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morgan_moore said:
Folk seem to have missed that on 'the news' the presenter turns to the side camrera when it goes live, making eye contact down the new barrell. Not looking like they are talking.. to the wall(?)
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Exactly. It's great when you have talent who is capable of smoothly transitioning from one angle to the other. But all too often it looks very awkward with people who can't make it feel natural. So, dropping in a cut-away to cover the change is still a better alternative than cutting to a profile mugshot.

I agree that "talking to the wall" is exactly how a profile shot feels to the viewer.
 
I always think about my non industry octagenarian mother when shooting. she would say.. "why is the man talking to the wall"
 
Doug Jensen said:
One thing I really dislike, that has become a big trend these days, is having a second camera angle on the interviewee from the side, almost a profile-looking shot. Every single time it's used it looks awful. Why do I want to see a profile mugshot? I'm not talking about having a wide shot and close up from nearly the same angle, which is fine, I'm talking about a 2nd angle that is 90 degrees off axis. Not only is it a waste of time to setup during the shoot, but it also shows a real laziness on the part of the producers not to come up with better b-roll or other cutaways for an interview.

What's even worse is when you have a CEO or someone speaking directly into the camera, and then suddenly they cut to a profile shot from the side. It looks ridiculous and is completely lazy production.
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Do you mean because it's too much of a profile? I much prefer seeing both eyes, that's sort of my rough guide.

I've made the mistake of direct eye contact mixed with the side angle. No big deal, we didn't use the second angle and lesson learned. But then recently I shot something with a wide, medium, tight looking directly to camera (multiple takes to change focal length/camera position) with profile and wide BTS angles too. The brief profile got used briefly either to get out of an editing hole letting me transition between two direct to camera shots, or if there wasn't a good take for that part of the direct to camera shot then it got me out of jail.

But visually, I agree it's pretty hard to pull off, there's just something about being spoken to then being a fly on the wall that takes away. Although I don't mind when it cuts to wide or ultra wide BTS shots as a breather before back to the main angle, similar to a lot of the masterclass videos.
 
rob norton said:
What sort of personal documentaries do you shoot? Do you just upload them to vimeo etc?
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Rob, I should have given more of an explanation. I meant personal in the sense that they're my personal vision which I produce, shoot and edit myself. Remarkably, in the oceans of content out there they do get seen on Amazon, Tubi, etc.
 
scorsesefan said:
Rob, I should have given more of an explanation. I meant personal in the sense that they're my personal vision which I produce, shoot and edit myself. Remarkably, in the oceans of content out there they do get seen on Amazon, Tubi, etc.
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That sounds great! Can you name any projects? I have a feeling you like being anonymous.
 
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