Interview lighting in a hurry

When you're on a tight deadline and need to conduct several interviews quickly, the temptation is sometimes there to get rolling and pay very little attention to how your shooting looks. But if you have just five minutes to think you can often cut a few corners and still make your interviews look rather nice.

Here's how I do it:

1) If lighting and weather allow, why not shoot your interviews outside? Finding a shady spot with a shady background will allow you to record an acceptable looking interview without the need to use a reflector or any lighting at all. If the sun is in the right place, you can use that natural night as spill for the background, or even to cast a warming glow onto your subject's face. I've tried to achieve both effects in the shot below.

2) If you can't do your interview outdoors, or it doesn't make sense editorially, then you have several indoor options that will speed things up for you. Try to use natural light to your advantage.

If the layout of the room allows, face your interviewee straight on towards a window. You can often adjust the lighting using blinds, so long as they don't cast a shadow.

3) You can use natural light from windows to help you in other ways, for example, to cast some light onto the shoulder or hair. But most importantly, don't allow it to cause ugly shadows on your subject's face.

4) If you find you have no natural light to work with, try to use the ceiling or other lights already in the room. Lights that you can dim are particularly good for creating a nice looking background.

5) Overhead lights do not help you very much with lighting the face.


In the shot above, the only light I have used is a camera-top LED panel. I've used overheads to light the background, and a small spotlight to create the glint on the fireplace. All in all, it took about 10 minutes from arriving at the interview location to rolling.

When you're running and gunning you will often have very little time to perfect the lighting on an interview. And the examples I have given above are far from perfect, but the techniques I've tried to outline usually help me get a decent, broadcastable result.

What shooters should do to avoid the chop

Here is a link to an article I just finished reading in GOOD Magazine.

It's another piece on the inevitable decline of the photo/videojournalist. The author is talking about photographers who just take photographs, or videographers who only shoot videos.

To make the point that photojournalists are going the way of the dinosaurs, the piece quotes a memo from Jack Womack, CNN's senior vice president of domestic news operations in which he outlines some more layoffs among the ranks of the network's shooters:

"We looked at production demands, down time, and international deployments. We looked at the impact of user-generated content and social media, CNN iReporters and of course our affiliate contributions in breaking news. Consumer and pro-sumer technologies are simpler and more accessible. Small cameras are now high broadcast quality. More of this technology is in the hands of more people. After completing this analysis, CNN determined that some photojournalists will be departing the company."

The article goes on to explain that CNN is laying off shooters because it is "receiving so many photo submissions via its user-generated iReport platform." This is clearly the case. In a breaking news medium, getting pictures from the field fast is paramount. The iPhone 4 can shoot HD pictures, but when pulling in stills or video from the public, quality isn't even that important. You have to get the visuals on the air immediately.

The problem is, then what? When the breaking news has happened and the public turns to CNN or another network to get some coverage, context or analysis, the broadcasters will, at some stage, require photo or videojournalists (professionals) to pick up where the public left off. Viewers of TV news will eventually need more than shaky, grainy video, or poorly framed stills. Plus, not all news is "breaking." Don't expect someone with an iPhone to go out and shoot a feature for you.

While news organizations will, undoubtedly, require fewer video/photojournalists, they will require some. The article quotes Darrow Montgomery from Washington's City Paper: "If the metric is to get the best, most telling, evocative picture of a given situation, and to be able to do that repeatedly, then the professional will win almost every time."

But video or photojournalists are their own worst enemies sometimes. They are, at least in part, responsible for their own demise. The article above quotes a former news shooter, now a wedding photographer: "Photographers need to figure out what exactly separates them from pedestrians with nice cameras." This could not be more true, especially when it comes to video.

There is a pervasive sense of misery among videojournalists who just shoot video. They feel they're doomed and that there is nothing they can do about it. But in fact there is something they can do about it. They have to learn some new skills to compete, it's just that simple. It's true that you're not going to be able to compete with a member of the public with an iPhone that is in the right place at the right time. But a photographer or videojournalist will stand a much better chance of keeping their job if they're able to do more than just shoot. The way of the future in television or online video is the shooter who is a reporter, writer, editor and producer as well.

I hear a lot about quality declining with the rise of the one-man-band reporter. But that rise is just the way it is and people should get used to it. I also hear people say things like "I'm too old to learn all this new stuff." I believe that anyone who thinks that way deserves to lose their job. One-skill specialists who look down on the one-man-band reporter may feel a sense of superiority, but that's not going to get them far when they get a pink-slip.

The answer to the challenge of figuring out how video/photojournalists should "separate themselves from pedestrians with nice cameras" is to learn how do be a reporter, editor or producer too. Learn some new tricks. Make yourself as valuable as three people. If you can't or wont do that then you are "going the way of the pterodactyl."

Spanish-language TV grows, advertisers hold back

This week I'll be wrapping up a story on the Spanish-language television market in the United States.

It's a segment that is growing at a very fast rate, and more Hispanic broadcast and cable nets in the US are producing their own programming, instead of simply buying in content from production houses in Latin America. 

But many advertisers remain to be convinced of the power of the Hispanic dollar. Spanish-language TV commands a much higher proportion of the overall US television audience than ad spending would suggest.

I'll be visiting the studios of Telemundo in Miami to examine this phenomenon, and how America's shifting demographics are changing the broadcast landscape. Look out for the story from AFP TV.

Steve Mort - US correspondent, Miami

Making the MOS-t of shooting vox-pops

Shooting M.O.S. (Man On the Street) is something you'll often have to do as a video journalist. M.O.S., sometimes called vox-pops from the Latin 'vox populi', is also one of the more difficult tasks when working solo. You'll often be working in a crowd and will need to be ready to get people's comments very quickly - negligible set-up time.

Here is a list of ten points I put together that I think are important to remember when shooting M.O.S. in the field:

1 - Use a tripod. M.O.S. shoots look really dreadful when you're trying to hold a camera in one hand and a mic in the other while looking the interviewee in the eye. 

2 - Because you are using a tripod, try to pick a location where you do not have to move around too much. Pick an area to shoot with plenty of foot traffic. It is best if you can get people to come to you, rather than having to carry your camera and tripod to a different spot each time.

3 - Select a significantly different backdrop for each M.O.S. It will look strange if the background is the same each time, but the person on camera is different. Remember, you will probably be editing these together into a sequence. You can often achieve a different backdrop just by swinging the camera around.

4 - Be mindful of the sun in the sky. Cloudy days tend to be easier… the light remains constant so the temperature of the shot doesn't fluctuate between interviewees in your M.O.S. sequence. Otherwise, try to pick an area of shade where the background isn't too bright either.

5 - Use a wireless lav microphone that you can pin on someone quickly. If you are trying to hold a microphone in front of the interviewee, it'll be very tough to ensure they remain in frame because you will need to be in front of the camera too. If you use a wireless lav, you can clip it on them and stand where you can see the viewfinder. You can also have the subject stand further away from the camera, allowing you to make more use of the full range of the lens, achieving more depth to the shot. In addition, make sure you hide the cable connecting the mic to the transmitter unit by either framing it out of the shot, or tucking it under clothing.

6 - Try to frame each person approximately the same. It doesn't matter if some are framed slightly tighter than others. But if you have a mix of super-wide and super-tight shots, it will look very disjointed when you edit them back-to-back. If you are shooting in a high enough definition format, it's possible to adjust the framing in post-production by cropping and zooming.

7 - Mix the direction that you have the interviewees looking - some camera-left, some camera-right. When you edit your footage together, you should alternate between left-looking and right-looking shots. This will help guard against jump cuts. You can also make use of functions such as Final Cut Pro's 'flop' tool to reverse shots if necessary. However, be very careful to take note of anything framed in the shot that would be inaccurate when flipped, such as writing. 

To help illustrate this point, here is an example of M.O.S. I gathered at the recent NBA Finals in Miami for AFP Television. The vox-pops are part of a sequence of shots sent out to AFP client broadcasters. This is my own upload with my own lower-thirds. If you wish to see additional footage from the shoot, you can do so here.

8 - Make sure you color balance your camera before you start shooting. If you shoot in auto-mode you may end up with soundbites with wildly varying color balances. This, of course, varies according to which camera you are using. Save yourself time in post-production by setting your camera values ahead of time. Setting picture profiles for cloudy or bright days can save time.

9 - Get the name of your subjects on tape. Use that to set audio levels. People have dramatically different tones of voice and speaking volumes. You don't want to boost your levels for a quiet speaker, then end up with distorted sound for the rest of your shoot.

10 - Never take your eyes off your camera. You're in a busy place. Never trust anyone you don't know around your gear - not even for a second.

Video tutorial on shooting interviews

There aren't many good websites that take solo videographers through, step-by-step, the best ways to set up and film an interview.

Filming interviews while operating on your own is always a tricky proposition, particularly if you're looking to achieve depth and distance from the camera.

Dr Lisa Mills - Assistant Professor of Film at the University of Central Florida - has put together a series of video tutorials for students involved in a project to collect stories from military veterans.

Below is a grab from one of my recent interviews. I chose it because I filmed it in a hurry on a tight deadline. It illustrates that, with a few very simple steps, you can make your interviews look polished without very much pre-production. 

As Mills describes in her instructional videos, you need to chose somewhere with appropriate natural lighting, space to achieve depth, and a background that isn't boring but, at the same time, does not detract from the interviewee's words. 

Her pointers are basics for beginners, but certainly worth watching if you're new to the game.

Mills teaches documentary film-making at UCF. You can check out her YouTube channel here