Framing head-on studio shots

As solo reporters and videographers, many of us are often required to shoot interview subjects head-on, rather than the traditional interview format where the subject addresses a reporter sitting to the side of the camera.

In pre-taped packages, the traditional looking interview usually involves the subject occupying approximately a third of the screen and looking off to the side.

But the head-on shot can be used for various reasons, for example if the interviewee in your package is in a remote location, or if you are shooting a tape-sync which will be used as an as-live remote interview.

However, I have seen some extraordinarily badly framed head-on shots, so I thought I'd write a little blurb explaining how I try to shoot them. As usual this is not a definitive how-to, as I'm sure you can tell. Rather it is just my favored method:

1) Make sure you give the subject plenty of headroom. There isn't very much room for error in this part. For this kind of shot you do not want to chop of any of the subject's head, but you also don't want to give them too much head room.



2) Remember to leave enough room at the bottom of the screen for the lower-3rd caption. Bare in mind the size of the lower 3rd used by the outlet you are shooting for. Here is an example above that I shot for Newsmax TV. You can see that I have given the interviewee a little bit of headroom but left plenty of space for the caption.

3) Make sure you pay attention to your background. Don't situate your subject in front of anything too distracting, or an object that will appear to be protruding from the person's body.

Sometimes according to the style of the outlet you are shooting for, you may need to use a blank background. In this case, the client favored a plain background rather than a room. I used a sheet which I then lit from one side using a Lowell Pro light. This gave the background a nice texture and prevented the subject casting a drop shadow.

4) Make sure to center the interviewee correctly. This is particularly important if the station you are shooting for uses a split screen showing the anchor and interviewee.

Personal profiles in news stories

I've just wrapped up a story for Voice of America on the use of video games as teaching tools in American classrooms.

You can see the complete story here.

"In the last two decades, American students have fallen behind in critical subjects like math, science and reading. In 2005, the U.S. ranked ninth among some industrialized nations in the percentage of students graduating from secondary school.

American education officials are searching for novel ways to stimulate learning again. One tool that is getting some attention is the use of video games.The National Education Association says some schools across the country are now incorporating video into learning."



For this story, the fact that it's about a video game helps immensely with the question of b-roll. I used a mixture of provided digital files containing footage of the video game, and my own screen shots which I filmed from a flat screen panel to avoid strobing. To get the best results shooting a computer monitor I film the screen slightly dark and then brighten the picture when editing. I find this helps bring the colors out nicely.

But the more important point is to do with the scripting. It's one of those pieces that really requires a personal profile - no matter how short. Here I use a student that takes the course covered by the video game. Personal profiles are often key to humanizing a story so that viewers can relate to it. 

Below you can see another example of this in a story I recently put together, also for VOA.

"Midwives are growing in popularity as the caregivers of choice among expectant mothers, with the number of midwife-attended births in the United States doubling between 1991 and 2008. Fueling the trend is the shortage of obstetricians and the low-cost of midwife services for women with no health insurance."



As you can see from this example, profiling subjects can be a useful way to make a story interesting and colorful when you have very few pictures to work with, as in this case.

Many news pieces require a personal story. If you're responsible for setting up interviews for your own pieces before shooting them, it's something worth thinking about.

FSN staffers get Emmy nod

Two of my colleagues here at Feature Story News (Simon Marks and Denis Levkovich) have been nominated for an Emmy for their work on covering the terrorist attacks in Mumbai for The Newshour with Jim Lehrer on PBS.

OUTSTANDING COVERAGE OF A BREAKING NEWS STORY IN A NEWS MAGAZINE:

Executive Producer
Linda Winslow
Senior Producer
Michael Mosettig
Producers
Denis Levkovich, Daniel Sagalyn
Correspondent
Simon Marks

Here is a sample of Simon's reporting from India:

Covering crowds, traveling light

When you're a one-man-band reporter, traveling light is essential. This is especially true when out covering events with large numbers of people, such as protests, vigils etc.

I have included a story here that I produced for the Pan-Asian satellite network, Channel NewsAsia, on the Michael Jackson memorial in Los Angeles. I covered the event for several international radio outlets too. Clearly, the footage from inside the Staples Center is from the pool feed, but the material shot outside among the crowd is my original b-roll.

In the piece I use a couple of wide-shots filmed from an elevated position. This gives a reasonable idea of how big the crowd is (not very big), followed by mostly tight-shots of faces. The key to this story is the color - trying to demonstrate to the viewer the colorfulness of the characters there.

In cases like these, there is no need to insert into the script one's own views of the Jackson fans. Let the pictures tell the story. It is what it is. This is always a good lesson, plus helps keep down time.

For this shoot, all I took with me was a stick mic, camera, tripod and reflector - that's it. It was a sunny day so no need for lights. It was also a quick turnaround for air so there was no time for a major production.