Shooting Interviews, 1 camera or 2?

Grug

Grug

Veteran
Hi guys,

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on shooting standard head-and-shoulders interviews. I'm used to simply shooting them with a single camera at a mid-shot, and then cropping into a close-up in post when I need to cut between awkward snags in the interviewee's speech etc. but this never looks quite right to my eye (perhaps because it simply seems too obvious that the perspective of the shot hasn't changed at all - even though the framing has).

So I'm wondering how many people shoot their interviews with 2-camera setups instead?

- How much easier does it make cutting a clear and concise interview together (without awkward zoom-cuts back and forth)?
- Is it worth the extra time/trouble of transporting, setting-up and dealing with footage from 2 cameras?

Cheers
 
Always, always, if at all possible, use two - it allows you to edit out all the "umms" and mistakes, and of greatest importance: digressions that dilute the message.

If I don't have a 2nd operator, I'll put the a-cam on a tripod and stick an HDMI monitor where I can see it, and use a 2nd came to grab hand gestures, tight closeups, etc. (Sometimes the hands really work, some styles not). it does make it hard if you are also the interviewer - some subjects just have to look at you to talk. But you can get anyone to sit behind the camera or in the right eye-line and that will usually settle a subject in.

If you can't get those cutaways, figure out something appropriate - if it's a homeowner talking about life in their awesome masterplanned community, I'll ask if I can shoot framed family pics, and intercut with outdoor footage. If it's a technical project, are there blueprints, diagrams, factory footage, etc? That line of thinking does push you out of simple "talking head interview", but I've never done one that wasn't part of a larger whole - there's usually something to hide the cuts.

And in my experience, maybe 5-10% of dialogue repair cuts can work with just a couple-frame dissolve; if their head, face, hands are in the same position, it often works. If it's a web-only video and you can get away with a 720 edit, shoot 1080 and transcode all the footage down to 720 - but keep a 1080 copy and use those to go to closeups (cropped 1080) to hide cuts. It's easy to line 'em up with time code.

My feeling is that dialogue editing can make the message remarkably more powerful in a shorter running time - it's the kind of thing clients don't necessarily notice but makes them think "this guy's work has so much more impact than the last guy I used". If the client's on camera, don't tell him you cut his "umms" and stutters though!
 
Thanks guys, I suppose I probably knew the answer before asking the question - but it makes all the difference to have the common-sense of the decision confirmed!
 
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