Filming Interviews Indoors

Cameras You should be filming your interviews with more than one camera. Having 2 cameras means that you can have a wide shot and a close up in your edit – making it more visually interesting. It is important to use a tripod for at least one of your cameras. Wide Shot Close Up

Multiple People If there is more than one person being interviewed or the interviewer is on screen, you may need to set your framing up differently. These are creative decisions that you need to make and should also link to whether you have a presenter to your documentary or not.

Possible Setup 1 Camera 1 Camera 2 Allows you to see interviewee, but also location of the interview Camera 2 Lets you see the interaction and questions being asked

Possible Setup 2 Camera 1 Camera 2 You can see the location of the interview Camera 2 You get to see more emotion and expression as they answer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pRYi57TIUk

Sound What is arguably more important that the filming of an interview is getting good enough audio to hear what they are actually saying! Filming indoors is a much more controlled environment that outdoors, but there are still a few things you need to look out for.

Sound Air Con – Avoid filming an interview in room that has air conditioning on. Turn it off if you can! It will create a buzz that you will not be able to remove in post-production. Computers – They also give off noise that will be very hard to remove later. It is best to have all devices such as this switched off to give you the best quality possible. Background Noise – Is there a lot of background noise? Will it interfere with the interview? Or does it add context to what is being discussed?

Recording Clearer Sound The in-built microphones on cameras are not always the best, so using an external recording source is good practice. You can get this closer to the interviewee than a camera and you will just need to sync it in the edit. Whereas in an outdoor interview, you may use a boom mic. Indoor interviews allows you to use camera mounted microphones or microphones positioned in-front of the interviewee, but out of shot.