Interviews

The process of teaching some of the finer points of personal video production can be somewhat chaotic. Where do you begin? What is helpful to one may be obvious or uninspiring to another. An important part of the task over the next few months is to build a body of content that will present a foundation in the basics of digital video. It is a lot of ground to cover.

Episode 5 – Interviews

I expect much of this content will be about how you can use your camera to tell your story. The choices you have available may seem a subtle at first but they can dramatically affect your video.

Let’s take camera height. All too often we see footage of a child taken from the adult’s point of view. We watch home movies where we see are the tops of a lot of little heads and upturned faces. When I shoot kids, or anyone for that matter, I work to set the height of the camera to be level with the eyes of the subject. That means when I am photographing someone less than six feet tall (my height) I take the camera off my shoulder and drop it to the right height. This can make a huge difference. Take a look at the power of the little girl describing peacocks in this episode’s video. She talks directly into the camera, she is full of energy, and we have a glimpse into her world. I certainly am not the first to point out that the world of a four-year-old can have the same power and insight as that of a fifty-four-year-old. Thinking about your camera position will help you to show the moment with integrity.

This episode is not about camera angles, oddly enough. It is about how you can tell a story. When we shoot home movies we usually just spray the camera around the room. Hosing down the event as if the place was on fire. We see Uncle Ed in the corner, there is Aunt Ethel at the table with her Niece, and look, there is the toddler unwrapping a gift. It is a string of random moments with little connective narrative. A great way to create home movies you will treasure for a lifetime is to interview the people in your video. Have them tell you what they are doing, how they feel, what is important about the day or the event, who they are, why they are there… I think you get the idea. This is your chance to play journalist and ask them who, what, when, where, why and how. It is not an inquisition, but their answers can give perspective to otherwise confusing footage. Besides, you will have the added benefit of using your interviews as the narrative spine of your video.