeah, tell me again about that. Yeah, so we went to the same church growing up we met in preschool in the blue room at church on dh he's younger than me but we grew up and same classes up all through our own place together and I was upset that you know, he got the part as someone else's his wife you know, and like sixth grade became really good friends a junior in high school and we'd have coffee dates even though you're dating other people. He followed me to my college university washington broke me up with my boyfriend at the time and dated ever since. And then they say it's like, uh, I don't like that one better next on and on until we know little about the church thing because I you know, my face really important to me and I got a church and that's cool so to like you seeing like ugo actually way do say aye I think I play piano and he just sings on dh actually made a bet with him once he told me if I wrote a song he perform it with me at church he never sings in public so I call him up one day and hans had singled me so yes, we serve a lot we uh troop leaders in our day camp and our director had to move our troops away from each other because we're talking too much and not pay attention to kids but yeah, I am I am in leadership there and we're leaders for high school and it was really cool growing up in the same church because everything we believe is the same there's no little differences so that was really really cold have that cement but I'm sure this sudden things that kind of driving mad oh yeah but I mean like really like that happens that he has or anything that doesn't come here really wants a motorcycle and I'm I'm not I'm not all for the motorcycle so but his dad grandpa have one so he borrows there's okay? Is this something that he likes did actually like other into making or fixing blacks are doing up there I would like to but it's not quite there yet, okay but I mean like he'll be on pinterest just to bug me and make a motorcycle feed so my fetus full of motorcycles so well well you know it's like when when the day comes like you've walked in and he'd be like bringing a lot of sun ae feel about that yeah but usually like you be like have to kind of submit to what you say so basically you're a cool cool here what I'm doing is I'm making little mental notes in my head and how I could incorporate there's a little thing so for example she spoke about how church is really important so that could be incorporated very simply you're getting married in a church you know actually you know outside okay, I knew that never assume you never issue but that's why you hear you hear to kind of like get this story because natural would've thought okay that part getting married in a little chapel but they're not that small it's too small it's it's a big wedding right? You mentioned that you have a pastor that will yeah so as we like journey together and talk about the aspects ofthe the wedding like so they'll be like cem cem like things like cem church related things like that you'll say in bible readings and things like that so little aspects like that because I'm making a mental note that their faith in the church thing is really important to them then in the editing process as where you know as well like building the narrative with how they met then obviously I could use that you make notes off throughout the day that you can get certain shots that reflect that and that could be you having any like I know that some people have like like things that they bless like books or what? What kind of things that you would be doing at the ceremony that are related to your faith in your church the big one was we wrote our own vows, but that was a really big thing you spent a lot of time on our vows and so they're actually in our program our vows are listed out in our programs ever conceive them and then we have scripture reading and someone singing him and he's actually singing to me in the ceremony nice that's sweet so he's got a spot awesome. So yes so I mean, obviously this is a very condensed version, but you know, this is something that happens over time and wei have like a consultation time like even for five weeks prior to the wedding on dh even like before that time when we don't actually have the meeting even through just emails, you don't have to always meet up with your couple, you can just have like maybe one or two consultations like face to face and the other time you could be converting through emails because they're busy too I can't like you're busy and they're busy so once or twice from the time they took you to, the actual wedding day is more than enough in between that time emails I sometimes what I do with, like my reminders, I just have, like a quick phone call thing where reminded to call one my brides, all my groom with whoever and just say, hey, hey, doing what's the update well and that a brexit guys makes him feel special, comfortable and they may give you an update um guess what? Guess what? We've got this thing and we got a mechanical bull and we're going to bring them on the weekend I had a shoot and they brought a mechanical bull like wow and said, why you got a mechanical bull it's cool like, is there a reason this way always been into, like, you know, the rodeo thing and that's that's who we are and we like to have fun with, you know, we're crazy, you are and you are that's cool, and I'm going to show that in your film, you know, and I had a guard, the kind of people after I got all my shots back kill me, that's, another story we can talk about that another time, but so you making mental notes little little, um, little elements about, you know, have a who they are and then you make note of that, and you can incorporate that into shooting seem more specific. And then you get a piece that is tailored and that khun treasure that for for a lifetime. Cool. So, again, this is ah condensed version. But this is demonstrate how, you know, over the course off the journey, that you get to know a couple. And then, you know, kind of what questions to ask through thie interview