Robert Chappell

Hello everyone, I will try to answer questions as I remember them. Donald Rumsfeld was photographed several times with 2 Red One cameras. At that time it was the only set up where we could shoot very long non-stop takes, sometimes hours at a time. Background was green screen, chosen mostly because we had not decided yet what the background should be. Also, we didn't know if we would have to shoot Rumsfeld in different locations and we wanted it to seem like one seamless interview. Some of the interviews were months apart, but we had him wear the same wardrobe. Errol always wants the freedom to be able to move the subject both in size and position in editorial. That only works well with a neutral background. Green screen works, but it does involve heavy post work. On previous projects we used a non-discript background which gave reframing options, but only needed to clone diffuse "wings" on either side of the image, extending the size of the set artificually. The A camera was a medium shot, I think with a 40mm or 50mm. The camera cannot be too far from the subject, or the connection between them and Errol's image in the teleprompter can be too far away. The B camera was on a dolly to allow variations of side angles. Since the A camera was static, I would push the B camera dolly myself, basically operating both A & B cameras. However, in the end, I don't think we gained much by moving the B camera. A 3/4 side angle seemed to work the best. The IBM background was an evolution from a previous set, but we were able to diffuse it further using a single 12x12 net behind the subject. All the best to everyone. Bob Chappell