What is the best "affordable" camera for video blogging?

What's the best way to do a single-camera interview?

  • I'm going to be video blogging an event and as part of it, will be interviewing a few different people. I'm going to be holding a Flip cam in my hand to shoot this! So it seems weird since the camera will be on the subject while my questions will be coming from a disembodied voice (me behind the camera). I'll have some prepared questions for each but it won't be scripted-- I will probably be coming up with follow-up questions based on their answers during the interview, so I can't pre-shoot my questions beforehand with the camera, and afterwards will be tough to remember all my followups. Is there a better way to do this? (I've see some video interviews put up silent title cards asking the question, then cutting to the answer, but that seems clunky.)

  • Answer:

    Many interview-based documentaries never show the interviewer and only very rarely include the interviewer's voice. Look at Errol Morris's "Tabloid" or "The Fog of War," or Jarecki's "Capturing the Friedmans," or Ferguson's "Inside Job," or even Ewing and Grady's "Jesus Camp." So it can definitely be done. The most important factors will be: Quality of the answers. You need to guide the subject to tell their story succinctly and engagingly, maybe more than once, so you have footage you can use. You can practice interviewing coworkers or family members to get a sense of this. Always keep an ear open for what you are hearing and whether it can be excerpted into a coherent narrative. You can always ask them to repeat the question and pause in thought before answering. Sound quality. This is crucial!!!!!!!!!!!!! You will probably need a clip-on mic, or otherwise a boom mic you can set up close to the subject. Background noise is a killer. Lighting. The traditional three-point technique involves a key light, a fill, and a "rim" light behind the subject to distinguish them from the background. If you can't set up studio lights, you'll have to improvise or find a good spot on the fly. Again, practice is important. If there's any way to get two cameras, of course your life will be much easier, because you can cut between them to edit. It's much harder to edit single-camera footage because there's nowhere to go! Also, if you are serious about this, why do you have to use a handheld Flip camera? Rent a low-end prosumer camcorder with a zoom lens and a cheap tripod and you will get better footage. And get a friend or colleague to worry about the camera and microphone while you worry about the interviewing.

Anonymous at Quora Visit the source

Was this solution helpful to you?

Other answers

So all the professionals who answered this question are absolutely correct that you need better equipment to get quality footage. I, however, am not a professional videographer or filmmaker, so I am going to give you the benefit of my "You want a video. Um, sure. I guess I can do that. Let me get out my duct tape" experience conducting event interviews. Video. Unless you've had a lot of practice holding a camera, don't plan to hold it yourself.  You won't be able to hold it steady.  Especially not while trying to coax dynamic answers out of random folks.  Ideally, you'd use a tripod/monopod/gorillapod.  Less ideally, you'd use a beanbag/something steady to prop it against. Audio. Flip cams have awful sound. If it's at all possible for you to get an external microphone to use, do it.  If you can't get an external mic, be super, super conscious of your location at all times.  Don't even think about trying to shoot in the middle of things - there will be way too much background noise for the Flip cam's internal mic.  Find the quietest location you can reasonably conduct interviews in, and get the camera as close as you reasonably can. Also, make sure you record several seconds of just background noise.  Do this anytime your background noise significantly changes. You'll be able to use a (Free) program like Audacity to do a little bit of noise clean up after the fact.  (It can't work miracles, but it can help a little). Managing your footage.  If you'll be doing a lot of interviews, you can use index cards to mark date/time/location information -- anything you want readily accessible as you're going through the footage later. This isn't critical, but it's a good idea to get each person to say their name (and spell it, if needed) and say that they agree to let you use/publish the interview on your blog (or whatever you intend to do with it).  This is especially important if you aren't having them sign a proper consent form. Modeling for your interviewees'.  People will naturally, to a certain extent, mimic the gestures and emotions of those they are talking to.  If you want peppy responses, make sure you are smiling, laughing, using dynamic body language, and leaning in toward them.  If you want more serious answers, make sure you ask the questions in a serious tone -- stand up straighter, nod knowingly but without much of a smile.  This also works for keywords, by the way.  If you want them to use a certain adjective -- use it yourself, as often as you can.  If you want them to refer to the event by it's full name, do it yourself, as often as you can. Managing your interviewees' responses.  1) Coach them ahead of time. Anonymous's answer has great tips.  I also like to give a quick overview of what level they should be talking at.  Like, "A lot of my viewers won't be familiar at all with the topic.  Can you pretend you're talking so your grandmother could understand?"  Or, "Most of my viewers are experts in this, so let's keep this pretty informal, and don't feel like you have to explain the basics."  2) Guide them during. Stay out of the way when the other person is talking -- soundbytes of you talking on top of them will be unusable. But don't be afraid to jump in and have them spell out an acronym or restate a sentence or two if they sneeze, stumble, etc. on a great bit.  If you might be using the footage out of sequence, make sure they steer clear of "as I said before..." that can't be easily extracted. One trick that works well for me when I get an answer that I know will be too long and winding for me to edit down, is to paraphrase. Them:: "So, umm.  Well, I guess this has. Uhh. I dunno. Been a good program and stuff.  I, umm.  I ... I learned a lot.  You know, in the workshops." Me:: "So, you'd say that the workshops at SuperAwesome Event taught you a lot?" Them:: "Yeah, definitely." Me, smiling,:: "Do you mind actually saying that for the camera?" Them:: "Yeah!   SuperAwesome Event was a great program. I learned a lot in the workshops!" Me:: "Perfect!" 3)  Get any filler you need before you let them go. As you're doing the interview, think about how you're going to edit and use their responses.  In particular, think about whether you're going to need any introductory or transition words/sentences, and make sure you record them -- including repeating the questions, stating the obvious about where they are/what they are doing, etc. Editing it together.  I've seen four basic (easy to carry out) ways of composing interview videos, all of which can work better/worse depending on what the questions (and responses are like). Title Cards. The boringness of "silent" titles can be mitigated a little bit if you overlap the sound of the response for a few seconds before cutting to the talking head.   Sometimes, you can mix this up with titles ... for example, you could have a card that says "What do you think of...." and a series of clips with titles over the talking head shot specifying "Dogs" then "Cats" then "Rabbits". Interviewees Say the Questions.  This is easy to pull off -- but can be pretty stilted, especially if you have complex questions, unless you can cut together a bunch of people saying the same question. Interviewer (Disembodied Voice) Says the Questions. This is also easy to pull off -- but can be a little boring or weird, especially if it's a long question.  If you go this route, make sure you get good "reaction" shots from your interviewee -- that they are looking at you/the camera, nodding and engaged while you ask. No Questions.  If the questions are self-evident (or not critical to the story being told) and are more intros to people pontificating on different topics, it's sometimes possible to leave out the questions entirely -- depending on the nature of the video and event, sometimes you can just put in b-roll of random event footage to space out distinct responses. This one is a bit trickier to pull off, and definitely isn't appropriate for quick Q&A type interviews.

Suzanne Grubb

I am afraid you don't have too much of a choice, given the fact that you also have to shoot this in real time (not scripted). You will pretty much have to asks questions from behind of the camera (if you don't like heavy editing). does this too when he interviews his subjects and has only one camera. He asks the questions from behind the camera while holding the camera. It's not a bad thing actually but be careful to have a good sound for you too when asking questions (so the people can hear you as well as their hear the interviewee - I don't know how good a Flip camera can be when it comes to sound).

Mircea Goia

Will you be able to edit the video prior to posting it? If so then you have leeway to ask many questions and then frame the interview with plenty of footage. If you have to post without being able to edit then you want to ensure you have a steady hand, you capture the audio from both you and the interviewee perfectly and you ask the right leading questions that allow the interviewee room to talk.   Actually, even if you are able to edit you want to do those 3 things.   I agree wholeheartedly with the last paragraphy of the Anonymous User who posted earlier. A Flip Camera by itself will not give you the quality you are looking for if you are posting the question on this forum. See if you can secure some better equipment. If you are going to do something try your best to do it the right way the first time.

Robert Baker

Related Q & A:

Just Added Q & A:

Find solution

For every problem there is a solution! Proved by Solucija.

  • Got an issue and looking for advice?

  • Ask Solucija to search every corner of the Web for help.

  • Get workable solutions and helpful tips in a moment.

Just ask Solucija about an issue you face and immediately get a list of ready solutions, answers and tips from other Internet users. We always provide the most suitable and complete answer to your question at the top, along with a few good alternatives below.