Always getting the same look

[Malik Sajid]

There is a sports program that our section do, and i do a segment which is interview of a sports person(sometimes a player, an official, a former player, a coach, board chairmen, federation chairmen etc ). Ok, its a one to one interview a host talking to the guest. I use three cameras and take the work of four i.e. put one camera on guest taking mid shot, another one taking a closeup of the guest, third one on a long taking master, which takes a mid shot of host as well.

 

Anywayz.......well the thing is i use sony pd 150 dv cams. I usually have five 1000 watt open face tungston lights. What i am talking about is that i always get the same boring look in the final out. I try to play with the camera angles, not the usual three camera interview. Its the always the same look, cross keying setup that goes quite flat. I try to use props and other things to make in interesting, but not that impressive.

 

What could have i done in order to make the interviews interesting.

 

I will try to post the stills of the some of the interviews, so you guyz can take a look.

 

Regards

[Malik Sajid]

here are some of the stills

[Walter Graff]

Move the chairs away from the walls. Put a china ball with a black skirt in the middle of the two so it lights them but does not hit the walls much. Add soft color to the walls in a pattern or soft slash. Look for more than white walls as a backgrounds as in temporarily hang photos, pictures, tables with props, etc behind talent. Dutch your camera slightly and left or right so it makes for more interesting cuts between two.

[Chris Keth]

Also the wardrobe is extremely boring, and the same palette as the set walls. Half of good-looking work is having good-looking stuff to point the camera at.

[Kiarash Sadigh]

All the above is great, I just want to add the fact that you can back light them too...if the still you've posted is in studio, then back lighting is not an issue, however if this is on location with a 9' ceiling, you have a little challenge to face...last time I back lit a shot like that I had a 2k boompole right beside the camera reaching deep into the set, behind and above the actors, then I hung a 2by2 kino (which by the way creates a lot of torque when reached that far) so you have to sand bag the hell out of your pole...

other notes:

put a dimmer on your practical and dim it down, cut your walls by hanging a cutter or a solid flag if you have the means, avoid leather furniture, try to shoot letter box if possible...this particular still you've posted has too much head room imo...take your camera back and zoom in to maintain a similar composition with less dof, use your nd filter/shutter speed to open up aperture, avoid showing feet they can be distracting...good luck

cheers,

Kiarash

[Malik Sajid]

Well, yah, this particular segment in which i record the interviews, is mainly done on locations. Some times its in offices, or drawing rooms, sometimes outdoor in a park or something. So there is always a problem, u know walls in a drawing room are usually white or batch or something like that. And you know small spaces that u cant create the setup away from walls.

 

 

Kiarash Sadigh! good suggestions. The still that i posted above is one of the master. I tried to post close ups of this shoot, but this forum didnt allow me to post more than 100 kb. I will try to post more.

 

Should i always light the walls in a way that the characters in the foreground are brighter than the walls and the walls should always be less bright than the foreground characters. In a way to create the contrast.

[Malik Sajid]

Here are couple of more screen grabs

 

Another Setup

 

 

A Wider one

 

 

All seems very flat, no contrast at all.

[Michael Nash]

Flag your key lights off the walls.

[Malik Sajid]

yah..........thanks Nash