- Why you should shoot all your interviews
with two or more cameras
and the different methods for doing so.
This is what we're gonna be covering in this video.
(computer beeping)
So if you haven't been hiding under a rock
for the last three months,
you've likely seen the Michael Jordan documentary,
"The Last Dance".
One of the major components of this documentary,
like a lot of documentaries, is the interviews
that they use to help tell the story.
And if you might've noticed
that all these interviews were shot with two cameras.
In my last video,
I talked about using two cameras on your production
and the benefits for that
and briefly got into shooting interviews
and I explained the benefits
of usin' a secondary camera
to have another frame to edit to
that you can use to make your edits appear more seamless.
If you need to clean up an interview,
making it sound smoother,
you can take out a part of one sentence
and cut it to work with another sentence.
You can do that much easier and seamless
with a second camera angle.
Now the trick to this
is that the second angle needs to be different enough
for it to not look like a jump cut.
You need to have the second camera angle
either be a very different focal length
so it doesn't appear as a jump cut,
or you need to have that other camera set
kind of for a very different angle,
but preferably a different angle
and a different focal length
because cutting to a camera that's
on a little bit of an angle but the same focal length
is kind of jarring to your eyes.
It doesn't appear right.
It isn't a seamless cut.
And another issue that we get into is
if we're setting up an interview
and I am speaking off camera,
so we have our key light over here.
I have a director, whoever I'm talking to is over here.
So this is like kind of a very classic kind
of interview style for a lot of corporate stuff
and a lot of documentary work.
I am speaking to somebody off camera.
I'm not speaking directly into the lens,
a little bit off camera,
and I'm always wanna be looking to that part
of the camera where there is more space, okay?
So I don't wanna be looking this way,
that will look a bit strange,
your eyes wanna be leading to the part
in your frame where you have more space in the frame.
Now, the other trick is your second angle has
to also be looking that way.
'Cause you can see if it's not,
if I'm framing myself on the main camera
or the wide shot on this side and on the other camera
on the other side, when you cut between these two,
it becomes strange.
It's jarring.
You're jumping from side to side of the screen.
A good edit is this seamless edit.
Meaning, most people should not even notice it.
Now, there's another big reason
for using a second camera and framing
and that is to emphasize a speaking point.
This is done very well
in the Michael Jordan "Last Dance" documentary series,
but it works really well to emphasize a point
or when they're talking about something very important,
they're cutting to this angle.
It brings the viewer closer in,
it makes something sound more serious.
It's a visual way to make sure people are listening.
This is a key part.
This is something very important
that the person is saying.
That second angle, that tighter second angle,
really helps to give that.
So you can play around with this when you're shooting
and you can see how the second or third angle
can really help your situation,
really help you bring out and make a unique look
and help to emphasize different things
during your production.
Now, sometimes using a third camera,
we would like to use a third camera
sometimes on interview shoots
to help with some kind of movement.
If somebody talks with their hands a lot,
with somebody is in a situation
where they have a lot of anxiety.
They're feeling uneasy about somethin'.
They're talking about little social cues
that we all subconsciously know
when we talk to somebody that they feel uncomfortable.
When we can show these visually to people, you can tell.
And it helps to portray that
if that's what you're trying to portray.
If you're having somebody talking about something very tough
for them, something very emotional,
seeing them clenching their hands,
seeing them fidgeting is a way to also show
and have other people feel that emotion
that they are feeling.
And you also don't have to always frame your camera off axis
when you're shooting two cameras.
One of the things that I've been using lately
in a lot of my jobs is something called an eye direct.
An eye direct is like a teleprompter,
but it's reflecting the face of the person
that is doing the interview into the glass
in front of the camera.
That way the person that you're doing the interview with
can be looking straight into the lens.
But they're looking at a person,
they're looking at the person giving the interview,
and that allows for a natural conversation
to happen with them looking straight down the barrel
of the lens.
And it's a very engaging and different-style look
than somebody speaking off camera.
It looks like they're addressing you,
but they're getting the benefits
of having more of a conversation with somebody
that is much easier to do
than somebody just looking straight into a camera
and delivering or telling a story.
When we do this, a lot of times,
what we're doing with the second camera angle
is what we're doing is stacking the camera
or what we would call stacking the camera.
The one camera is there with the eye direct.
The other camera is maybe a bit above it
or right to the side of it
and we're trying to get those cameras
as close as they physically can be together.
That way when we cut, the only difference is,
is the framing.
One will be a tighter framing than the other camera,
and this will help us too.
So even when we cut to the second angle
that's closer or tighter, it still appears
that they're looking straight into the lens.
And that's why a trick you can do
with getting your cameras
as close as they physically can be together.
You can't tell if the subject is looking
into one lens or the other lens
because they're so close together.
So that's my two cents when you're shooting interviews
with two or more cameras
and why I think you should really be doing it,
why we should all try doing it when possible.
Let me know in the comments,
what are your favorite ways of shooting an interview?
Do you like using two cameras on an interview?
Is this something that you're going to look at trying
in the future, if you haven't shot this way?
Thanks so much for watching.
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(electricity humming)