Production

REMINDER

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING

SUBSTANCE > STYLE

THE CAMERA WORK SHOULD FEEL REAL AND RAW

• Avoid lighting scenes - rely on available light unless placing a light is absolutely necessary for exposure.
• Fly-on-the-wall instead of over-produced.

Verite

Verité is a general term for any non-interview scene work where we’re following a character or group of characters through an event, process or other action. The best stuff we can hope to get from a scene is unscripted real moments of the host interacting with a subject; you’re only going to get that stuff if you’ve got the camera on and ready at all times. That being said, the host doesn’t have to be in every scene and there are plenty of subjects who don’t immediately warm up to the host asking questions. If you see that a vérité scene is happening in front of you without the host, don’t worry about cutting them out and focusing on the interaction of the characters in front of you. Just make sure you or the second cam gets enough coverage and reaction shots from the host to cut him into the scene if need be.

When shooting vérité:

• I like to follow the host or character into a scene and stop roughly 20 ft. away from whomever they are meeting to shoot their introduction and the host’s first question.
• Then you can reposition yourself and the other cam according to what looks best in a scene.
• If you need to interrupt and move people around make sure you choose a time after you’ve shot an intro and don’t do it without telling the producer – let them decide when to interrupt. Content comes first but it’s for you and the producer to decide when to interfere.
• It’s always a choice between keeping a vibe and art-directing a scene to make it prettier.
• Preferred over sit-down interviews.
• Loose, moving.
• Wider end of the lens.
• If anything is indicated or referred to, be sure shoot it or note it and get a shot of it later.

PIECE TO CAMERA OR “PTC”

Most of our stories are host-driven so throughout the piece we’ll want them checking in with pieces to camera. Typically these are framed center with the host looking directly into lens, shoot wide enough so you give a sense of place and your shot is steady.

• Make to get intros/outros with host.
• Get lots of host check-ins to camera.
• Even if unhosted, its ok for subjects to check in with camera about what is going on. I like to simple ask “what’s going on right now?” and most folks are good at answering in the moment - often times more naturally than in a sit-down.

Sit-downs

Unless it’s a series with a specific look, the general rules of thumb here are to have consistent eye-lines between your character and guest (or producer if un-hosted). Basic interview setup is outlined below – check with producer or a DP if you want to do something radically different.

• Natural light is best.
• Can bring a light to supplement the available but do NOT over light!
• Hosted sit-downs: at least 2 cameras. A Cam on subject. B cam starts as master then moves to dirty single of host after a bit. Pick up some reaction shots from host afterwards.
  • Plug both lavs - host and subject - into A camera. Make sure B-camera is getting room audio.
• Unhosted sit downs: can be 1 or 2 camera (wide and tight for 2 cam). Subject should address off-camera interviewer. Be sure to get complete sentences.
  • Close up shot for unhosted 2-camera interviews should be closest to interviewer.

Producers: It’s essential that crews have enough time to setup a sit-down interview and doubly important that you locate a room that is accommodating to a professional interview setup.

For hosted pieces, 2 camera setup is ideal.

Be sure to get a non-interview wide shot of the host and interviewee chatting for use as intro or b-roll.

This is an ideal 3 camera set up: wide shot isn’t too close and a natural window key on an overcast day should be a consistent light source on host and guests. Always be able to see both eyes of guest, never shoot in profile.

This interview is bad. Eye-lines are wonky and subjects are too close to background

Hidden Identities

Depending on the sensitivity of your subject-matter this is extremely important. Always know ahead of time if you're shooting with someone whose identity has to be hidden and more importantly when it needs to be hidden. It’s good to avoid blurs but sometimes we shouldn’t be able to see their face even in the raw footage. Try not to put masks on every anonymous subject you encounter - use light or blocking when possible. For hosted hidden identities shoot a dirty single of your host on A-cam and the subject’s hands only on B-cam.

Translated Interviews

Make sure your translator is standing next to the host on the same side of the camera. Same goes for walk and talks and sit-downs. Make sure the host is asking questions to the guest, not the translator, and make sure the guest is responding to the host not the translator. These two things will naturally occur, and you can only try so hard to avoid them before you end up ruining the scene and vibe. Coverage can be very easy during these interviews if you pay attention. During a long translation, shoot hands, reactions, etc... also if you are one camera you can shoot the hosts question and re-frame for the guest during the translation. And vice versa. It’s easiest to do this standing and hand- held.

Crowds, Conventions & Loud Areas

• If you’re going into a convention hall, sporting event, or other crazy crowded scenario and planning to do OTF interviews, it is best to budget for and hire a sound operator.
• If this isn’t a possibility, its ok to bring a wireless handheld mic and have the host conduct interviews with it. Keep the host lav’d and use the second channel for the hand mic.
• When shooting the close up of the subject, try to minimize the hand mic in the frame.

COVERAGE

What is coverage?

Coverage, most simply, is the amount of footage and angles used to film a scene.

I tend to use it to denote anything that isn’t a “master” shot - or the main wide shot of the action happening.

It’s important to understand coverage because it is what editors use to edit down the film. It can be anything - reaction shots of the host, b-roll of the area, insert shots of objects within a scene, a close-up of the person speaking or the reverse angle of who they are speaking to.

When shooting a documentary, try to think about how you want to cover a scene - do you want to spend a lot of time looking at a single person (as with a very unique individual that you’re interviewing) or do you want to look at anything BUT the interviewee?

With visual storytelling, coverage is important because it can give new understanding or emotion to an otherwise simple story. In the master shot, we want to see the area, orient ourselves as an audience and understand the context of the people we’re watching. But if everything is wide all the time, it’s hard to connect with each character individually. We then have to cut in to a medium or close up shot to get a clear view of someone’s face.

If you can start thinking in terms of master shot/coverage/reverse/insert/cutaway, you can start to pre-edit the film in your mind as you shoot - as a shooter or a producer, you have to spend some time thinking like an editor. How will it all come together? What sort of pacing? What is the camera movement revealing or concealing? These decisions should stem from the story.

An old standard doc technique that holds up is to keep everyone in a comfortable medium shot. The only time to get closer is if someone is emotional - then pushing in slightly closer to them causes the viewer to connect immediately with that emotion.

Cutaways

To avoid confusion between cutaways and b-roll, let’s call cutaways anything you shoot in-situ to help the editor cut seamlessly around conversations or interviews. If you’re shooting a conversation between two people on a city block and someone is jackhammering across the street and you get a shot of it, that’s a cutaway. You need cutaways for every single scene you shoot. Before you leave a city block, a tour of a grocery store, or an interview make sure you’ve got listening shots of the host, anything we can see that’s been pointed at or talked about during that conversation, and any noise sources.

Producers: No matter how much you trust your cam op make sure before you leave a scene you’ve both talked about what you both think the scene needed and what shots have been covered.

B-Roll

Get b-roll of things as often as you can. Use sticks. Grab establishing shots of interview locations, time lapses, pretty sequences of some spice market, etc. Shoot now and don’t count on being able to do it some other time. That being said, there should be a b-roll day scheduled during the shoot – ideally towards the end when you have a better understanding of the story as it’s developed on the ground. Throughout the shoot, the producer and crew should be keeping a list of shots you’ve missed and things that are essential to get. Ex: driving routes, references from interviews, establishing shots, transitioning shots.

• “Hose it down”: shoot every location you visit from a variety of angles.
• Establishing shots! Make sure to get exteriors of anywhere you visit.
• For towns or specific areas, shoot streets and street signs.
• Make it pretty, make it tell a story.
• Use a tripod or other stabilization.
• You can shoot B-roll handheld if pressed for time but make sure its as stable as possible.
• Frame shot, roll, count to (at least) five before cutting or reframing.
• Don’t pan/tilt just for the sake of moving the camera - make it tell a story.

Producers: Schedule a b-roll day. Can also be a good time for stand-ups you and the host have written throughout the week.

A NOTE ON TIME DILATION

Avoid using slow motion or time lapse unless it is absolutely necessary:

• if something happens too fast for the naked eye to register, slow motion is ok.
• For a big build that’s going to take a while, its ok to use time lapse.
• For some driving B-roll, if the road is too bumpy, I’ll use 48fps (50% speed).
• Otherwise, keep it real-time!

MEDIA MANAGEMENT