Interviewing 101: On Camera

I never give my interview subjects the questions I am going to ask in advance because I want to see spontaneous answers on camera. Instead I give them a list of the topics that we will be covering so they know what to expect.

I also like to warm up the interviewee before starting the interview, so I chat with them for 5-10 minutes about anything under the sun, just to get them used to the filming setup so they will be relaxed when the interview starts.

For indoor shoots I prefer to use boomed mics overhead, so there are no wires or packs attached to anything.

For outdoor shoots I give the on camera host a wireless Sennheiser cardioid mic ( SKM 100 G3 With e 935 Capsule ) to eliminate wires. It's also a fairly directional mic so it greatly reduces the street noise when filming outside and gives you good dialog.

Here's an old interview I shot for an online website using this wireless microphone indoors with my crappy old Panasonic GH2 camera with NO headphone jack. ( I had shot with this combo so many times that I knew how to get a good recording with no headphones )

Ronnie Burkett Interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqVCP7MlCBY

As you can see this mic sounds damn good with a crappy old GH2 camera, and it sounds pretty much the same when used outside, you just get some of the ambient environmental sound mixed in to your recording.

For comparison here's a video shot by a large Canadian newspaper using a LAV mic, and to me the LAV mic does not sound as good as the Sennheiser SKM 100 wireless mic that I used...

Ottawa Citizen : Penny Plain Interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKeqfZN0_44