1080/24p interview footage

[kbrafford]

I ran out of ideas of what to film to test out the camera, so I got some footage of the anti-Bush people in Durham, NC (USA) who do their thing every weekend.

It's too bad that I didn't have the camera back during the Duke Lacrosse madness. I would LOVE to have a high-definition record of all the jackasses who were beating the pots and pans demanding castration for the team.

http://www.embeddedexcellence.com/vid/Protest01.wmv

[Size is approx. 181 MB]

BTW Interviewing is really hard. I didn't know what to say, and I am not in line with the politics of most of the people I talked to that day but I didn't want to piss them off so they wouldn't let me film them. I guess I have a little more respect for Charlie Rose and people like that now.

[kbrafford]

Another one:

http://www.embeddedexcellence.com/vid/Protest02.wmv

[kbrafford]

And a third:

http://www.embeddedexcellence.com/vid/Protest03.wmv

[kbrafford]

http://www.embeddedexcellence.com/vid/super_colon.wmv

[framecut]

http://www.embeddedexcellence.com/vid/super_colon.wmv

Hey cool!

I saw that "Super Colon" in a recent episode of "Penn & Teller's BULLSH!T!"!

(There's a bit of irony...colons and protestors! I can't tell the difference! HA!)

[PWHerman]

NICE! You're not the greatest interviewer in the world, that's for sure. I like the Protest03 clip...heh, I can see you reflected in her sunglasses. I'll have to wait till I get my HV20, but I'm pretty sure nothing interesting like this happens ANYWHERE around here...I'll have to go huntin for some juicy footage, haha. Thanks again for sharin.

[kbrafford]

NICE! You're not the greatest interviewer in the world, that's for sure. I like the Protest03 clip....

Yeah, the lady is answering my stuttered attempts at questions with well thought-out sentences that show that she has really thought about how she would represent her cause in front of cameras. I wonder how the (behind the camera) pros get ready for these sorts of things.

[Mal]

Actually I disagree COMPLETELY about you not being a good interviewer.
Completely.

I think we are FAR too used to the interviewer being PART of the story, i.e. Barbara Walters, Breshir, Charlie Rose, etc, etc. Of course THOSE are pros, and their questions are well put, and perfectly delivered.

HOWEVER, that should NOT be the story. I am of the FIRM belief that the interviewee IS the story, and should tell the story.
The interviewer should be not seen, and in most cases not heard.
I don't give a rat's arse about the interviewer.

As such, if you remove the questions from this piece (clip 3), the info the woman provides is top notch, and would qualify for near perfect (see *) video for any documentary on the subject.
Any questions that needed to be part of the documentary in order to better understand the answers could easily be integrated using narration.
The MAIN difficulty is to get someone to provide the information they are willing to share in a relaxed, and easily understandable way (see * again).
As such, you were able to achieve this perfectly.

As you can tell, this is an important point for me, and dear to my heart!


(*) AUDIO is my major problem here. Goes to show that on-cam & built-in mics suck BIG TIME.
Audio ruins this shot completely for me. It's pretty much unusable as it is.
Visually superb; audio sucks eggs!

[kbrafford]

(*) AUDIO is my major problem here. Goes to show that on-cam & built-in mics suck BIG TIME.

Thanks for your comments. Is there a decent mic solution I can get that attaches to the camera and fixes these problems?

[Mal]

Mics: well, to get GOOD audio in the clip3 example, you'd have only really two options:
1) Lav mic (probably not suitable, as this is all ad-hoc style)
2) Shotgun on a boom (best option, but requires second person)

ADDED:
3) You could possibly also hand hold a mic yourself, but it would require some practice,
and maybe a shoulder mount for the cam in order to free up one hand.


A shotgun mounted on the cam will be better than the built in [crap] mics (there's a thread about external mics in the SOUNDS section), but it would still pick-up the traffic behind the woman unfortunately, which is why option 2) above is best (mic pointing down at subject, from about 2 ft).

[kbrafford]

Thanks! Man this is going to get expensive if I want to keep it up!

[rhicks]

Regardless of mic quality, you did a great job!. Thanks for sharing. We now know what to expect from the onboard mic in similar surroundings with a one man crew.

[kbrafford]

Regardless of mic quality, you did a great job!. Thanks for sharing. We now know what to expect from the onboard mic in similar surroundings with a one man crew.

That's a great point. I should point out that I didn't really stand close to the people. Only in the last 5 seconds or so of Protest01.wmv did I move in a little. If you listen to the audio you can kinda tell. Plus the wobble of the camera and the weird effect of the background behind the subject gives it away.