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Don't shoot a TV interview like this.


This from Fox 13 Seattle.   The goal is to get at least a 3/4 shot of the interviewee's face, NOT her hair.  The shot has to be choreographed between the reporter and photog, so that as the interview begins,  the reporter takes a good step or so to the right so that the subject can turn toward her and we can see who's talking.    I know this is not news, but I put my live shot tips hat on today.   


Comments

  1. IDC9April 27, 2025 at 12:38 PM

    How would this work if the reporter is also the photog, as is increasingly the case at many stations?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wayne LApril 27, 2025 at 2:15 PM

    This, of course would not have been an MMJ situation because you could first see a reporter close-up, then a live pan up to the cruise ship exterior and then back to the two-shot interview setup. If it was an MMJ assignment, the reporter would have to do the interview beforehand and feed it back along with b-roll of the ship (or handout video from the company) to cover everything but the reporter's live in and out. The MMJ might even have to put the whole piece together on site and just do the intro-outro live. In general, I think morning crews are still largely two-man because it is still dark and the stories are often crime and accident
    scenes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. IDC9April 27, 2025 at 2:26 PM

    Thank you for answering my question. Its insight like this that make your blog a "must read" for me every day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wayne LApril 27, 2025 at 2:41 PM

      No, thank YOU for reading!!! All I can do is capitalize on more than 4 decades of TV news, and live to tell about it, LOL Back in my day, always had three-man crew for live shots, a photog, microwave/satellite tech and the reporter. Times indeed are different.

      Delete

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