Single Person Vox Pops - to camera or off ?

B

bigmouthmedia

Active member
Something I'd like your thoughts on :

Recently I was shooting vox pops for a sizzle reel, and decided to film the participants looking off camera to me (just left of the lens).
I decided that against straight to camera, and it looked OK, but I'd like your thoughts or experiences on it.

Other times I've had someone else in the shot (a wrangler/host) and that obviously gives the participant a point of reference.
 
Is your talent looking at cam for the actual show?

Either way, it's getting more and more common (and more accepted) to break the fourth wall with sizzles, be they asides or outtakes.
 
These are more the vox pops from people who have just seen a stage show/musical - I'm just not sure if they've got the ability to hold their gaze into a camera.
 
To me it depends on whether there's an implied off-screen questioner - if so, then yes they should look at that (invisible) questioner (who should always be in the same spot) but otherwise looking at camera is fine
 
^^ couldn't have said it better. I prefer people looking off cam for VPs. It feels more organic to me in the same way docu subjects look off lens. Sometimes imo when people talk into a camera they can seem like they're selling an idea, or they become uncomfortable from the lens rather than speaking to a person (even if they're imaginary). I like to position gazes off lens for that reason among others, and as always if it doesn't feel right to you, worst case you've got some b roll to play with.

As with all things you need to be happy with what you attach your name to. I recommend you compare both styles you've shot or if you have enough time on a free day setup a staged multicam where you have your subject look into the one cam, and have the other one slightly off to the side for a real apples to apples comparison on which you prefer.
 
Standard practice for Vox-pops - at least for news/doco style - is facing off-camera.

Shoulder-mounted cams work really well for this as you can have the talent talk to you while you still keeping the camera slightly offset with eye-lines matching, and having one eye on the EVF to monitor framing.
 
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