Audience interview shows

Audience interview shows were made popular by the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Ricki Lake, and viewers who wanted to tell the whole world about their embarrassing pasts. They involve active participation from the audience, who are encouraged to stand up and throw questions forward.

There are obviously many different sets and formats, but there are two fundamental types of audience interview programmes.

Presenter stays In fixed position

This is the easier situation to shoot, and while there are many ways you can position your cameras, the example that follows (a 1+4+audience) is a useful starting point.

Crossing the line

OK, I admit it. In this type of programme you constantly cross the line. The trick here is to throw in ‘neutral shots’ to cover the jump.

Camera shots

You need quite a few cameras to shoot this well. I recommend a minimum of five, although six is a more useful starting point.

In the diagram cameras 1, 2 and 3 are in conventional interviewing positions, cross-shooting the presenter and his guests. The presenter works to camera 1, which would have a prompter unit.

Camera 4 has a big lens (i.e. a good range from wide to very narrow). It is positioned just above the back row of the audience, behind a backdrop. It can offer a wide shot showing the back of the audience, the presenter and guests and the stage backdrop behind them. It can also zoom in to a group shot, or further to an MCU of any guest.

Cameras 5 and 6 are positioned high and behind the presenter and guests. Normally camera 5 offers a reasonably wide shot of the audience, while camera 6 hunts for single shots.

Camera 7 is an audience camera which gives some nice shots of audience members, depending on where they are seated. It is able to get several members of the audience in the same shot without having to go too wide.

Cameras 4, 5 and 6 are all positioned pretty well straight down the middle line of the studio, so most of their shots are ‘neutral’, i.e. the eyelines of most people run straight up through the axis of the camera.