Everything you ever wanted to know about how to film remote interviews, but were afraid to ask!

Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the USA in the spring of 2020, we all had to learn how to leverage technology to keep working. One of the things I’ve learned to do is to be able to feed a producer / director / interviewer the actual camera image and audio via the internet so that they can interview subjects from anywhere in the world in real time and see the actual shot.

I'm a TV cameraperson. Here's my "pro tips" for video chats on the web.

I basically treat them like I do a live shot or an interview:

1: If you turn the brightness up on your computer screen, it makes a nice key (main face) light. Avoid bright lights or windows behind you. The computer's camera will try to expose for that, and then you look dark if not silhouetted. Make yourself slightly brighter than the background, but not so much so that it looks like you're sitting in the dark.

Spent some time in Manchester, NH for the Presidential Primary. Shot various events around town in the lead up, then shot live anchor hits for the PBS News Hour on primary night.

Green screen shoots with monitors pose their own special challenges.

At the AI (Artificial Intelligence) World Conference & Expo at the World Trade Center here in Boston.

It’s rare that I get to shoot symposiums with dogs in attendance. It was a good day.

It’s always fun to see inside one of these cool new buildings.

Three camera green screen shoot at National Boston.

Shooting for a documentary about the world's fattest man (the man in the middle used to weigh about 980 pounds).

Shooting for Matter of Fact with Soledad O'Brien, a news magazine show shown on Hearst stations around the country.

Interview with retired Boston Globe Science reporter, Victor McElheny

A piece I did for Bell Media on corn syrup and its impact on our lives was just posted to their website.

Shot the big storm with Chris Pollone for NBC News. The storm surge almost reached the van at one point!

We shot some video of the protests on Boston Common for ARD, a major German news network, did some interviews fed them, and then did a live shot.