"Think about it: How does Morris get such penetrating interviews if the interviewee is just looking at a camera? If they're looking into the lens and not at Morris, it would be hard for Morris to get anything like the unsettling, revealing, startlingly personal interviews that are Morris's bread and butter. Would you tell a flat piece of glass about the biggest mistake you ever made in your life?"
This is formulated to sound as convincing as possible without any evidence, but I don't buy it at all. The recent documentary "Human" is full of heart-rending interviews of people having emotional breakdowns and looking straight at the camera. I'm quite sure they did not use any such mirror system. You can occasionally see the interviewee glancing sideways at the interviewer, but if anything, it seems that talking to a camera gives them the strength to talk about personal things in an unusually powerful way. (Disclosure: I know some people on the production team and have done a bit of work on their website)
I'm a massive Morris fan (so much so that I've read about this contraption before), and while I've only watched a few minutes of the documentary you linked, I do think that the interview style is different. It's not just about talking to the camera, but rather about talking to the camera as if it's human - McNamara, for instance, regularly wiggles his finger at the camera, as if he's lecturing to you in your seat. Toss in the fact that Morris regularly shouts his questions or comments from somewhere off to the side - probably somewhere across the same room, as dictated by the way that this system works - and there really is an unsettling way that it feels as if you are the focus of what is happening, with the SecDef during the start of the Vietnam war and your crazy shouty uncle over for dinner.
It's just so hard to articulate how it feels, and I'm sure the effect doesn't work on everyone as well as it does on me. Errol's movies have changed my opinions on both McNamara and Rumsfeld, though, and that's a phenomenally tall order (and, I think, speaks to how vividly human he can make his interview subjects).
When are they going to put this concept into video conferencing? The worst part about a video call us that the other person is looking at your eyes which are usually below his camera so there is a huge conversational disconnect.
When people again tolerate box-like, not-flat, computer monitors. The trick requires an off-axis camera and that requires a mirror tilted at 45*, creating a device slightly thicker than it is tall. There are some tricks (stepped mirrors etc) that might reduce that depth, but to do so without distortion would be difficult.
I'm not sure that a camera hidden inside the screen would work. Getting that 'intimate' effect requires the subject to look directly at the camera lens as they would at another person's eyes. So any camera hidden inside a monitor would have to be aligned with the eyes/face of the image, a problem on larger screens. This is why the technique works best with small screens and probably isn't workable on larger screens or screens situated too close to the subject.
There is (was) a company selling Teleprompter-inspired video conferencing terminals. Never seen one in the wild, though. I think few people are actually willing to pay for hardware just for video chat.
Yes! That confused the hell out of me. Let's also address the horrible background color and the unreadable font.
The formatting in general was bad, too. The first paragraph could've been more clear, and the embedded youtube videos force you to jump around.
edit: WOW! The last paragraph:
Luckily, the basic idea is simple enough that any enterprising
filmmaker could probably build her own if she really wanted to.
And Hardie's illustrations should make that process even easier.
Fun fact: once you know to look, and provided they're close enough to the camera, you can sometimes see the view-ee's eyes making small side to side movements as they read lines of text from the prompter.
We recently completed shooting two online courses (MOOCs) using an Interrotron and I definitely think it makes for a more intimate experience between the subject and the viewer, but as with all tech, the interviewer still matters a lot. It doesn't just magically work. You still have to engage and draw out the subject.
Erol Morris is quite brilliant in shaping the narrative of each documentary. I think he has a message to sell and he's found way to make that message come across in a very sterile, non-forced way. I'm curious if Elizabeth Holmes will be a subject coming up. He was recently hired by Theranos to film some videos in the lab there, and around the company. [1] Should be interesting.....
I saw the video shot - it was linked here, I think - and what was released is just a puff piece. She talks about realizing her life's purpose and that leading to the creation of Theranos. Perhaps he got some more interesting footage, too, but I expect the company owns it all as a work-for-hire. (And if they don't, that's really dumb considering they just exposed your CEO to one of the world's great interviewers.)
Hadn't heard that! Pretty interesting, in light of Holmes's interest in Steve Jobs. Morris made a lot of distinctive Apple ads in the (edit:) early 00s ("Switch" campaign, some early iPod ads), several of which included his kid and kid's friends[1].
He used the Interrotron on his incredible First Person TV series, which essentially gave us 17 Morris-quality (ie, "as good as it gets") short documentaries.
This must have been amazing to watch back then but now it just seems like a lot of questionable has-beens like Temple Grandin, Josh Harris, the 'Mr. Debt' lawyer (who is now in jail), etc. The series just didn't age well.
I think the TV networks forced Morris to do much more topical subjects than he was used to. His film work has a much more timeless quality. As a Morris fan, I cringe a little at the "flavor of the month" style interviewees from the old TV show. I think this is also why documentaries have so much more potential than TV. There's far more autonomy for the creators and less of a corrupting profit incentive.
I don't want to be "that guy", but this is just the age-old teleprompter technology re-purposed to show another camera feed instead of text. It's not exactly a "eureka!" invention.
Who would expect a filmmaker to make stunning technical contributions? That's not the point. The point is that he made a slight new change to an existing device to great artistic effect.
[+] [-] pierrec|9 years ago|reply
This is formulated to sound as convincing as possible without any evidence, but I don't buy it at all. The recent documentary "Human" is full of heart-rending interviews of people having emotional breakdowns and looking straight at the camera. I'm quite sure they did not use any such mirror system. You can occasionally see the interviewee glancing sideways at the interviewer, but if anything, it seems that talking to a camera gives them the strength to talk about personal things in an unusually powerful way. (Disclosure: I know some people on the production team and have done a bit of work on their website)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdb4XGVTHkE
[+] [-] sjm-lbm|9 years ago|reply
It's just so hard to articulate how it feels, and I'm sure the effect doesn't work on everyone as well as it does on me. Errol's movies have changed my opinions on both McNamara and Rumsfeld, though, and that's a phenomenally tall order (and, I think, speaks to how vividly human he can make his interview subjects).
[+] [-] maroonblazer|9 years ago|reply
By the way, I'd not heard of "Humans" before. That first interview is captivating.
[+] [-] callmeal|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dexterdog|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sandworm101|9 years ago|reply
I'm not sure that a camera hidden inside the screen would work. Getting that 'intimate' effect requires the subject to look directly at the camera lens as they would at another person's eyes. So any camera hidden inside a monitor would have to be aligned with the eyes/face of the image, a problem on larger screens. This is why the technique works best with small screens and probably isn't workable on larger screens or screens situated too close to the subject.
[+] [-] superuser2|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] heartsucker|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] caminante|9 years ago|reply
The formatting in general was bad, too. The first paragraph could've been more clear, and the embedded youtube videos force you to jump around.
edit: WOW! The last paragraph:
[+] [-] forgottenpass|9 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teleprompter
[+] [-] Captain_Usher|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fnazeeri|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] CharlesW|9 years ago|reply
http://eyedirect.tv/ (video overview: https://vimeo.com/108373352)
[+] [-] Overtonwindow|9 years ago|reply
[1] http://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/under-fire-theranos-ceo-stif...
[+] [-] JohnnyConatus|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aamar|9 years ago|reply
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Feiss
[+] [-] clebio|9 years ago|reply
> This video contains content from Zefr SonyPictures, who has blocked it on copyright grounds.
[+] [-] brunorsini|9 years ago|reply
Highly recommended - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Person_(TV_series)
[+] [-] drzaiusapelord|9 years ago|reply
I think the TV networks forced Morris to do much more topical subjects than he was used to. His film work has a much more timeless quality. As a Morris fan, I cringe a little at the "flavor of the month" style interviewees from the old TV show. I think this is also why documentaries have so much more potential than TV. There's far more autonomy for the creators and less of a corrupting profit incentive.
[+] [-] blakeyrat|9 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jessriedel|9 years ago|reply