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Turning Negatives into Positives (On-Location Interviews Part 2)

Our last post showed examples of two On-Location ”Studio” Looks. In this post, we’re sharing a clip that utilizes available background.

In this case, we shot an interview in a room that had a bank of windows as part of the background. Instead of blocking out the light we decided to use the windows to our advantage.

By shooting with an 85mm lens, we were able to blur out the background – turning the “negative” obstacle of the harsh winter light coming in from the outside, into a “positive” interesting-looking background image.

Here’s the result:

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On-Location “Studio” Look

interview

We do a lot of on-location interviews.  In the last year, we’ve done almost 100 interviews.  All were shot on-location. More than ever, clients want to shoot where they are.  People, at all levels within any company, just don’t have time to travel to a studio. That does not mean, however, that clients want to sacrifice quality.

Below are just two examples of what is possible on-location.  Each interview has its own distinct look and feel, but were both shot in the same size room. When shooting on location, the physical space limitation is the main obstacle.  Unfortunately, the reality is that the largest room most companies can offer is a conference room. Below you will see the results of shooting in a very small room, while still achieving a studio look. Both interviews were achieved using our standard camera package, lights and lenses – no special rental camera, light truck, gear or lens rentals were employed. For the two interviews below, we took advantage of our 85mm lens.  The lens imparts a cinematic effect, beautiful skin tone, and a shallow depth of field, which provides an infinite studio look. We have determined that we can achieve a studio look in a room as small as 16’ wide, 20’ long, with 9’ ceilings for standing subjects, 7 ½’ ceilings for seated subjects.  Anything larger is a bonus.

White Background approach:

Black Background approach:

Although shot in the same size room, the production and post-production approaches vary considerably, resulting in two very different interviews, each with their own distinct look and feel. What’s most exciting is that these are only two possibilities – there are infinite approaches.

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Chroma Key Footage with Interactive Graphics

Green Screen Thumbnails

Here’s more on-location footage shot in a small room. This time, we shot chroma key footage on a portable green screen. Here are the before and after images:

green_screen_split_screen

Since the movement was fast and youthful, we shot footage of lots of flailing arms and flipping hair (not the best source material for footage that we would later need to key).

We keyed the footage and then added graphics that appear to interact with the talent – moving around them, casting shadows on them and appearing to grow from their actions. The 3D motion graphic elements were rendered out in a manner which allowed us to move the graphic elements in front of and behind the actors seamlessly. We also motion tracked some of the shots allowing us to match the movement of the graphics to the actors movements.

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