I got a call from a web site belonged to a broadcaster to do an interview with a well known personality that I interview very often. It was unusual from the start that a web site would call me and pay my rates for an interview. The most unusual part however was that the interview was taking place at a restaurant while the personality was having lunch. I asked if lunch was part of the story but it wasn’t, that was the only time that this guy agreed to give the interview, actually I was asked if I could make it look like it wasn’t done in a restaurant over lunch, I was very puzzled.
Fortunately the restaurant had a nice covered outdoor area. I put up soft HMIs, set up the camera way back so I can use long lens and used a black net to eliminate the background. The shot looked great but didn’t satisfied my curiosity.
At the end of the interview I asked to the personality what was going on as we would normally set up at his house. He told me that he had just about enough. There was a time where only a few broadcaster were asking for interviews but now there are hundreds of web sites and it’s getting overwhelming and he was tired of disrupting his routine and schedule. He doesn’t want to say no so he decided that if they want interviews they’ll have to set it up wherever he goes. Also he got tired to look like crop, if they want interviews they’ll have to get an established and qualified crew, he is tired to look into iPhones. He was the one who told the producer to call me.