Filming Interviews: Demystified
Filming Interviews: Demystified
Interviews can make or break your campaign, documentary, or commercial. Having a formula to follow can make things easier and allow you to focus on story.
My name is Ahmad and I’m a cinematographer in Washington D.C. - working on documentaries, commercials, and narrative films. Having shot hundreds of interviews in various settings, I'm here to share some patterns and concepts to help you tell your story.
The most important thing to do is identify what type of information you're trying to get across.
Think big picture / tone / mood. The look of your interview can greatly aid or detract from your messaging. Is it an emotional interview? An educational/explainer? Is the subject speaking from a place of authority? If you keep prying away at the "why", you'll narrow down how you need to approach your interview. Here are a few examples of intentionality in that regard:
This interview of Dr. Fauci, directed by Raji Ramanathan, was about his upbringing in New York as an Italian-American. The warm tonality and intimate composition reflect that and aid in the story.
The church Pastor is emphasizing the importance of health consciousness in their community and the great work a healthcare organization has been doing there. Positioning the Pastor in a relaxed pose puts him in a place of authority and optimism in this documentary - he has everything under control.
Host-led shows can also be approached the same way as interviews and visa-versa. In Backspace with Sana Saeed by AJ+, we placed her center position on a desk with work around her to create an educational feel. When the viewer sees this, they subconsciously open themselves up to digesting information.
Onto more technical things - location, lighting, and composition. The goal is depth, both in story and image.
There are a few things I'm immediately looking for when scouting interview spaces.
Does the space reflect the character? An easy way to achieve this is to ask your character to list all of the places they spend time in on a weekly basis. You don’t necessarily have to go to the actual place they occupy - you’re just looking to get close to the feeling of said place.
Look for windows. Windows in frame give you motivation for additional lighting. An artificial light coming from the same side of a window in the shot can make the lighting feel natural. Try and avoid locations without windows, as they can quickly feel artificial.
Corners give you more depth. Shooting into corners, or the “L” of the room, is an easy way to ensure you have good physical depth between your subject and the background. This gives you the chance to place props on the left and right of your subject that create leading lines. We'll discuss a scenario where we ignore this rule in an example.
Let's break down three different case studies and discuss the decision making process behind them.
Case Study #1
The Treat Lady is a micro doc, directed by Zachary Cusson, about a woman that feeds 30+ dogs treats every morning since her dog passed away.
Location: Zachary did an initial scout and sent over photos of different rooms in the subjects house beforehand. Her space was tight so we placed the camera in the dining room and used the living room as a backdrop.
Lighting: The windows to the right worked as great motivation for our light source. It feels as if they're the same light. Good lighting is lighting that you don't notice. We placed the lamp behind her to the left to give some separation between the shadow side of her face and the background. The orange rim light you see on her is one of our lights (not shown in the BTS photo) that is set to the same color temperature as the lamp. As a reference, she was almost in complete silhouette when we looked at the camera monitor before setting up any lights. You might get anxious when you first see that, but it's a good sign that you have full control over your subject's lighting. Trust the process and pursue intentionality. The shot will come together.
Composition: Since this was a deep and emotional story, we decided on just having one camera that was physically close to her. The goal was to have just enough width in the frame to tell that we're in her living space. We're shooting into the corner here to give us maximum depth.
Case Study #2
In a documentary about how a non-profit serves people, this woman shares how they've helped in her situation. We break a few of the "rules" in this one.
Location: This was shot at the subjects house. We didn't have location photos to go off of, so we did a quick scout of the possible places we could shoot without disturbing her family's peace that morning. We landed on shooting through the dining room and into the living room - making it feel like one big room with lots of depth.
Lighting: We started off by subtracting light instead of adding it. You basically want to get to a point where your subject isn't hit by too much natural light so you can control the color/levels of light on them (similar to case study #1). For the key light, we used a 5ft octobox with bleached muslin draped over it. Bleached muslin is a great diffusion fabric and can be pretty inexpensive at Joann Fabrics. We decided to break the rule of having the light come from the same side as the window because we liked the balance of the frame. Especially keeping the left side of the room darker. One thing you're always looking for to make a frame better is: alternating light and shadow.
Composition: You don't necessarily have to shoot into a corner - sometimes a flat wall can be good if you have a level of symmetry and depth to support it. In this case, the dark props on both sides converged into her and gave the frame a natural focal point. We composed her in the middle with lots of room around her to aid the story of how she was alone before an organization helped her.
Case Study #3
Coming back to the Dr. Fauci interview to wrap it up.
Location: We didn't have Dr. Fauci's home at our disposal and knew the shot would be close/intimate, so we rented a hotel room. The goal was to keep it simple to match the story he was telling while still adding some depth.
Lighting: Just like the case study #2, we started by adding black everywhere we could. Taping black plastic table cloth to the ceiling/wall in addition to laying down black fabric on the floor underneath him. Subtracting light in environments with light/white walls is extremely important and can make or break the depth you can possibly achieve. Without it, too much light would bounce everywhere and creating shape would be difficult. For the key light, we shot two lights into a big sheet of bleached muslin. After shooting lights through diffusion, the diffusion becomes the source, and an easy thing to remember is: bigger source = softer light. Softer light usually makes people look better and is more invisible/natural looking.
Composition: We're shooting directly into the corner and have framed the window on the same side as our lights. We placed props in the background to create a converging focal point.
The best thing to do in interview scenarios is to take it slow and be intentional. The answers to your questions will become clear as you ask them.
If you like this, consider sharing with a friend! Happy to answer questions about any of this - feel free to shoot me an email at ahmadasaadDP@gmail.com
If you’d like to follow my work, I can be found on Instagram @ahmadasaaddp
