Basic documentary tips with the DVX

[Warrior8445]

No matter what frame rate or resolution you shoot at, here is one tip...shoot close-ups of peoples faces. Get good coverage of people working and doing there jobs but make sure you show CU's of the emotion, thoughts and humanity of the people you are shooting. The audience wants to identify with your subjects, not computers or machinery or buildings. Good luck,
Rich

 

[chris f]

Get as much b-roll as possible and cast the people you interview, just because they work there or are knowledgeable doesn't mean it will translate well on screen. I did a documentary for a hospital's organ donation organization and only one of the nurses looked good and comfortable on camera so we had to use all the b-roll we had to keep the interview subjects screen time to a minimum.

 

[bikefilms]

This is a great piece of advice:

For audio recording for interviews, I usually supply two mic sources for single person on-camera.

And I'll add that in an interview situation, having less people in the room tends to make the subject look more at ease. Advantages? Some subjects will look around the room to get confirmation from others nearby. This makes them look shifty-eyed and scattered. Less people means the interviewee has fewer people to act as distractions.

-a