Multiple Camera Interviews: Basic Rules You Don’t Want to Break by Carl Filoreto

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Multiple Camera Interviews: Basic Rules You Don’t Want to Break by Carl Filoreto

 

It can be as simple as two people sitting in a room talking to each other. It can become as complex as an interview between a correspondent and twelve members of a jury sitting together on a stage.

Even if you’re shooting in a true no frills documentary style, at some point you’ll probably confront the challenge of shooting a two camera interview. Everyone has watched them. There’s the correspondent or host talking to some folks in a beautifully lit room that’s pleasing to the eye, and there’s not a piece of video production equipment in sight. It looks effortless, but it can be rather difficult to accomplish.

A multiple camera interview, even in its most basic form, presents some interesting production problems. Many times I’ve stood in a room staring ahead blankly and scratching my head while pondering the best way to set up a two camera interview. It usually goes something like this:
I look to the left, the right, set up some chairs, rearrange the chairs, and discuss the possibilities with the other photographer. Then I look around the room some more, scope out another room as an alternative, and mutter soft obscenities. I consider my picks in this week’s football pool, rearrange the chairs yet again, look at the situation from both camera angles, and talk to the other photographer again. I cast a wary glance at the growingly impatient producer, reevaluate my career choices, and then, hopefully make a command decision as to how the to set up the space for the interview.

So, you might ask, why are you losing so many brain cells over this decision? Well, there are a lot of factors to consider. And in an era of breaking or simply obliterating some long standing production principals, there are some basic rules that truly need to be observed.

First and foremost, all the cameras need to be on the same side of the axis. There are no reverse angles in this situation. Reversing the axis results in everyone being framed on the same side of the screen. The interviewer will, let’s say, be framed screen left. If the axis is ignored, the person responding to the questions will also be framed on screen left and talking to the open space on the right. That’s simply weird and wrong, and it won’t work.

Next, the background for the interviewee’s shot should optimally convey something meaningful about that person. Minimally, both shots should have pleasing backgrounds that aren’t distracting but instead are complementary.

The complicating factor here is the shot that includes the person asking the questions. In most cases, this will be framed as an over the shoulder two shot.

Of course, there’s the option to simply frame the interviewee as a single, and then cut the interview between two single talking heads. This set up is a staple of the great grandparent of interview-based news magazine programs, 60 Minutes. It’s easier, but many producers want to visually link the two people involved in the interview. They want to show that these people are having a conversation and are in the same room together. This is the staple of a program like Dateline NBC, a show that I’ve worked on a lot through the years.

The complicating factor of the over the shoulder two shot, is that it’s going to show a lot of the room in which you’re working. Your job is to make sure that all that space works for the shot, and that you light it nicely. If you’re doing a bare bones production, you need to at least make sure that the space is suitable and not distracting. It sounds easy, but it often has a fair degree of difficulty. And many times, you’ll be looking to do several two camera set ups in the same room, or the same house, or the same office setting. Maximization of the space will enter your equation.

The next item on the production list is to figure out where you’re going to set your lights. During a recent Dateline NBC shoot, we used about fifteen or twenty lighting instruments ranging from HMI’s, ellipsoidals, and mini led lights to put the finishing touches on the lighting set up for a 1 on 2 interview. Now Dateline NBC has a very high standard for production values, and in the world of video, this is a highly complex set up. But let’s say you’re working on a tight budget, and the lighting cupboard is a bit thin. In either situation, there’s another rule that you’re not going to want to break: don’t show the lights, or extension cords, or any other production paraphernalia in the shots.
In most cases, your goal is to keep the interview looking as natural as possible. Of course, there isn’t anything remotely natural about sitting people down in a setting with lots of cameras, lights, monitors and other video debris scattered around the room. However, you usually need to preserve the illusion that the people on camera are engaged in a spontaneous conversation. This isn’t an empty exercise. The believability of a lot of non-fiction television is based on maintaining a feeling that the camera isn’t present, even in highly contrived settings. On a basic level, that’s why we hide mics. Eliminating even subtle visual cues helps to create an aura of believability.

So unless you’re in the magical room where soft sunlight is cascading through silk drapes and is nicely bouncing back from a distant white wall, you’ll need to factor light placement into your equation when you size up the room. At minimum, you’ll need two key lights, two back lights, and a way to provide some fill. While accomplishing this task, you need to keep yet another rule in mind: the key lights should be directed at the side of the face that’s further from the camera. In other words, you want the shadowed or modeled side of the face closest to the camera. Achieving this goal can get a bit tricky.

Keep in mind you need to maintain a clean look in the looking areas of the frame and in the open areas of the two shot. It’s sort of like creating an unobstructed alley in which the cameras see only the people and the room. Usually, there’s two choices. Ideally, you can place the key lights away from the cameras on the far side of the “alley”. If the peculiarities of the setting don’t allow for that, then you need to boom the lights over the cameras, and extend them into a position where they’ll key from the far side. This requires employing a C-stand with a boom arm. I’d recommend using one in either case. The C-stand/boom arm combo allows you to get the light in a higher position, and gives you the flexibility to move it precisely where you need it while keeping the stand itself out of the shot. The same scenario holds true for the backlights. You can avoid using C-stands and just use a simple light stand, but you won’t be able to get the key light close enough to avoid the Star Trek look, where half the face is bathed in light, the other half is dark. Besides, C-stands are relatively cheap. You can buy a stand and an arm for a couple of hundred bucks, or rent them for about fifteen dollars a day. They’re well worth the investment. And remember, you’ll need to throw some shot bags at the base of the stand in order to counterweight the light.

If the key lights are positioned properly, it’ll reduce the need for a lot of fill light. Many times, there’s enough light floating around the room that you can just use some white boards or grid cloth to bounce it back onto the subjects. You can also use some small lighting instruments, or a kino-flo if you have it, to provide an extra punch of dimmable fill light.

A lot of us like to bend the rules, but in the case of multiple camera interviews there are some axioms to follow. Embracing these basic principals will establish a foundation for success.

Carl Filoreto is an award-winning DP, and his company is Elk Run Productions, Inc. www.elkruntv.com), which has a roster of clients that spans corporations, production houses, crewing agencies, and broadcast and cable networks, including Dateline NBC, The Food Network, and The Travel Channel. Prior to starting his business, Carl won seven regional Emmy awards, numerous national and regional National Press Photographers awards, and multiple awards from Colorado Ski Country and the National Snowsports Journalists Association, while working at KMGH-TV in Denver, WTNH in New Haven, and WGGB in Springfield, Massachusetts.

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