How To Shoot People Moving.. And Why

 


We are on our way!

I have been working this week with one of our VJs.

He came from a local news background, and he's a great reporter and shooter, but all of his pieces are static.

That is, while they are chock full of information, they 'don't go anywhere'. 

You have probably seen this a million times: b-roll, a few soundbites and some narration to tie it all together.

It's 'fine' but that's faint praise.

Everyone who gets into this business ultimately reaches this point. They know how to shoot b-roll just fine. They do some interviews. Then they lace together a few soundbites, write some narration, (maybe do a stand-up) and then they go into the edit and wallpaper it with the b-roll. Even nicely shot b-roll, after a while becomes MEGO (My Eyes Glaze Over).

When you are ready to graduate to the next level of sophistication, you will want to go from shooting adequate but static 'reports' to compelling films that grab your viewer and never let them go.

How do you do that?

One of the great secrets (not so secret as you will see) is to shoot people 'going somewhere'.

It doesnt' really matter where they are going, so long as they are going somewhere and you are taking the viewer along for the 'adventure'.

This notion of shooting someone 'going somewhere' conveys to the viewer that 'hey - we're also going somewhere', which is a whole lot more exciting that just sitting at a desk being interviewed.

Do you remember the TV show Miami Vice?

They were always jumping on a speedboat and racing across Miami Bay, or jumping into a Ferarri and racing across Miami.

Take a look at the clip about. 3:50 to deliver six lines of dialogue.

And a whole Phil Colins song at the same time!

Genius.

The viewer has the sense that they (Crockett and Tubbs - and the viewers) are 'going somewhere'.

Also not that the cinematographer DOES NOT MOVE THE CAMERA!

Brilliant stuff.

Actually, pretty much nothing happens in this scene, but it rocks.

You can do the same thing.

Always have your characters go somewhere.

You could have just shot this scene with a sit down interview with Sonny's wife.

"So, do you think you had a good relationship with your husband?"

"Yeah. It was good."

I know a few local TV news guys who would have done just that.

This, is better.