Filming Interviews for a Rock Climbing Documentary
We’re producing a 10-12 minute legacy film about Muir Valley, a climbing and nature preserve in Kentucky. In order to get the spoken content to tell the story of this place, we needed to get interviews with about 10 different people. Rather than deal with the challenges of filming at 10 different locations, we secured a cabin with a large common area that was close to Muir Valley, and were able to schedule in everyone over the course of a weekend.
The crew consisted of myself directing and conducting interviews, two folks managing the 2-camera setup and audio, and one makeup artist/production assist. This proved to be the perfect amount of help, so that multiple things could be happening at once, whether it was rearranging the set, adjusting flags for the moving sunlight, or prepping the next talent with makeup.
For filming, we operated a 2-camera setup with a Sony FS700 with a 4K mod, and a Sony A7iii. The FS700 was our A camera, setup on a tripod with audio being mixed directly onto the A-shot, a close up. The B-camera was an A7iii was setup on a medium shot on a Kessler Second Shooter, an automated slider that moves back and forth while panning and tilting to keep the subject in frame. We filmed in S-log2 and I was able to match in post through a couple of CC filters in Adobe Premiere.
Our lighting was a mix of LED fixtures that included an Aputure LS C300d II and an Aputure LS 300X. These provided ample power and with a large octa softbox, our keylight looked great. Audio was ran as a Rode NTG-2 shotgun mic hung just out of frame. With our controllable setup, we were able to mic them very close for some great clarity on the audio. A Rode VideoMic Pro was running into our B-camera for a backup/reference source.
Shoutout to Justin Skeens, Brandon Cooper, Jen Meunier, and Biz Young for being a part of a great crew over a long weekend of content capture. Eleanor Shelton was also working behind the scenes for our script development.
The film is completed and can be seen below: