Interview shot with NEX EA50

[Lee Berger]

I shot this interview with Composer Carlisle Floyd earlier this month for the Sarasota (Florida) Opera.

Carlisle Floyd and "Of Mice and Men" - YouTube

Interviewer's questions shot after the interview. Three point lighting using tough frost and CTB to match daylight coming in large windows coming in from camera left. Sony 50mm 1.8 lens.

[Noa Put]

Looks and sounds very good Lee, can I ask what you used to record the audio? Also what preset did you use?
There is one thing I noticed which regards the exposure, could it be that it was a cloudy day and that the sun would appear/disappear again what had an influence on the incoming light? Just asking because at 06:05 the exposure was quite good but after that you can see it becoming brighter and brighter until his hair and face overexpose.

[Lee Berger]

Hi Noa:
I used a Lectrosonics UHF wireless System with Tram TR50 mic. Yes it was a variably cloudy day and the daylight exposure changed with time. Would have been nice to have some flags to minimize the window, but this was a low budget shoot. Still I'm quite pleased with the 50's performance.

[Steven Digges]

Good job Lee. Your goal was was obviously to make it so the "average viewer" would not know the kid was not there and you did that. Us video guys would know because we have been there done that. One of the glaring things to me is the audio reflections of the two rooms. And that is a very tough thing to deal with! But how many opera goers are going to hear audio reflections! Money matters, for low budget you did them well.

Steve

[Joel Corral]

that's a great job thanks for sharing....

(Question if knee was tweaked a tiny bit would it have helped the over exposure of the upper left part of the subjects head? Perhaps knee adjustment may have been able to lessen that?)

JC

[Lee Berger]

Originally Posted by Steven Digges

Good job Lee. Your goal was was obviously to make it so the "average viewer" would not know the kid was not there and you did that.

Steven,
Thanks for your feedback. Actually the "kid" interviewer was there. He conducted the interview with Carlisle and then we reversed the camera to film his questions. So it was all recorded in the same room. He does have a different microphone and that may the difference you hear. Tram TR50 on Carlisle and Sony ECM77 on the interviewer.

[Lee Berger]

Originally Posted by Joel Corral

Question if knee was tweaked a tiny bit would it have helped the over exposure of the upper left part of the subjects head? Perhaps knee adjustment may have been able to lessen that?

Thanks Joel. I'll give that a try.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Lee Berger

I used a Lectrosonics UHF wireless System with Tram TR50 mic.

Thx Lee for the info, about the exposure, it is easy though to see overexposure if you use zebra's, once they start to appear on the face you know you are loosing information in finer detail and you can correct by changing the iris,it's easier to correct underexposed footage then it is to correct overexposed, once it clips it's gone and you can't retrieve it anymore.

[Lee Berger]

Thanks Noa. I'm very familiar with Zebras and exposure latitude. What happened is the interview started and I was surprised by the change in sun light. Also being used to cameras with actual iris rings, I was slow to get to the iris control to compensate. I should have stopped the interview to reset the scene, but our time with Maestro Floyd was limited so I decided to go with what we had.

[Zach Cobb]

Again, Lee, I am very impressed by the EA50. Enjoyed your work, as always!

[Steven Digges]

Lee,

Good job of the "old one camera switch". I did think it was two locations because of the audio differences and the lack of any shot with both subjects.

And good for you for posting it. It is hard for me to post to an audience of other video guys. You know they are the ones that will notice the little things that the other audience won't. I have only put my stuff on here twice and I notice that percentage wise, VERY FEW members do post there work here.

I'll bet you made that kids week! I'm sure he is showing that clip to everyone that will watch it. That is the fun part of our job sometimes.

Steve

[Stephen Gradin]

Lee, unless you did something in post, I do not see any moire on his shirt. Do I have that right? If so, great news for when the situation arises with folks wearing striped shirts.

[Lee Berger]

I didn't do anything filtering for morie. Indeed I was impressed that his shirt didn't cause any problems. Shot with it on Monday and Tuesday and I'm pleased with the results.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Lee

Yeah, very nicely shot too and the viewer would surely have no idea that the questions were done afterwards..timing was spot on!!

You never mention if the camera had a PP profile set (preset or custom) or was it set to "OFF" ...For general use I find the default "OFF" preset works really well 99% of the time.

Great job

Chris

[Lee Berger]

Thanks for the kind words Chris. Set on PP 3 as I like ITU 709 Gamma.