jules.tv

Where to position your subjects is an absolutely key decision you have to make before you hit the REC button. Whatever you decide you generally have to live with it in the Edit and there’s nothing worse than having to work with a shot you hate! Before you shoot take a deep breath, don’t get rushed by pressure of time coming from your subject who might need to get back to work, your bosses checking up on progress or your urge to check your Twitter.

Before you shoot a frame, walk around the location to figure out where to put people, use stand ins so as not to take up your subjects time unecessarily, get the camera out to have a look at the shot, move people around, swap them over, think about using stools or whether standing works, look at the light direction, basically  check all the options, then decide. If the location you are offered is problematic ask to see a different room or area, don’t get pushed into using the wrong space.

When you have two people in a classic Presenter/Interviewee situation, as in the Video example above you need to think how to cover them chatting (especially with a one camera shoot) but also if they are showing off stuff, how to best cover reactions, interactions and cutaways of the ‘product’ on display. Ultimately you want the shot to not distract from the ‘action’.

This Rocketboom clip (and BTW I am a big fan of their videos) starts off smoothly enough but when they move to a new location at around 2’04″ (pictured as thumbnail above) it gets a bit awkward with the huge space between them, they become disconnected and the eye is taken to the void between.

Better (for a 1 cam shoot like this) to have them side by side, and mix it up between a 2 shot and single of the faces picking up the hand shots later, and repeat a couple of the big questions, opening and ending on a big wide 2 shot to set the context. Of course you can rapidly adjust the shot size as you go when you know you have a surefire cutaway to use in the edit that will cover the join. If you screw up at the start of a sentence (with an ugly move) note it for later to be repeated or simpler interject and get the Presenter to kick off her line again.