High Production Video Interview Techniques – Shiloh Baptist Church

Shiloh Baptist Church, western Canada’s oldest black Baptist church in Edmonton, Alberta is celebrating their 100th anniversary in July. Learn how and why the church was started in 1910 and what it meant to Edmonton’s black community. Video by Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal

Here is how the story and photos looked in the paper. The whole project came together great!   Read the story.

Some stills from the video shoot.  5D Mark-II with 85mm f1.8 @ f1.8.

95-year-old Gladys Leffler, the oldest member of Shiloh Baptist Church, the oldest black Baptist church in western Canada, poses for a photo in Edmonton on March 27, 2010. Photo by Ryan Jackson / Edmonton Journal

For this story I really wanted to challenge myself to get the best quality possible for the video and try out a slider for my second camera. A slider is basically a motorized track that the camera moves on so you get that cool slow movement in your video. The slider in the picture was my first version. I have since built a nicer slider that I will blog about later.

Below are some behind the scenes photos so you can see how I lit the video.  I used two strip boxes with 200 watt equivalent CFL bulbs and a Canon 10watt halogen light for hair light.  For one shoot I used two 5D Mark II’s with a 50mm and 85mm f1.8 lens. For the shoot with Gladys I used a 5D Mark-II and a Canon HV20 with a DOF adapter though I never used footage from that camera.

For sound I used my Olympus LS-10 PCM recorder with a Rode Video Mic on a boom.  I synced the audio from the Olympus with my 5D video using the amazing program for Final Cut Pro Plural Eyes.