Shooting a Video Interview
Written by Dave Peters, Fairview Village Church   
One of the most important components of documentary video production is the interview.  The critical components include not only include what is said, but also the compositional and lighting aesthetics that can literally make or break an interview. The “look” is very critical to good communication.   These are often subliminal cues that a good videographer understands and will carefully consider when choosing the location, lighting and props for an interview.  Many times the viewer is not aware of why they are so positively influenced by these cues, but the effects are real.  Conversely, they are often subliminally distracted as well.  The lighting, composition, the background, the depth of field, are all important factors to creating a positive environment to support the context of what is being communicated by the person on camera.

 The Lighting

There are many ways to create a pleasing look with your lighting for use in a video interview.  It’s important to create a lighting complement that doesn’t distract from the person on camera.  A soft light source is usually the key.  An umbrella light or a soft box are commonly used to create this soft light source.  It allows the light to wrap itself around the subject.  It creates a smooth transition from the light areas of a person’s face to the shadows.  It also helps to cover any irregularities on a person’s face.

Here is a basic lighting setup for a single person interview:
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Composition

In shooting, there are many different “rules” that make for good composition.  The most important for you to know and remember is the “rule of thirds.”  This is where the frame is divided up into different zones that help you locate the most power places to compose various images.   Try to place important elements of the image near these imaginary lines.  In shooting an interview, for example, these rules are very useful to create a composition that is the most pleasing for the viewer.  Composition has many subliminal ways of affecting the viewer.  Violating the basics can hurt the effectiveness of communication process.  If you know and understand the rules, you not only know when to apply them, but also when to break them with purpose.
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The Background

It is important to have a background that is complementary to your interview and not distracting.  It also should contain elements that support the theme or topic the interviewee is discussing.  Watch out for things that seem to be growing out of the person’s head.  The further the background is from the subject the greater likelihood the background will be slightly out of focus.  A defocused background provides a 3 dimensional look to the shot as well as mutes the background allowing the foreground to truly be the center of interest.

Some ideas:

  • Have the edge of a plant coming in to the frame.
  • Shoot the background light through a plant to create a pattern on the background.
  • Using colored gels helps to add dimension to the frame.
  • Use a lamp on the edge of the frame.
  • If there is an object in the background try to use the persons head as the dividing line.  You shouldn’t see the object on either side of the person’s head.


Some things to remember:

  • As you do multiple interviews for a given project try to vary to screen direction of the interviewee.
  • Watch the person with glasses.  You will often have to get creative to get rid of the umbrella light reflection in their glasses.  Try raising the light and moving it more to the side.  Smaller light source is helpful in solving this problem.  Moving the light further from the subject makes the light “smaller.”  (But is also lowers the light intensity)
  • Always try to shoot interior interviews with the aperture nearly wide-open this minimizes the depth of field and allows the background to go out of focus.  This isn’t the optimal aperture for lens performance, but it does create the best selective focus look.  A good trade off in my opinion.