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Allen Moore's Interview Demo

Page history last edited by Zoe Keller 14 years, 2 months ago

These are the notes I took out during Allen Moore's demo - if you read them over please correct anything I got wrong/left out. -Zoe

 

  • Filmmakers Handbook – Great book that can answer all kinds of basic questions about filming

 

CHECKING OUT EQUIPMENT

  • Always check kit before you leave on location to make sure battery charged, light bulb isn’t burned out
  • Always checkout power chords & power strips
  • Check to make sure these are in camera kit: 
    • AC power supply
    • Battery charger
    • Composite cable – green, red and blue ends – attaches camera to monitor
  • Always good to have a monitor with you – surer color representation & helps you see the frame better & if you have someone conducting an interview, helps them to see the frame as they ask questions checkout
    • Bring a milk crate/something to put monitor on

 

THE EQUIPMENT

  • Camera:
    • set to shoot HDV 1080I (DV is same quality as mini-DV camera)
    • In menu:
    • Audio set in menu – can choose info about the audio settings – turn microphone noise reduction on
    • XLR set in menu – gives you settings for the two XLR inputs (plugs below where the camera mike goes – you plug the camera mike XLR input into the camera)
  • Audio:
    • Ambient mic – on top of the camera, not good for picking up voice b/c too far away, better to use lavalier mic,
    • Sennheiser K6 – long skinny mic, screw head onto longer part (power supply, takes battery)
    • Boom mic:
      • Clip Sennheiser into shock mount, slide into the blimp
      • Boom pole – turn rubber sections to allow you to extend/shorten the boom pole, screw boom pole into the top of the blimp
      • Put cable into Sennheiser into the Sound mixer 
      • Screw on back end of the blimp, bend cable and will come out of a little hole
      • Wind screen – big fuzzy sock, slide over blimp & snap it on – can prevent distortion in 30-40 mph wind
    • Lavalier mic – clip onto
      • Transmitter – has a single, floppy aerial
      • Lavalier mic – clip on mechanism on top of mic, mic is fragile so be sure not to drop, unwind audio cable
      • Headphones – need to bring your own
      • To use Lavalier mic:
        • Screw mic into transmitter
        • Make sure battery level is on two black squares on the transmitter because loses battery very quickly – takes two double A batteries
        • Turn on transmitter
        • Plug cable into output plug on receiver
        • Turn on receiver and check batteries
        • Then plug other end of cable into the camera input on top of the camera, hook receiver to camera handle
    • Sound Mixer: separates sound out so that the audio person can listen to to adjust audio without messing with camera while the camera-person is shooting
      • Make sure inputs for this camera are set to line level from microphone if you are using the sound mixer (see audio settings)
        • If you are not using sound mixer (if you are just shooting and doing audio yourself), set to microphone
      • Flip to internal power, if light starts to flicker/go red, put in two more double A batteries
      • Has separate channels for left & right, also numbered 1 & 2
      • Keep switch below knob that controls input for left on L, keep switch below knob that controls input for right on R, otherwise could cross them or put them together
      • Match mixer single and camera single is to send camera 0VU tone generated by mixer – switch 1KHZ (1 kilohertz), lights turn on – the lights on mixer are an anolog scale, so 0 is in middle
        • On sound mixer – want b/n 0 and +4 or +8, any higher you get distortion
        • On camera – adjust volume levels on top of camera near where mic goes – want to be in the middle 
      • Breakaway Cable: need to check this out separately from the sound mixer, only one available for checkout
        • allows you to keep left and right channels separate with a single cable
        • disconnect microphone that goes onto the camera, take off receiver for lavalier mic
        • Red is right, blue is left – put these into the inputs on top of camera below where mic goes
        • Velcro the cable to the handle
        • There is a place to plug in the headphones on the camera
        • On the sound mixer itself, #2 is red, #1 is blue
          • Put headphone connector into tape return
          • On the other side of the sound mixer are audio inputs – channel 1 for lavalier, channel 2 for boom mic
    • Audio Settings:
      • In menu (accessed through knob on back of camera):
        • Audio manual gain is separate
        • Trim – leave at 0
        • Input 1 wind – if you are doing outdoor work, turn it on
        • Toggle down to Audio-set
          • Go down to XLR set
          • Go down to Input level – change to line
          • Input level 2 – change to line
          • Go to return, go to end
          • When you do this, the audio signal doesn’t work unless you sound mixer
      • On the side of the camera on top where mic is, opposite side of where you plug in the inputs, control external XLR inputs:
        • Audio level can be adjusted – look at the bottom right corner of the screen, don’t want to hit 0, red on right b/c that’s distortion, try to float in the middle
        • To turn camera mic on, press phantom power button (phantom power just means that the power is coming from the camera) all the way to the right on the top of the camera
        • Record channel select switch - Channel 1/Channel 2 switch all the way to the left on the top of the camera – channel 1 means that both lavalier and camera mic are coming in as single audio track, switch down to channel 2 separates lavalier & camera mic into two audio tracks
  • Monitor: Panasonic monitor available for
    • Make sure batteries charged when you checkout
    • During an interview, you can slide battery charger onto back of monitor and plug into the wall to use as an ac power supply
    • Battery slides onto back of AC power adaptor/battery charger to charge, need to flip switch on side of battery to release from charger
    • Setting up the Monitor:
      • On the back of the monitor, connect short cable from power supply into control – powers the control panel for the monitor
      • Back of monitor: 3 plug-ins called “BNC” connectors on top left back of monitor – you need to find an RCA to BNC adaptor that will connect RCA cables to monitor
      • Monitor connector: on backside right is a fold-out door that reveals plug for RCA cable on top, then connect cables into BNC connectors on monitor (B for blue, G for green, etc.) – push in, aligning slots of barrel with pegs of mount, turn clockwise to lock
      • Then turn on monitor power - On/off power switch on back
      • To make sure monitor & camera colors are aligned – “set the color bars”
        • Need to go into menu for camera – there is a button on back that says menu
        • Will see choices on screen, scroll through with knob below menu, push knob to select – select camera set menu
        • Scroll down to color bars, turn on
        • Now go to the monitor:
        • Turn on blue, you shouldn’t be able to see color difference between the top shaft and the smallest boxes in the middle
        • Key buttons are on the bottom of the monitor: chroma, brightness and phase
        • Peaking measures sharpness
        • Go out of blue into color, look at the three thin grey & black bars on the bottom right of the monitor, change brightness so you can see the middle of the three thin bars but not the outer two
        • On the camera:
        • Go back into menu – go to camera set, scroll down to color bars, turn color bars off, press ok, go to return, go to end
  • Shoulder brace – attaches to camera where tripod usually screws in, allows you to brace camera on your shoulder so you can hold it for long periods of time without your arm getting tired. Only one available for check-out.
  • Tripods           
    • Monfrodo (aka ball-level fluid head tripod) – basic production tripod, 4/5 available for check-out
      • tilt & pan adjustments are knobs on side
      • spin shaft below head of tripod, allows you to level the head of the tripod without doing a ton of adjusting of the height of the legs of the tripod
      • Always tighten down plate lock on top of the head (hold camera to tripod), or camera could slide off the tripod head.
    • Sachtler – nicer than the Monfrodo, 2 available for check-out, also has ball-level adjustment
      • spreader can adjust in width
      • legs can adjust in height, adjust all legs to same height
      • tilt adjustment knob on side, top
      • knob on side, bottom adjusts the pan tension (1-5)
      • spring tension on the back (1-10) helps keep camera from falling over
      • pull down little red ring, move lever to left, plate pops out of head of tripod, attach to camera & then snaps into head of tripod and holds camera there firmly
  • Setting up an interview:
    • Fewer the # of people in the room the better, because subject will feel more comfortable, and make sure that those that are in the room are not in the eye-line of the subject b/c will make the eyes of the subject dart around b/n everyone they can see
    • Before you begin interview, ask subject to incorporate the question into the answer b/c the questions likely will not be included into the video – so if you ask, how is the weather? Have them respond “The weather is warm” and not just “warm”
    • While the equipment is being set up, have subject in another room, and instead of going over the actual questions you’re going to ask them for the interview, TELL THEM about what the project has done/been up to, because the subject will not want to repeat their responses a second time in front of the camera/ their responses will lose freshness
    • Subjects are usually good for 30-45 minutes, so be sure to ask questions within that frame of time – don’t wait too far into the end of the interview to ask for interesting anecdotes/stories, because if you wait too long in the interview people will get tired
    • As interviewer – nod & smile and be encouraging so you egg the subject on – don’t act bored, act interested
    • Framing – make sure camera is pretty level w/ face, put right over the shoulder of the interviewer, but make sure that the interviewer’s shoulder/ear is not in the camera frame 
    • Bring both types of lights so you are ready for any situation
    • 3-5 feet distance b/n subject & camera
    • throw background a bit out of focus w/ f-stop
    • Recommends covering up windows and just using lights
    • Keep monitor out of view of subject so that subject isn’t distracted
    • BRING A FLASHLIGHT to adjust controls on the camera while your lighting is set up b/c you will be in the dark
    • Set camera to manual iris, adjust the iris knob – on the left side of the camera lens, the gain control is on the back
      • F-stop – adjusting the f-stop will change the size of the aperture, bring the background in/out of focus (changes the depth of field) – the smaller the f-stop opening (the higher the number) the more the background is going to be in focus
    • The gain is like the ISO in a still camera – affects the sensitivity of the chip to light you don’t want a high gain unless you’re desperate, don’t boost the gain unless you’ve opened the iris all of the way 
    • The longer the camera lens the more you can change the focus b/n the subject and the background
    • White Balance:
      • Get white card up exactly where the face is going to be in the camera
      • Go to white balance button so white balance indicator on screen is highlighted, then toggle b/n A, B, Tungsten (adds blue), Daylight (adds orange)
      • To reset A or B, push in the ring and hold it
      • Gels – can put gels in front of lens when testing white balance
        • Put a little blue gel, tricks camera into being warmer
      • THIS IS WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO COLOR ADJUST THE MONITOR – because  you’re going to make judgments about the white balance based on how it looks on monitor
    • Picture profile settings – controls color quality (canned settings, best to leave it off), button down in the bottom right, will say PP1 on screen if it is on
      • Press it, gives you choices: monotone, black & white, sunset, cinema, portrait, or off
  • Lights for interview:
    • Be sure to separate lights b/n outlets so you don’t blow a fuse
    • Outside – best to have subject in a light area w/ a darker area in the background, so face is well lit and the viewer focuses on the face
    • Key light – goes on face, use soft light sorce
      • Can check out a Keyno Flow (spelling?) (brand “Diva Lite”), cool on subject – has a dimmable control
      • Screw onto stand
      • Controller on the back called reostat (spelling?) controls the brightness
      • White Balance – this light functions like cool, outdoor light
    • Fill light – puts light into the dark side of the face
      • Use a flex fill (one of the big fold out circles) – put on a stand – can still use this outside to reflect the sunlight on the “fill side” (the side w/shadow)
    • Frinel light (spelling?)
      • Arri Kit – online you can get details of what is in the contents of each of the Arri Kits
      • Take largest light (650 watt) out of box –harsher than the Keyno Flow, good for background b/c creates harsher shadows, unless you:
        • Add the chimera which diffuses the light and makes it softer, then it can be used to light the face
          • To add, slide rods into slots on metallic and black fabric hood, then pop rods into the black plastic part of the large ring, fold over flaps of hood so it makes a vessel, then Velcro white screen into big open part of the vessel
          • Slide ring onto front of the light
          • With the chimera on if you spot it there is less light, if you flood it there is more 
          • Make sure to ask for an Arri Kit with a chimera if you plan to use it b/c not all of the kits have them
      • When you plug in light make sure that it is off, so you don’t blast your subject in the face
      • White Balance – 3200K, tungsten light
      • Smaller lights (150 watt, some kits have 300 watt) in the box  - use to light background
        • There are little barn door sets to go on these lights – slide into the groove on front of the camera – see what you can do with the positioning, can use to manipulate the flow of the light
          • There is a focus/flood knob in the back that you can adjust
  • Audio for interview:
    • Subject wears the lavalier mic
    • Have audio person on opposite side of the lights
    • For short interview – hold boom mic above the subject
    • For long interview – have audio person sit w/boom mic below
    • Have them wear the sound mixer (there is a neck strap), turn on the power, put on the headphones, plug the headphones into the camera

 

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