GH2 GH2: Advice for shooting an interview

F

Fresno Bob

Well-known member
Hi,

I'm going to be shooting an interview on the weekend, and I was looking for some all-round advice from the people here who have been using this camera for this purpose.
I'm going to use a Canon FD 1.4 50mm SSC to shoot it. The only other decent lens I have is the 20mm Pancake, but I don't want to have to get too close to the interviewee.

Lighting:
I have two z96 LEDs.
What would be the best way to light the subject with these?
It will be indoors in daylight, so could I use one light to light the side of his face natural light isn't getting (from a window), and one for a (rear) rim light?
This is my biggest fear - I'm not really sure of the placement of LEDs to get a good look. Suggestions would be very welcome on how to set this up.

Sound:
Videomic Pro, directly into the camera, but placed near the interviewee (how close should I put this to him? Should it go above, or below?


Many thanks!
 
As far as sound goes... because you can't monitor audio be very concious of what is behind or beside your subject. Be it vents or other devices in rooms that make hums etc. Often with a direction shotgun like the Video mic you can pick up a lot of noise that is behind the subject or above it if you point the mike upwards from below frame. I personally always rent a lav kit for interviews as the sound is so much nicer and more specific. It eases my mind when I can't be listening the feed for hums and room sounds.
 
Lighting - if you use mostly natural light with fast lenses, you may be good with one light as a kicker. Fill can be provided by a soft reflector (large piece of white foam core will do). Convention is to put the kicker about 180 degrees from your key.

Sound- position the boom mic as close as possible, just out of frame. Use blankets to cover reflective surfaces (hard flooring, solid walls, windows). Take a short clip and then play it back with good headphones to get an idea of what your sound is like, adjust as necessary.
 
Fresno Bob said:
I'm going to use a Canon FD 1.4 50mm SSC to shoot it. The only other decent lens I have is the 20mm Pancake, but I don't want to have to get too close to the interviewee.
Click to expand...

The 50mm Canon is probably going to work just fine, but as an FYI, you can always enable ETC mode to get that 20mm to zoom in quite a bit.

Lighting:
I have two z96 LEDs.
What would be the best way to light the subject with these?
Click to expand...

This comes from personal experience with the Z96s. First, don't use them to light the subject, they simply aren't powerful enough and the throw will be disappointing (how are you mounting these? do you have stands?). And if you have to mix them with tungsten balanced bulbs, you're in for a shock once the filter is in place as to how much the light is cut down (and be sure to manually white balance for these).

The best thing to do with them is use them to fill only. So you'll need to get as much light into the room as possible, hopefully daylight so that it will roughly match the same temperature as the Z96s, but you'll have to be careful that you don't get so much in that the lights aren't powerful enough to show up when used as a fill.
 
I recently shot this interview using my GH2 and a 45+ yr. old Nikon 55mm f1.2 lens @ f2.8, with the subject primarily lit by daylight coming through a window.

In general I recommend >f2.8 so that the DOF is relatively narrow, but the subject's nose, eyes & ears are all in focus. In an interview, the center of focus should almost always be the subject's eyes.

I used a small tungsten light above & behind his head to back-light his hair & shoulders.

To change framing I moved my tripod a foot or two between questions to get the wider & closer shots.

I used a clip-on wireless lav mic recorded in-camera; if I were using your mic I'd position it a few inches in front & above his face pointing down at his mouth (avoids picking up noise from AC vents & flo lights in the ceiling).

The only things I'd change about this particular shoot, if it were up to me:

Have the interviewer sit right next to the camera so the subject looks more towards the lens (doesn't have to look directly into the lens, but I prefer less of a profile shot). In this case, the client was the interviewer and they insisted on sitting way off to the side. Oh well.

And, if I had more time to set up (I was given 30 minutes), I would have adjusted the lighting & blocking so the camera-side of the subject's face was slightly darker than the "far" side of his face (e.g.: traditional cinema style). That's how I usually try to light things. But it didn't work out that way this time.

Cheers.

P.S.: As I've noted many times in the past, I only recommend GH2 in-camera sound recording if your shoot lends itself to immediately checking the sound by playing it back after every take (no exceptions), and re-shooting a take if there's a sound problem. (FYI: A GH2's A/V-USB connector can drive most headphones for playback-only checks.) If this isn't possible, record the sound using an external recorder that has a headphone jack for monitoring the sound while recording. Ya'll been warned. :-)
 
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I've recently used the same lens for an interview, and it worked great. I'd work at an f stop of 4-5 if you can, which separates the subject nicely from the background, but isn't so razor thin as to give you constant focus problems. Eyelines are important for interviews - I like mine close to the camera. I would shift heaven and earth to get hold of an audio recorder - rent or borrow. I usually mic about 3ft from the subject, mic just out of top of frame, pointing at subject's mouth, 45 degree angle (I use a cheap mic stand)
 
mr bill said:
I've recently used the same lens for an interview, and it worked great. I'd work at an f stop of 4-5 if you can, which separates the subject nicely from the background, but isn't so razor thin as to give you constant focus problems. Eyelines are important for interviews - I like mine close to the camera. I would shift heaven and earth to get hold of an audio recorder - rent or borrow. I usually mic about 3ft from the subject, mic just out of top of frame, pointing at subject's mouth, 45 degree angle (I use a cheap mic stand)
Click to expand...

thanks bill. what mic do you use?
 
Peter J. DeCrescenzo said:
...If this isn't possible, record the sound using an external recorder that has a headphone jack for monitoring the sound while recording. Ya'll been warned. :-)
Click to expand...

Most "budget" portable recorders monitor input only, even while recording. Of course any monitoring is preferable to none, but confidence monitoring is a far more expensive proposition.
 
thanks bill. what mic do you use?

I have a Rode Videomic Pro which I like the sound of (plugs straight into my Zoom H1 recorder) or I sometimes borrow an Audio Technica shotgun from the sound guy at work - I use that with a juicedlink pre-amp box that supplies phantom power to the mic, and converts xlr from the mic to mini-jack for the connection to the zoom recorder. I have a splitter lead that I plug into the zoom H1 output that gives me a headphone feed whilst recording, and the other end plugs into the GH2.

best
Bill
 
I recently shot these interviews with the GH2, Canon FD 50mm f/1.4 and Rode VideoMic Pro directly into the camera. The mic was mounted on the camera the whole time, about 5 feet away from the subjects. Lighting was the awful overhead fluorescents plus a random desk lamp I found.

 
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