Interview with Clive SummerHayes

Back in January I was asked to film an interview with Clive Summerhayes, distinguished businessman and engineer, for the University of Leeds Alumni department.

Director Richard Maude was keen to shoot a down the lens interview, so we made use of the the Eyedirect kit, allowing Richard to see Clive as he looked into the lens. Given the interview was going to me more of a chat, we made use of a second camera to give options in the edit too.

With the interview being down the lens Richard was keen to have a symmetrical background, so we took a look around our client chosen location, a working lab! As it was a working lab we were a bit restricted to where we could setup, however we managed to find a spot that didn’t get in anybody’s way and offered us an amazing view down the centre of the space, with people coming and going with test tubes!

We made use of my Sony FS7, shooting in HG7, and Sony NX80, shooting in Cine 1. On the FS7 we ran my Sigma Art 50mm prime, offering a waist up shot, allowing it to be cropped into in post. On the NX80 we ran a CU to ECU, doing drifts on and off of Clive, focus pulls and short siding.

As I was running my own sound I opted for a boom mic to keep things simple. As I was operating the B-Cam I decided to run the master sound into the Sony NX80, so I could make level adjustments easily. I did however manage to split the feed from the boom mic using an isolation box, allowing me to feed sound into the A Camera too, making sync in post a bit easier.

As we were shooting in a working lab we had to keep our footprint small, therefore I had to supplement the available light rather than ‘start from scratch’. It was a rather overcast day, so I didn’t need to worry too much about the large windows to the right of frame. When running two camera I am always conscious of choosing a 2nd angle before lighting, so I can key from the far side of the face. Given the window and background interest we decided to place the B-Cam to the left of the A-Cam therefore I could key from the right.

I kept it simple, using my Falcon-Eye RX-18TD as a key and a Neewer RGB light as a side light from the key side. As the lab was ‘pre-lit’ I set the colour temperature’s to match the existing lighting. I didnt need to fill or negative fill as I was happy with what was being produced with the ambient light. I did however set the key and side light a little hotter than the ambient light, just to make the background a little darker to bring focus on the subject a little more. In addition I added a little background light to one of the work benches, just to add a bit of interest in the B camera angle.

I hope you like the finished film, we literally had 10 minutes with Clive after the interview to grab the cutaway sequences as he moved onto a photoshoot!

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Credits

Production: Motus TV

Producer: Rebecca Hazell

Director: Richard Maude

DoP: Dan Mears