I'm buying two teleprompters and making an Interrotron.

http://www.whiterabbitdesigncompany.com/Miscellaneous/images/interrotron%20web%20page.jpg

I'll be in the same room as the person I am filming but we wont be facing each other. In my setup, we're divided by a black fabric screen. I am going to be filming myself with a camcorder, likely a Canon Vixia. This will be the feed for the teleprompter facing the talent.

I want to also mic my voice into the room. I could hook myself up to a lav and hood the lav to a speaker. Does that make sense? What type of speaker might I want? I feel like there are probably some angles here I'm missing.

I'm not planning on piping his audio into me. I dont worry about being able to keep my attention and concentration. Although, if someone here feels differently, let me know why.

thanks as always!

The missing angles include what audio (your's? theirs?) is being recorded and whether isolation is important?

Yeah, looking over my question there is a lot left unsaid......

So, the only audio I want recorded is the subject. That will be for production. I will be doing that with the camera shooting him: my HMC-150. I have two XLR's so I use one shotgun and one lavalier. I need to attach my sound to a speaker so the subject hears it well. We're not going to be sitting across from each other cause we're going to be making eye contact through the two teleprompters that will be set up.

I want the subject to feel totally at ease with the image on the teleprompter they'll be taking to, so I plan on partitioning the room with a curtain. But that isn't for audio reasons. It's just so the subject is alone with the teleprompter.

Does that make sense? Thanks in advance!

I just don't understand the concept. Why the whole deal with teleprompters and piping in your voice to the interviewee? As far as audio goes, you've got the subject covered with boom and lav. Is your voice being recorded as well? I don't get what it is you're trying to do, I think.

I think the OP is just asking for a simple talkback system.

The considerations are you'll be talking back into the same room you're already in, and your mic is in the same room as the interviewee that will be recorded for production.

So it will be important to have fine control over your own volume levels AND to easily mute/unmute your audio. If your audio is left on, then your movements as well as the interviewee's off-mic voice will be re-transmitted through your talkback system. In addition you'll need to use a dead-quiet loudspeaker that has no self-noise when it's in idle.

I would suggest a headset, so that you can monitor the interviewee, as well as feed in a little of your own voice to monitor, and have a closely mounted mic that moves with you. However since you're on the interviewee's teleprompter, that might not work visually. I suppose a lav or micro ear-mounted mic is the next best.
This would be hooked to a small XLR mixer with phantom power for preamping your mic, for volume control, for easy muting, and routing to other destinations if needed for recording your voice.

The mixer would feed a small high-quality powered speaker.

If I understand this correctly, it's the weirdest thing I've ever heard of.

the only audio I want recorded is the subject.

If you want ONLY the talent's voice recorded, yet you are talking to the talent over a loudspeaker, the sound from the loudspeaker (located near the talent) will also be recorded. The only way around that is to give the talent a headset and talk to him over that.

For that matter, if you are located in the same room as the talent (but on the other side of a curtain) then your voice coming through the curtain will also be recorded (on the talent's mic) to a certain degree.

Indeed, as Mr. Miller observed, if you want only the subject's voice recorded then not only do you not want to use a speaker, but you must remove yourself to another room. Else your voice through the air will also be recorded.

It seems to me that you need some sort of earpiece for the subject to hear you without contaminating the recording of his own voice. And you need to isolate yourself acoustically from the space where the subject is. That probably means a different room. A curtain will do nothing for acoustic isolation.

I dont mind my voice being recorded. I mean, if we end up having a small back and forth in the interview, ill want my voice. But I'll be fine with what's picked up from the hyper in the room.

So, if I want to get a device I can plug a lav into to amplify it, a small sort of speaker, anyone have a suggestion?

Why can't the subject just hear you through the air if you are in the same room?

I dont mind my voice being recorded. I mean, if we end up having a small back and forth in the interview, ill want my voice. But I'll be fine with what's picked up from the hyper in the room.

So, if I want to get a device I can plug a lav into to amplify it, a small sort of speaker, anyone have a suggestion?

I'm reallly curious what it is about these interviews that you don't want the subject to be able to see you personally but seeing you on a teleprompter monitor is okay. Why can't you just arrange his and your chairs facing each other at a comfortable distance with the camera shooting over your shoulder and have a normal conversation? If you were in different cities what you descriibe would make some sense but since you're in the same room with only a curtain between you, what's the point?

the only audio I want recorded is the subject

if we end up having a small back and forth in the interview, ill want my voice.

Clear as mud.

So, if I want to get a device I can plug a lav into to amplify it, a small sort of speaker, anyone have a suggestion?

What you want is sold under various names such as "amplified speaker," "powered speaker," or "portable PA." There are zillions of them on eBay, but there are a lot of variations (input connector, input impedance, balanced or unbalanced, phantom power, "plug in power," etc. If you have to ask what it's called, you don't really understand these complexities, and you could easily buy one that's not compatible with what you actually need.

At one time, even Radio Shack carried such a thing, although if it's not a cell phone they probably don't carry it today; it wouldn't hurt to ask.

Also, a lot of music stores & dealers carry them, so you might try shopping locally. Take your lav along, so you can be sure the speaker you get is compatible and works OK with your mic.

I'm reallly curious what it is about these interviews that you don't want the subject to be able to see you personally

I just hope they all keep their pants on.

I want the talent to be able to look directly into the camera, straight ahead.

I'll probably get a battery powered unit since I feel like phantom power off the already small battery on the camcorder will make run times shorter.

You haven't established that you even NEED such a thing. But if you don't want to dialog with us, good luck.

I was talking to a cinematographer who used this setup before doing some shooting for Errol Morris, the guy who created this idea of using teleprompters to let the subject look straight into the camera. He said that when they shot, they used speakers to bring in Errol's voice into the room and make it seem a bit more real for the talent, that the conversation is truly with that head on the prompter.

I dont know anyone else who has shot this way, so I feel like I'll defer to that logic even though I didnt originally think of it as a necessity. Does that make it sound a bit more sensical?

...I dont know anyone else who has shot this way, so I feel like I'll defer to that logic even though I didnt originally think of it as a necessity. Does that make it sound a bit more sensical?

Not much ... if the camera is placed so its lens is right by your ear they will be looking at the camera when they are looking at you, just as much as if they were looking at your image on a teleprompter. I can see using something like you're describing if there is some reason the interviewer can't be in the same location as the interviewee ... the person interviewed has a contagious disease or is isolated for his protection or is in an extremely dangerous environment or is in a remote location and travel is impossible, etc - but where you are in the same room as the subject it doesn't make sense to me. You said at one point you wanted the subject to feel natural and at ease ... a setup like you're envisioning is one of the least natural environments you might create for an interview IMHO and I think it would increase, not reduce, the subject's discomfort level.

I dont know anyone else who has shot this way, so I feel like I'll defer to that logic even though I didnt originally think of it as a necessity. Does that make it sound a bit more sensical?

I don't even understand what that sentence means. The antecedent is unclear. What "logic" are you referring to? And what is "it"? Are we trying to obfuscate what's actually going on?

This doesn't seem all that complicated.

You want to do an interview where the person speaks conversationally to the camera. You don't want them looking away. The director won't be shown or heard in the final production. The director asks questions and the interviewee needs to give answers that provide context. (If asked, "where were you born", you say "I was born in Mexico", rather than, "Mexico.")

The advantage is that the interviewee will be looking at a live person who is nodding and reacting to answers, rather than at a camera lens. It will potentially help them be conversational, rather than stiff. And they won't look away from the lens to see you for feedback and approval.

The director should wear a headset mic. I would put a small powered speaker (maybe a computer speaker) near the camera/prompter to continue with the illusion that the camera is the director. That keeps an in-ear monitor and wire out of the final production shots. Just make sure that they wait a beat before answering.

Then again, if the director is in the same room behind the camera and a curtain, the director doesn't really need a mic or speaker. In fact, you could be behind the camera and curtain when you sit, but the curtain could be low enough that you could simply stand for real face to face interaction.

I did the super-low budget version of this... I just sat with my face to the side of and behind the camera while I interviewed the subject. I arranged things so that one of my eyes saw the subject, and the other was blocked by the camera. I didn't mike myself asking the questions, which in retrospect was a mistake... just for making things easy on the editor who has to listen to all the questions in post, I should have miked myself.

It seems unrealistic to assume that you have subject(s) who can remember to reply in complete sentences, and even to pause between question and answer, but can't remember to look at the camera. That is why I had a hard time understanding this scenario.

You said at one point you wanted the subject to feel natural and at ease ... a setup like you're envisioning is one of the least natural environments you might create for an interview IMHO and I think it would increase, not reduce, the subject's discomfort level.

I'm not sure about it in a standard interview, but it does have a interesting effect. The BBC used it on "Our War" and the effect was more like testimony (which how the producer described it) from the soldiers involved and there were no questions used.

‪Our War: Ambushed‬‏ - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYvHiDMMtOw)

I'm not sure about it in a standard interview, but it does have a interesting effect. The BBC used it on "Our War" and the effect was more like testimony (which how the producer described it) from the soldiers involved and there were no questions used.

‪Our War: Ambushed‬‏ - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYvHiDMMtOw) I wasn't commenting on the idea that only the subject's responses are to be used in the program with the interviewer's questions cut out so that the subject's speech becomes more of a narrative. I can readily see that. What I was commenting on is the strangness of having the interviewer in the same room as the subject yet hiding behind a curtain and yet having his image visible on a monitor in front of the subject and his voice coming from a speaker. It seems to me that making the subject feel at ease and more talkative is the LAST effect that sort of arrangement would have.

It seems unrealistic to assume that you have subject(s) who can remember to reply in complete sentences, and even to pause between question and answer, but can't remember to look at the camera. That is why I had a hard time understanding this scenario.

You never know. I did a teleprompter shoot recently with five different people. (We rented the prompter and operator.) All are smart people. But the most extroverted, self-aware person of the bunch kept glancing off to the side at the crew. (He's great with an audience, but isn't as good on video.)

I've also done some interviews where the style is to ask a question but edit it out, and the talent isn't professional. You just have to listen for half answers, stop them, and do that question over. My son was shooting handheld (one eye behind the cam, one around the side) and was asking the questions, and with that setup, the talent never looked away. They were talking to my son, rather than to a camera on a tripod.