Interviewing Peter Hitchens and Grant Shapps

pchidell

pchidell

Messages
898
Edit My Images
Yes
Given the amount of incredibly useful feedback posted about my interview with George Osborne a few weeks ago, I thought I'd share this one as well. We spoke with Grant Shapps, the Conservative Party chairman, about issues such as Margaret Thatcher's legacy and his chances of becoming PM.

I took on board the points about overusing a track dolly, and instead had a little tripod mounted slider. I also tried to improve the white balance. I know the framing isn't ideal at the beginning (on the closeup of Shapps); I had meant to change it but forgot to do so before uploading. :bonk:

The audio still isn't great (one Zoom H4N pointing at Shapps), but I have just taken delivery of a couple of lapel mics (with the very helpful advice of MarcM, on this forum). Any further feedback would be great, as I'm interviewing Peter Hitchens in a few days, as well as Theresa May at a later date. (y)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=et4yaKCl-Ig

(p.s. the topic of conversation gets more interesting towards the end of the video...)


The Hitchens interview can be seen here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-LfcCAI8sU
 
Last edited:
As you've already identified the audio is definitely the stand out thing that needs improving, video looked pretty good if somewhat boring surroundings but the audio definitely sounded quite amateurish in comparison. Not too bad when it was grant speaking but the audio from the interviewer was definitely a step down. Look forward to hearing the difference lapel mics make!
 
yep, I think you'll be pretty much there once you've got some lavs.

Probably not much you can do about surroundings...

Take a watch of similar interviews eg on newsnight, see their framing and composition, type of shots etc

verrrry impressed at the names you're managing to pull in!
 
Thanks very much for the comments! I will certainly take a look at things on Newsnight, that's a great tip.

We interviewed Peter Hitchens last night, although he was very rushed. Unfortunately, that meant he didn't want to mess around with putting on lavs :)gag:), but I found a partial solution - to reshoot the questions after he had gone, with a repositioned mic. (Whilst this could be seen as cheating, we had to manage the situation as best we could!) That also provided another camera angle, which I guess is a bonus... :p

That's just uploading to the Tube as we speak, and I'll post it in this thread once it's done. I had no time to prepare, so I'm afraid it wasn't ideal in terms of framing etc. (There's one other bad thing about it, but I won't mention it, as I find it's much worse once you know.)
 
pchidell said:
Thanks very much for the comments! I will certainly take a look at things on Newsnight, that's a great tip.

We interviewed Peter Hitchens last night, although he was very rushed. Unfortunately, that meant he didn't want to mess around with putting on lavs :)gag:), but I found a partial solution - to reshoot the questions after he had gone, with a repositioned mic. (Whilst this could be seen as cheating, we had to manage the situation as best we could!) That also provided another camera angle, which I guess is a bonus... :p

That's just uploading to the Tube as we speak, and I'll post it in this thread once it's done. I had no time to prepare, so I'm afraid it wasn't ideal in terms of framing etc. (There's one other bad thing about it, but I won't mention it, as I find it's much worse once you know.)
Click to expand...

Re-shooting the questions and reaction shots (noddies) is normal on a single camera shoot.

Ethically though, you MUST reshoot the questions in the same tone as when you asked them with the same wording and use the appropriate reaction.
 
Excellent, sound much improved. Yes 'noddies' are standard practice so don't worry.

I love the opening titles.

You're a braver man than me, what a pompous old so and so.
 
Thanks for the comments!

The opening titles were just something I put together in Photoshop, and added my late grandfather's music (as it had no copyright! :D).

I'm only on cameras, so I don't have to be as brave as the interviewer! As it happens, he would like to do another much longer interview (45 minutes or so) - we'll probably record that in June at some point.
 
I have to admit to only seeing a second of it.

But hats off for beating all the odds and finding someone even more despicable than George Osborne to interview. That's some feat right there:clap:.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top