Eyeline in Documentary Interviews

The world of filmmaking is always changing and so am I. I use to be all about the people being interviewed looking at a director off camera that was not behind a camera but next it at camera level, like the super awesome and traditional Ken Burns. (Check out this scene grab from his show Jazz--love this show, by the way)

But now I am all about the interviewee looking down the barrel of the lens. I tell them to connect with the lens and me behind the camera and the audience is there too. There are pros and cons to both ways but this is the way I am doing it since I discovered the magic of the Canon 5D. I feel so much more connected to the filmmaking process and can adjust to subtle things with composition, frame size, focus and most importantly emotion in the scene. Most of my interviews are done handheld these days too, it is an alive floating camera, with a human behind it. Also there are less people on set and a lot of the time it only me on "set." I use to be all about the human face to face thing and now I kind of like the idea that the interviewee has a little space and that everything they say is not filtered through my face, if that makes sense. I have been doing it this way for about a year and I love it. Here are a few scene grabs of interviews with my new style, both from the "Turning Point" about the Circus Project.

Here is what they have to look at, that is not too intimidating and it is 2012, most people have seen a camera before.

I could go on, but gotta run, heading to LA for a quick weekend shoot. Happy Friday