Mike: Hi! This is Mike from the substream and this is Ryle from the substream. And we’ve been ask to do a follow up video here in the film lab to a video that we made during the Hot Dots Film Festival when we we’re visited by Vanessa the interview fairy who taught us of asks the best most smartest question of our interview subject. And today, we’re going to talk about some really easy, really quick, really cheap technical tips and tricks that you can use to get the best most interesting impeccable shoots out of your set down interviews. So here again is Ryle the 1734th Most Handsome Man in the City of Toronto.
Ryle: Thanks Mike, as the 1734th Most Handsome Man in Toronto, I am totally compelling to Mike. Which is why you want to do an interview with me, now thanks to Vanessa the interview fairy Mike’s got a lists of questions super smart questions are already written out. And all this left for him to worry about are the different aspects of the -- the lighting, composition and the setting. Now, in terms of lighting you can go in a million different directions and try out a bunch of different things like friends and celebrants lighting which we did the video on before and there is a link to it down below. Renren lighting looks great and it’s fairly easy to produce or to approximate. Jesus, but its – it can be really, harsh and maybe not suitable for an interview because you don’t want the harsh light to extenuate someone’s wrinkles and crisis on their forehead. Mike?
Mike: Yeah, so that’s where diffusing your light comes in. We are going to be a whole another series and videos on this later on but for now so fixate to say that if you want to flatter your subject which unless your interviewing a serial killer you probably do. And the easiest ways to do that is diffuse your light source and the easiest way to do that is with this stuff which you called Diffusion. And it’s available by the sheet or by the roll at photo supply stores and all are really have to do it. Is stick it in front of your light source, light so and to softens the lights and spreads it out and it will flatter your subject really well. It’s also flexible and it’s cheap so you can close in it to the household lamp if that what you’re shooting with.
Real pros when they are doing interviews often used this lamp called key nose. That’s not what this is, this is just the cheap punk in light. And what key nose are, is for eight foot long banks of florescent tubes that given really nice soft light for interviews. But they are hardly get to pulled on and really expensive and they kind of involve to use so what you can do is spend 10 box and make your own diffuse light source using a Chinese lantern. Just get one of this just pick a strong bulb inside and blow that, basically got a big ball of soft diffuse light. It’s hard to get a lot of light out of the nose so you’ll probably have to use more than one. But that’s okay because they’re cheap.
Ryle: Okay, so moving on the next thing that you can consider is composition and framing. Now, most interviews whether they’re formal or informal are compose of two people talking to one another. There is me, the subject on camera and sitting across from me but off camera is the director or the host person asking me questions.
Now, if you are going to shoot this way with the person looking off camera, it’s important to consider three very easy to remember but very important tips. The first, is noose room, when you're composing your shoot you want to leave the more space in front of the persons nose then –it’s all started when I won second price in the beauty contest, the price was $10. Nice or it’s really hard being this handsome, some day’s I don’t even leave my house.
The second thing you need to remember is headroom. Your subject does not need any space above their head. It just, trusts me it ends up looking weird. What you should do is compose your shoot so that your subject eyes are about two thirds of the way up to frame. Remember your rule of thirds here. Remember if you have to cut off the top of someone’s head that is fine. It may seem counter intuitive but trust me, it looks normal, it looks fine.
Next time you’ve watch TV watch out for shoots like this, you will see them all the time. But what’s not fine, is cutting off someone’s chin, and that’s due is the third tip which is this. Compose so that your subjects isn’t breaking frame all the time while they are talking. And remember to keep an eye on their hands and shoot in a way so that the hands aren’t popping in another frame all the time. Because this is really destructive.
Mike: The last tip is this. Spend as much time thinking about background of your interviews as you do about the four ground or the subjects in them. Because the environment that you shoot your interviews in most say about as much your subject as their own mouth would do with the words. If you’re in the location where all of the backgrounds are ugly or destructing or does not what you want in your movie you can build for 10 box what Drips spend hundreds on. You know there’s are a lot nice than this.
This is a black background made that of five yard of cheap fabric from a fabric store and that’s strong across a couple of pairs stand. Black background might not say much to about your interviewee but it will lend what they’re say, a certain gravity.
So, that’s all, remember diffuse your light, watch your nose room, your head room and don’t let your subject break the frame with their hands when they are talking about the thing they do. And always pay attention to your background and be creative. Thanks, that’s all see you again soon.