How to Shoot a Documentary - Tips & Tricks for Emotional Storytelling
Summary
TLDRIn this documentary filmmaking series, Kris Carr shares insights and challenges from creating his latest documentary, 'Sir Effects,' with minimal budget and gear. He discusses the importance of matching subject and environment, utilizing natural lighting, and capturing candid moments for authenticity. Carr also emphasizes the significance of good audio over perfect visuals and demonstrates how to achieve professional results with basic equipment, including using an LED panel and a smartphone for interviews. He concludes with tips on sound recording and the impact of post-production on the final documentary's quality.
Takeaways
- 🎥 The video discusses the process of creating a documentary, focusing on shooting, lighting, and working with limited resources.
- 🚀 The speaker shares personal experience from making a documentary called 'Sir Effects' with minimal budget and gear.
- 🔍 The importance of getting into the right headspace and being open to the unexpected is highlighted for documentary filmmaking.
- 🖼️ The speaker emphasizes matching the subject's vibe with their environment and the way they are shot and lit.
- 📐 The use of leading lines and practicals in the scene for effective subject placement, even when breaking traditional rules.
- 🌟 The necessity of utilizing available light and a single LED panel for lighting when working with no budget.
- 📹 A recommendation for starting with wide shots and then zooming in for more intimate shots as the interview progresses.
- 🎙️ The significance of capturing only the subject's audio during interviews to avoid overlap and ensure clarity.
- 🔊 The speaker's preference for using a Rode SmartLav+ mic and a TRS converter for high-quality audio in interviews.
- 🎨 The transformative power of color grading in post-production to enhance the visual appeal of the documentary.
- 🧳 A caution against overpacking gear, which can slow down the filmmaking process and potentially cause missed opportunities.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the video?
-The main focus of the video is to share insights and tips on shooting a documentary, particularly with limited resources such as no budget, no crew, and minimal gear.
What is the documentary mentioned in the video called?
-The documentary mentioned in the video is called 'Sir Effects'.
What tool does the speaker recommend for organizing projects and brainstorming?
-The speaker recommends using Milano, which is also the sponsor of the video, for organizing projects and brainstorming.
How does the speaker approach the subject placement in documentary filming?
-The speaker approaches subject placement by trying to match the subject's vibe with their environment and the way they are being filmed and lit, using elements like leading lines and practicals in the scene.
What is the significance of using leading lines in subject placement?
-Leading lines are significant in subject placement as they help to guide the viewer's eye towards the subject, adding depth and interest to the shot.
What type of gear did the speaker primarily use for lighting in the documentary?
-The speaker primarily used an iPhone 6 flashlight and a single LED panel for lighting in the documentary.
How does the speaker describe the process of interviewing subjects in a documentary?
-The speaker describes the process as starting with a wide shot, then getting detail shots, and zooming in with a longer focal length as the conversation deepens, to create an intimate feel.
What is the importance of capturing audio clearly in documentary filmmaking?
-Capturing clear audio is important because poor audio quality can detract from the viewer's experience, whereas good audio can compensate for less-than-perfect visuals.
What audio setup did the speaker use for the interviews in the documentary?
-The speaker used a Rode Smartlav+ lapel microphone connected to a cell phone and a TRS converter, which was then attached to a Zoom H1n recorder.
How does the speaker approach sound design in post-production?
-The speaker approaches sound design by reconstructing it entirely in post, using sounds from different libraries and capturing real sounds from the actual location when possible.
What advice does the speaker give regarding gear for documentary filmmaking?
-The speaker advises against carrying too much gear as it can slow down the filmmaker and potentially cause the loss of key moments; instead, focus on mobility and capturing the moment.
Outlines
🎥 Documentary Filmmaking Insights
The speaker, Christian, introduces the video series on documentary filmmaking, focusing on the brainstorming process, necessary components, and the mindset required for creating a documentary. He shares personal experiences and lessons learned from making his latest documentary, 'Sir Effects,' which was produced with minimal budget, crew, and equipment. Christian emphasizes the importance of using Milano, a project management tool, for organizing pre-production materials and brainstorming sessions, which has significantly improved his workflow and team collaboration.
🌆 Capturing Environment and Emotion
Christian discusses the filming process for documentaries, highlighting the importance of matching the subject's environment with their vibe and the storytelling approach. He uses the example of a retired racecar driver to illustrate how the subject's environment can enhance the narrative. The speaker stresses the significance of leading lines and practical lighting in scene composition, especially when working with limited resources. He also shares his technique of starting with wide shots and gradually zooming in to create intimacy and depth in the storytelling.
🎚️ Creative Lighting with Minimal Gear
The speaker describes his approach to lighting in documentary filmmaking, using only an LED panel and the natural light available in the scene. He explains how he used the LED panel as both a key light and a backlight, depending on the ambient light conditions. Christian also talks about the importance of audio quality over visual perfection, especially in documentary work, and shares his setup using a Rode SmartLav+ microphone connected to a mobile phone and a TRS converter for high-quality audio capture.
🔊 Audio Techniques and Post-Production
Christian emphasizes the importance of capturing good audio, even when working alone, and shares his method of using a simple microphone and recorder setup for interviews. He also discusses the process of capturing ambient sounds on location after shooting to enhance the authenticity of the documentary's sound design in post-production. The speaker mentions that he will follow up with a video on editing techniques to make low-budget documentaries look professional, and he thanks Milano for sponsoring the video and the audience for their support.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Documentary
💡Brainstorming
💡Pre-production
💡Shooting
💡Lighting
💡LED Panel
💡Interview
💡Audio
💡Post-production
💡Run-and-gun filmmaking
💡Mentorship Program
Highlights
Introduction to the documentary filmmaking series focusing on the process of creating a documentary with limited resources.
Emphasizing the importance of getting into the right headspace for brainstorming and organizing documentary projects.
Recommendation of Milano as a project organization tool, highlighting its benefits for team collaboration and accessibility.
Discussion on filming techniques for documentaries, including matching the subject's vibe with their environment and the shooting style.
Importance of utilizing leading lines and practicals in scenes for effective documentary shots.
Approach to framing subjects in documentaries, including breaking traditional rules for impactful representation.
The process of starting interviews with wide shots and gradually zooming in for emotional depth.
The significance of formulating engaging questions to facilitate long and meaningful conversations in interviews.
Techniques for capturing audio without overlap to avoid editing nightmares.
Advice on continuously rolling the camera to capture candid moments post-interview.
Lighting strategies using minimal gear, such as an iPhone flashlight and a single LED panel.
The impact of color grading and relighting techniques in post-production to enhance the visual storytelling.
The misconception of needing excessive gear for documentary filmmaking and the benefits of mobility.
Emphasizing the importance of good audio over perfect visuals in documentary filmmaking.
Description of a simple and cost-effective audio setup using a Rode Smartlav+ and a TRS converter.
Tips for capturing non-dialogue sounds on location for authentic sound design in post-production.
An upcoming video on editing techniques to make low-budget documentaries appear high-budget and professional.
Invitation to support the channel through the purchase of a light effects pack for video editing.
Transcripts
hey what's up guys Christian you here
for Chris car welcome to the documentary
filmmaking series we talked about
brainstorming and thinking of different
pieces that you need and the type of
headspace that you need to get into
making a documentary but now it's time
to make one so I'm just gonna share a
little bit of what I learned and some of
the some of the obstacles and some of
the things I think are valuable from my
process of creating my latest
documentary which if you haven't seen
yet please go check it out it's called
sir effects well in this video we're
just gonna be focusing on the shooting
some lighting ideas and some of the
things that I had to do with no budget
no crew pretty much no gear except for
my camera and just one little LED panel
and I just want to talk a little bit
about that in this video so that
hopefully it can help you when you are
tackling your documentary project
[Music]
so before moving on to the rest of this
video I've been asked how I organize my
projects and what what I can do to sort
of get lookbooks together and what what
tools I use for that process that
brainstorming process and even what I
use to just kind of organize all the
pre-pro together well you're seeing it
on screen right now I use Milano and
they're also today's sponsor so I wanted
to give them a huge thanks for
supporting the channel but also I
genuinely wanted to recommend this to
you guys because I use this now for
every single project you're seeing an
example here for a upcoming short film
and I can't tell you how important it is
to have all of this material in one
place that by the way your team can also
access modify add to this has been a
game changer because I'm a very
unorganized person so this was the
perfect solution for me to visually put
together some game plans for projects it
can be especially crucial for planning
your documentary brainstorming and
putting all those pieces together and
it's what I use for Chris Carr for the
channel for the company that is how we
run everything and how we keep everyone
on tasks so really recommend Milano
check it out
alright let's talk about the actual
filming so you have your questions you
kind of know how you're gonna structure
this and you're being open to what the
world is going to throw at you so how do
you actually film how do you set up the
shots what's that process look like that
changes from filmmaker to filmmaker so
I'm just sharing what has worked with me
and how I work one of the ways that I
like to shoot is especially for
documentaries is to get familiar with
with the face and the environment that
they're in and I usually want to try to
match up the subject if we're talking
about you know a person sitting down for
an interview I want to match their vibe
with their environment and also with the
way that I'm shooting them and the way
that I'm lighting them so in this scene
for example we have this retired racecar
driver he was a legend and he started
collecting cars beneath his shop that he
now owns he actually has a huge garage
of all these antique cars that he
collects he shared a story that was
connected to a car that was there so it
made perfect sense
him to be in that space so again it
becomes a predicting game you need to
kind of get a feel for the person and
kind of get a sense of what they might
say and how that might fit in the story
and you need to be very conscious about
where you're placing them in how you're
placing them how you're placing them to
camera and so on now as far as placement
what I was really paying attention for
here whenever I was placing my subjects
or placing my camera to my subjects was
leading lines for the most part and also
what practicals I had to work with in my
scene as I mentioned already I didn't
have much lighting so this was
particularly important for me because I
really needed to make sure I was really
utilizing most of what the scene was
already giving me and then I could just
highlight something with my tiny LED
panel which was the only light I had and
when you're framing up the subjects in
this type of way don't just keep in mind
rules you know sometimes you can break
some some rules and and find what shot
can best represent your subjects and
what they're saying in that moment one
example here is I also got a shot near
the end of the interview when we're
getting to the more you know depressing
stuff I went to a 24 millimeter and I
just went all the way back to this sort
of hallway where he he kept saw these
these sort of rolled-up carpets and
pieces of fabrics and this almost gave
this dreadful feeling of this kind of
tunnel leading into darkness which
really represented his his feelings of
his own industry disappearing or mysamma
was a gentle
nor ingenue
you can enter
[Music]
now this is just my personal approach so
keep that in mind it's not a rule but
what I usually tend to do in these
scenes especially when interviewing
subjects was to start with a wide shot
and then get some detail shots and zoom
in with a a longer entire focal length
so for most of these interviews I only
had one camera so I had to switch lenses
but I always started wide and this is
just to you know make the viewer feel
comfortable with where they are at in
the world and also to to place the
subjects and to give an understanding of
their environment from there as the
conversation got deeper and you know
maybe as soon as I noticed that there
was some gaps or a little bit of
breathing room I would quickly switch
lenses which I had on hand and I use my
7200 and this was a very nice range to
you know needing to pull out if I need
something sort of medium and and then
just zoom really in if we hit maybe a
more sensitive or emotional part of the
story if that is what you choose to do
of course that all depends on your style
and what you're trying to do but a lot
of times and you've seen this a lot in
documentaries you want to get a little
bit closer this just because you can
feel a little bit closer to the person
if you are physically closer it just
becomes more intimate so that is
something that I recommend you guys
really keep in mind aside from the
questions and the lenses attached to it
lens choices lighting choices all of
that in general is part of the story
[Music]
you want to make sure that you're
formulating the questions in a way that
is engaging that can lead to a long
conversation sometimes one of the things
that helps is you know you could be
asking something and then maybe you
could give an example or multiple
examples so it's like what do you think
of this like do you think it's more of
this thing or maybe like that or not so
much what are your thoughts you know
when you formulate things that way it's
more of like you're you're engaging in a
conversation with the person you're not
just saying so if you think this is cool
no okay you got to create some form of a
back-and-forth and when you are having
that back-and-forth you need to make
sure that you are capturing just their
side of the audio and not your own so
make sure you're not getting any overlap
and of course this is not the case if
you are actually in the scene with the
person maybe you want to have more of a
conversation I'm talking about more of a
situation where you're behind the camera
you're prying questions out make sure
that the audio doesn't overlap because
that can be a nightmare to fix in the
editing
keep rolling keep rolling beyond the
takes roll as much as possible honestly
in documentaries of course
don't make it too overwhelming to the
point that it becomes impossible to
craft a story from it
later in the Edit but have more
breathing room than usual when it comes
to cutting your camera when it comes to
even starting recording because
sometimes you know there's a lot of
candid moments there's a lot of stuff
that happens even once the person thinks
that he is done being interviewed a lot
of truth can come out in those moments
and that can be really important to
capture so when it comes to lighting for
this whole documentary all I had was the
flashlight from the iPhone 6 at the time
and one LED panel it was from a pitcher
but it's like their very first LED panel
that I think they ever made but it still
worked
great still did everything that I needed
to do and that's all I had sometimes
this LED panel acted as a key light
sometimes as a backlight I would just
move around depending on how much
ambient level I had in my scene meaning
if the face was honestly readable enough
to camera and it wasn't too dark by just
what the practical light was giving me
and if that was the case if I had a
pretty solid exposure on the subject I
would throw that as a backlight or a way
to edge them or separate them from the
background if I had some nice ambience
like was in this case of this garage
over here where we see some nice
fluorescent tubes that are casting some
pretty even and soft ambience from the
top then in that case I just wanted to
really bring out a stronger key for the
subjects face this is where the editing
again can really help you out if you are
dealing with these type of restrictions
because this is what the scene looked
like before being graded and this is
what the scene looked like after it was
graded so pretty drastic difference and
you can start to see that something else
is going on it's not just a color grade
so this is something that we have
covered in the past multiple times it is
something that I am really focusing my
mentorship program that I just launched
with industry jump on so this is a huge
topic on its own we can unpack it in so
many different ways so if you are
interested in
these relighting techniques in After
Effects I really recommend you guys
check out the videos and the info cards
but this can be really powerful
essentially just a quick rundown of what
this is is a solid with colors that are
present in my scene or that I've tweaked
to kind of match my color palette and in
this case I really wanted to bring out
the greenish tint of the fluorescent
tubes that are around this garage
environment so that they can separate
the subject more from the background
because otherwise everything was kind of
falling flat didn't really like the vibe
and by creating this very simple layer
of this greenish color and also
decreasing a little bit the contrast you
create something that I think feels very
cinematic that creates that separation
that death that is very much needed
especially in a wide shot like this I
made the mistake recently you know until
a few years back of traveling with so
much gear I mean pretty much everything
I'm using here I would try to pack in a
bag and take on trains take on planes
and a lot of times you really don't need
that what happened
the next part will be going through a
cave that hopefully isn't flooded yet
[Music]
documentary filmmakers as run-and-gun
filmmakers even the gear can become a
huge limitation so you think you're
adding more gear you're buying new
lights you're buying multiple different
rigs of whatever you're doing and it you
think that might help and that might
speed up things but really it becomes an
impediment it slows you down it weighs
you down it takes a lot of energy out of
you it might even cause you to miss some
key moments documentaries are scary so I
get the feeling of like oh my god I need
all my gear because who knows what could
happen
but really think about what that means
and how much mobility that will take
away from you I'm sure you're probably
tired of hearing how the visuals don't
have to be perfect and great but if the
audio is bad that's how you lose people
and that is true especially when it
comes to documentaries that I said
before a lot of times we don't have the
luxury to bring all the gear in the
world that we want to shoot in the
perfect circumstances and that's just
because that's what the moment requires
you have to be there to capture it and
that's your priority and sometimes that
doesn't look perfect so that is where
you can have a little bit of room of
imperfection in the visuals when you
have really good audio now it's not
super difficult to get really good audio
the way I did it for the last
documentary for serape fix was having
this same exact setup four years later
Here I am with a live mic from a road
this is the rode smartlav+ and they work
great I plugged them in to my cell phone
at the time right now I'm using a TRS
converter still from rode it's just a
little piece that allows me to then
attach it to something like this like a
zoom h1 N and again this is also super
handy to have you should have it as an
indie filmmaker for documentaries this
can be a really
you can just slip into people's pockets
having multiple ones of these could be
cool and this set up honestly is great
the audio sounds pretty good of course
if you can get better lobs you can do
that
but you can really get away with a lot
with something as inexpensive as this
this is about a hundred bucks maybe less
and I think the same goes for the
recorder so again very simple setup I
used pretty much not even that I use
just the mic like I said with the phone
and that was my interview setup for
everyone and of course having a sound
guy there is always better having a boom
up is always better but you know if you
can't if you can't afford it if you
can't for whatever logistic reason if
you're flying to a remote location you
can't bring people with you don't think
that getting good audio just by yourself
is impossible this is a really nice
hands-off approach because aside from
you know checking if the recording and
monitoring it once in a while you can
just leave it on talent and you know
that you're getting good audio another
good way to do it is if you want to step
up your kit and get the wireless system
that Road offers that way you can even
monitor from the camera which to me
feels a little bit safer as far as all
the other sounds so non dialogue sounds
a lot of times I don't worry about it
too much because most the time I end up
reconstructing that entirely in post so
I create all the sound design by pulling
in the sounds from different libraries
different places and that can go a
certain way and it can be really fun to
recreate your your environment but of
course it is to your benefit
getting real sounds from the actual
location this doesn't have to be while
you're shooting this could even be after
you've wrapped you know whoever you're
interviewing and you're still in that
space you can then go around and kind of
capture certain sounds of that
environments recreate certain
interactions that were happening on
camera you know you can watch playback
and then say okay there's this type of
movement there's this type of
interaction let me go and grab that
stuff early and you can even run around
with just the recorder by using the mics
that it has get close to different
things that you know you're gonna need
in the Edit and that is always going to
be better by having the actual sound
from the place because it not only
sounds authentic but it is also a great
reference for you to actually
here what that space sounded like
whenever you're adding other sounds from
different libraries
I hope you found that useful and
interesting I will follow this up with
one more video on editing so definitely
don't miss that out because there's
gonna be some shots where there's a few
tricks where it wasn't just editing to
make all of this work and to make it
visually look high budget and
professional when really there was no
professional crew
so we've touch upon a little bit of this
in the shooting aspect but in the next
video we're really gonna dial it in into
the editing and seeing what tricks you
can do to elevate your documentary
project and real quick before I go I
know beginning some questions about how
people can support the channel and I
don't really have a way to do that yet I
took down patreon a while ago but I did
release a light effects pack so if
you're interested in the effects or just
spicing up your edit with some light
elements definitely check out that back
I'll link that also in the description
down below alright guys that is it thank
you so much for watching my name is kris
trini for Kris Carr and I'll see you
next time
huge thanks once again to milano for
sponsoring this video and for being such
an amazing tool and to you guys for
watching this video for supporting the
channel and watching the documentary sir
I'll be fix thank you guys so much
alright
[Music]
[Music]
you
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