How to do an interview as a one man band.

Hi, thanks for reaching my site.

I often have to go out alone on shoots, and since I have been concentrating on scripted editing with a course called Mastertheworkflow to raise myself to Second Assistant level.

I have to pause the course due to some unforseen circumstances. So I have come to back to home films school and brush up on my filming skills as I am applying for videographer roles and I know I will be called to do a lot of filming by myself which I have done for nearly 50 video's now, delivered to clients.

I have below some screen shots I took of one of the best lessons for setting up an interview by myself.

This is the link here. https://youtu.be/o5f5c_7isbw

And I have distilled his talking points to a few shots of what I found the most pertinant, everything he said was on point and it has really relaxed me for when I am called upon to film an interview by myself.

Below is a pic/screenshot of the rule of thirds and placing the interviewee in the right frame for a professional interview.

Lighting is so important to give a good atmosphere for the viewers in the finished shot. This is a nice and easy example of Three point lighting, starting with the Key Light, The Fill Light and the Back Light.

A quick note, the tutor-youtuber, lol, correctly put that we should put the room lights of on every light that is being set up, so you know what it looks like in the dark so to speak.

Using Rycote stickies to fasten the lapel mic is good thinking, and helps the line of the mic be discreetly put away.

Sorry about the softness of this picture, but its basically saying, ask the interviewee to repeat the question in their answer, a really good tip, as I have just done a video interview, and repeating the answer in the question is really good form and SO helpful!

DON"T INTERRUPT. This tip will save your life. I remember when I was in radio training school (my Broadcast Journalism post graduate) and the life saving tip of just nodding your head when someone is talking, so you can catch and get EVERY single they say without hearing you nod, and say "uh hmmms"

A balanced waveform on higher spec camera's is crucial to achieve good exposure. This example on a professional spec camera shows where the color is balanced in the frame, and the lower waves show the background. I just remembered, do not put someone directly up against a wall as this will blow out the frame and you want be able to get a soft depth of field of the interviewers background.

This is beyond crucial, having the right shuttter speed when filming interviews is paramount to capturing a good interview and will leave you in the good books of your line manager.

DO NOT FORGET TO WHITEBALANCE. Don't do what i've done in the past and just used the auto features for a mates shoot three years back, we just had yellow looking pictures and I nearly died. Remember to white balance, it's as crucial as breathing in videographer.