Interview Lighting Set-Up

[Scott Lamoreaux]

Hey Guys - I'm trying to do the impassive and one man band a interview type video for my real estate business and want to really make the interview scenes edgy and cinematic looking versus the standard corporate washed out look that are oh so typical.

Can anyone help me achieve a lighting look that this filmmaker did on this interview type short? Thank you!

https://vimeo.com/149981292

 

[Joel Arvidsson]

Just a tad to moody for my taste. The one thing i like to have seen is a weak rim light to separate him from the background.

 

[Scott Lamoreaux]

Basic single 3x4' softbox, camera right higher than talent and temp balanced to existing room lights. The trick for this look was the location which had an existing layered lighting background. If the stairs were dark then I would throw a light on them to get the separation effect that was achieved in the vid

Thanks Zeb -

I only own a smaller Chimera Softbox (24x24) I believe....I also have a few 24 x 36 scrims. I'm working with a 650 and (2) 350 Arri Fresnels.

Any other tips would be awesome including location, framing and lighting position. Is it normal to talk into the camera or act as if someone is asking me questions and look in that direction?

 

[Erich Roland]

Just a tad to moody for my taste. The one thing i like to have seen is a weak rim light to separate him from the background.

there is a weak back/rim light on this person, it has a little blue on it. Its reflecting upper right off his head and hair. Hard to see it because its buried in a also subtle back ground reflection of the key light itself. I might have tried to control the light on the steps in some way with a different instrument and flagged off the Key light reflection which is mostly exactly behind his head.

 

[Scott Lamoreaux]

I can't stand the talent looking off camera to a interviewer who is never shown. Amateur stuff. Have the talent look directly into camera - like the sample provided. Ask the question then have them reframe the question into an answer. Example:
Q: "You are considered by some to be a leader in this field. Why?"
A: "Some consider us a leader in this field since we constantly innovate . . . "

In the edit you simply cut out your questions and coaching leaving just their reframed answers. Have them leave a couple second silent space before speaking.

On lighting:

• The smaller the light source - the harder the shadow
• The further the light source is from talent - the harder the shadow
• So it follows that big sources close to talent produces the softest light with the most wrap. Good for older women.
• Try to position the light above and to the side of talent so the shadow from the nose doesn't drop below the upper lip. The provided sample is a bit sloppy on this.
• Add a small light on camera for eye highlight
• Bring big white bounce cards to fill in the dark side on a single light set-up
• Utilize existing light sources and backgrounds - choose your interview location very carefully. Consider time of day for lighting and really listen to ambient noise levels.
• Start with the background first then build your layers from there. The ambient light will determine your Key Light level and temp. Have the ability to dim the Key Light without color temp shift.
• Audio is critical for a good interview. Best to have a dedicated audio guy for anything important. You can't run camera, direct and monitor audio at the same time and get great results without some luck.
• Lot's of online resources for this type of work - research and practice on your family / friends before a paid gig

Damn Zeb - Very detailed response. Thank you - What do you recommend for softening skin features? 5K is so damn detailed you can see every pore on my face almost too well. And how do you control light shine reflections on cheeks and forehead? I seem to get hotspots

 

[Mark Phelan]

One key is the depth of the room giving you that wonderful background. I'm always in favor of this for interviews. Don't go with the standard three light setup. Softbox key works well, but so do Kinos. I used Celebs for this particular shoot and some of the interviews have a similar feel to them, i.e. Rodney Bullard, but not all. http://phelanx.com/lifework_leadership/ One tip: don't use a hair light, rather create separation by pointing a spot towards the background to create the halo or separation, depending on the room, which is what I see in your example. Might have even done it with a single source and the spill is what you see on the steps.

 

[Ben Scott]

I can't stand the talent looking off camera to a interviewer who is never shown. Amateur stuff. Have the talent look directly into camera - like the sample provided.

They are two completely different looks/feels with a completely different methodology and psychology behind them and both are completely valid choices. Nothing amateurish about it.

Loved the rest of that response though. A great checklist for people to keep in mind.

To the OP, if you decide to shoot people speaking down the lens and the talent is uncomfortable doing that sort of stuff because they aren't pros, rent an Eye-Direct or similar. Fabulous piece of kit to allow you to chat with the subject and maintain eye contact but still have them addressing the camera directly. Can make some seem very candid and intimate, if that's a thing you are going for.

 

[Brendan H. Banks]

They are two completely different looks/feels with a completely different methodology and psychology behind them and both are completely valid choices. Nothing amateurish about it.

Loved the rest of that response though. A great checklist for people to keep in mind.

To the OP, if you decide to shoot people speaking down the lens and the talent is uncomfortable doing that sort of stuff because they aren't pros, rent an Eye-Direct or similar. Fabulous piece of kit to allow you to chat with the subject and maintain eye contact but still have them addressing the camera directly. Can make some seem very candid and intimate, if that's a thing you are going for.

Totally agree. I often do off-camera eyelines for interviews with more emotional stories because I like how comfortable and engaged the subject is, and I think the audience feels like they're in the room for a conversation. Helps both the subject and audience deal with the heavy subject-matter how they choose without being as directly confronted. Definitely a choice you get to make!

Had no idea anything like the Eye-Direct existed. Such a fantastic idea. Will definitely be renting on future projects.

 

[Ben Scott]

I used it with Scarlet-MX for a documentary I shot for the BBC with kids talking about experiences drinking too much. They were just chatting with the Director and the end result was they all gave very intimate and gripping stories looking right down the lens like they were natural storytellers telling you personally. It's basically the Errol Morris machine.

 

[Mark Phelan]

I used it with Scarlet-MX for a documentary I shot for the BBC with kids talking about experiences drinking too much. They were just chatting with the Director and the end result was they all gave very intimate and gripping stories looking right down the lens like they were natural storytellers telling you personally. It's basically the Errol Morris machine.

A.K.A. The Interrotron. I built my own version that allows the interviewer and subject to sit and look directly at one another. Can even film both sides of the interview. First person I tried it on dubbed it "The Box" and we've called it that ever since. Works great.

 

[Tom Dowler]

They are two completely different looks/feels with a completely different methodology and psychology behind them and both are completely valid choices. Nothing amateurish about it.

Yup.

It's not that one is good and one is bad - they're both choices.

And, actually, in my experience the vast, vast majority of interview subjects will perform terribly if asked to do anything other than have a conversation with the interviewer. So the straight to camera option can be hard to pull off well.

 

[Marc Wielage]

Some other quick interview tips I've picked up over the years:

1) always give the subject a backlight to bring them "forward" into the frame, with a darker background

2) shoot them a little bit 3/4 to camera, with the light at an angle and shoot into the shadow side of their face

3) I like about a 1/8 ProMist as a look

4) add a defocus/darkening vignette in post

5) consider very mild skintone-softening in post for "people of a certain age"

6) shoot with 2 cameras, one close (medium chest-to-head), one wide (head to knees) off to an angle to provide additional coverage

7) use a lav and a separate boom, record to 2 tracks, and use whichever sounds better. (Do not ever mix these tracks together.)

 

[Peter Moretti]

They are two completely different looks/feels with a completely different methodology and psychology behind them and both are completely valid choices. Nothing amateurish about it.

Loved the rest of that response though. A great checklist for people to keep in mind.

To the OP, if you decide to shoot people speaking down the lens and the talent is uncomfortable doing that sort of stuff because they aren't pros, rent an Eye-Direct or similar. Fabulous piece of kit to allow you to chat with the subject and maintain eye contact but still have them addressing the camera directly. Can make some seem very candid and intimate, if that's a thing you are going for.

Ben, I checked out the Eye-Direct website: http://eyedirect.tv/

but the info on how exactly the system works was lacking, IMHO.

It seems like it uses a beam splitter; so do you lose a stop of light? Is there any image degradation when using it?

Thanks so much!

 

[Lee Kelly]

Yeah that thing pretty much is a beam splitter idea, only your interviewer sits to the side of the camera, kind of like the off camera eyeline would normally be, however because of the degree of the mirror/splitter the person looking at camera is looking right at the interviewer and vice versa. You do lose a bit of light but not enough that its anything to worry about and as for image degradation, its just a bit of clear glass blacked off to act as a mirror. No problems as long as its clean.
The tips above are spot on. A location with depth is great. Lav and boom ALWAYS. 'Normal' people will almost always bump their lav when talking about themselves as in I do this and I did that (while touching their chest) ARGH!!! Good to have a sound guy too. Use a timecode slate and people feel VERY special.
Light large and soft nice and close but dont get the camera up in their grille. Interviewer eyeline should be at lens level and lens should be at their eye level too (unless youre doing something funky. Dont have plants or similar 'growing out of their heads' and take a few seconds to look at your frame and 'art direct' it a little. Move the water bootle/plastic coffee cup out of shot etc.
Watch out for 'gel flash' or similar effect from passing cars if near a window on a sunny day.
1/8th pro mist or similar is great for everyone. 1/4 if theyre even more in need of some help. (i have had a very famous person make me spin my monitor around so she could see how it was looking. I had focus assist sharpening on and she screamed in horror) Some famous aging women will hold a mirror up and look at themselves under your lighting and demand it be softer. Awkward.
Dont be tempted to have artwork in the b/g as this is IP, especially if in a famous persons house for example where their art is likely to be serious. It may look great but you dont own the right to feature it.

 

[Peter Moretti]

I have to say that I've given up on using lavs. They don't sound as good as a boom, and like you said there is invariably clothing noise. And I've used Sanken COS-11x lavs wired to an SD 302 mixer, so I've given the lav every benefit of the doubt.

If someone is sitting down, there is no way an MKH-60 on a stand will not pick them up fine... well unless the shoot has crazy crazy top space. This set up even works fine with two people if you split the difference. This is b/c the 60 has a wide pattern for shotgun mic. If you need a wider pattern still, I'd go with an MKH-8040. Awesome sounding mic with very nice roll-off.

The lav track(s) just became another thing ignored in post. Just my experience... and HOPE that continues to be the case, LOL!!

 

[Marc Wielage]

I have to say that I've given up on using lavs. They don't sound as good as a boom, and like you said there is in variably clothing noise. And I've Sanken COS-11x lavs wired to an SD 302 mixer, so I've given the lav every benefit of the doubt.

It can be done, but there's always a degree that's clothing-dependent and location-dependent. In a very noisy room, I wouldn't hesitate to go with a lav only, because I know the boom is going to pick up too much ambience and noise. But I tend to use both simply to give the editor and mixer choices. Lav placement and lav mounting is an art unto itself.

 

[Kevin Wild]

We did our own version of the Interrotron a few years ago, very easily. We just used a cheap DV camera to shoot the person asking the questions and output it into our teleprompter. Their image was on the glass and it worked perfectly. As someone else mentioned, there are definitely reasons to NOT have someone interview directly to the camera. It is definitely a different feel than standard interview style. But works well for some subject matter and interviewees... One is as if you are eavesdropping on a conversation and the other is as if the person is speaking to or at you. But nothing wrong with either.

 

[Scott Lamoreaux]

It can be done, but there's always a degree that's clothing-dependent and location-dependent. In a very noisy room, I wouldn't hesitate to go with a lav only, because I know the boom is going to pick up too much ambience and noise. But I tend to use both simply to give the editor and mixer choices. Lav placement and lav mounting is an art unto itself.

Marc - I have a NTG-3 and a Zoom H6 that I'm using for sound. I'm not producing films but more doc work and interview style setups to market my real estate business only at this point. When I do my short films to market properties, I will in the future hire a sound guy as there is a budget that supports it. For the setup that I have, what do you recommend in post to make the audio sound pretty good without having a strong background in sound mixing?

I use iZotope RX5 to remove and unwanted background noise but beyond that, I feel my recordings sound too bassy and not quite that professional sound I'm looking for. (yes I know, it should be left to professionals but I can't afford to pay for someone all the time) -

Any help would be amazing! (recording settings, filters, adjustments, etc) - I'm sure its a broad question but just anything you can think of to help me.

Thank you,

S

 

[Scott Lamoreaux]

I have to say that I've given up on using lavs. They don't sound as good as a boom, and like you said there is invariably clothing noise. And I've used Sanken COS-11x lavs wired to an SD 302 mixer, so I've given the lav every benefit of the doubt.

If someone is sitting down, there is no way an MKH-60 on a stand will not pick them up fine... well unless the shoot has crazy crazy top space. This set up even works fine with two people if you split the difference. This is b/c the 60 has a wide pattern for shotgun mic. If you need a wider pattern still, I'd go with an MKH-8040. Awesome sounding mic with very nice roll-off.

The lav track(s) just became another thing ignored in post. Just my experience... and HOPE that continues to be the case, LOL!!

Peter the question is directed at you as well since you seem to use boom mics more.

 

[Bill Stengel]

Damn Zeb - Very detailed response. Thank you - What do you recommend for softening skin features? 5K is so damn detailed you can see every pore on my face almost too well. And how do you control light shine reflections on cheeks and forehead? I seem to get hotspots

Powder in a shade close to the subject's skin tone (put together a kit of 4 or 5 shades to cover off the various complexions out there from pasty New Englander to dark African-American and plenty of sponges), or I've found blotting film to be indispensable in a pinch or when OMB'ing it: http://www.sephora.com/mattifying-blotting-films-P388013?skuId=1417286&icid2=products grid:p388013. Remember to check and re-apply or re-blot every so often (more often with true hot lights).