Filming Skype interviews

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Overlander

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Filming Skype interviews

PostThu Mar 26, 2020 9:55 pm

Has anyone filmed any amount of Skype interviews? Any suggestions of what to watch for or best practices?
We have been contracted to produce 10, 3-min videos per month for Vimeo and Youtube on a historical project while this isolation continues. The idea is keep posting updates and new research. Some of this will mean interviewing via Skype. I have done this once before and basically used a two-camera setup, one over the shoulder and another from behind the screen at the interviewer. It was fine, not great, but fine. So I thought I would see if there are best practices I am not aware of. "Oak Island" on the history channel uses something like Skype a lot but they do have the luxury of a big screen - and a larger budget than us. Thanks for any suggestions. BTW I am using Ursa G2 for the main camera and DSLR for the B camera.
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Uli Plank

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Re: Filming Skype interviews

PostFri Mar 27, 2020 2:11 am

I did one personal project on a deceased relative with Skype interviews all over the world recording people‘s memories about that person.
We used no camera at all for the person on the other side, but recorded the Skype signal directly from a laptops HDMI output.
In editing we composed that with camera footage of the interviewer, plus photographs and archival amateur video.
Now that the cat #19 is out of the bag, test it as much as you can and use the subforum.

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Overlander

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Re: Filming Skype interviews

PostFri Mar 27, 2020 2:36 am

Okay - so HDMI to laptop or computer to what software. Sounds like a great idea just not sure of the actual process. Thanks
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carlomacchiavello

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Re: Filming Skype interviews

PostFri Mar 27, 2020 6:24 am

Ehm simpler use screen recording software like that used for video tutorial?
I can suggest

QuickTime under Mac (free)
Camtasia under win and Mac (pay but excellent, I use it under both from twenty years)
Nvidia experience under win had recording screen tools (free)

You just have screen grab, not need external tool, you have directly all you need.


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Uli Plank

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Re: Filming Skype interviews

PostFri Mar 27, 2020 11:03 am

We used a, cough, Atomos Ninja we had around anyway.
But Carlo is right, if the laptop is strong enough for parallel recording, you don't need extra hardware.
Now that the cat #19 is out of the bag, test it as much as you can and use the subforum.

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rick.lang

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Filming Skype interviews

PostFri Mar 27, 2020 2:13 pm

There’s no camera on the Apple Pro Display XDR. Can I still initiate a Skye chat that has the interviewee send me video while I only send them audio?

I haven’t used Skype in many years, but the ability to capture a video session may be very handy for remote recording during COVID-19 lock downs. I would send them nice audio from the Line Audio Design CM4s vía MixPre-6 II as my audio input device.
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Sergey Mirontsev

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Re: Filming Skype interviews

PostFri Mar 27, 2020 2:55 pm

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