Letus 35 Extreme with an Interrotron
 

Greetings,
I have a project coming up that I would like to use an Errol Morris style Interrotron for the interviews. I was wondering if anyone has used something like this with their systems. I'll be shooting with an EX1, a Letus Extreme and Nikon lenses (probably a 1.4 50mm). My plan was to buy a piece of good glass and build something that can hold a small LCD monitor and the glass in front of the camera. This structure would stand on it's own or be mounted on a C-Stand so I don't add any more weight to the camera system. I would also rig a hood to go from the glass to the lens. I would feed the interrotron with a video signal of the interviewer using a small DV camera. If anyone has tried anything like this I would appreciate any information or suggestion on materials. I've used a teleprompter on large and small cameras with pleasing results. I'm just curious how well this would work with light having to travel through so much glass (mirror, nikon lens, letus and then ex1 lens). Thanks in advance.

Best,
JC

well, the interrotron is nothing else than a prompter, not showing the text to be spoken, but the head of either the subject itself, or the interviewer. if you got a mixer , you can even superimpose text or anyhing you want. if you treat it like a prompter, there should be no difference in use.

a small $30 bullet cam directly connected to a video to vga converter would allow you to display what you need for very cheap using a 15" lcd computer screen.

using special glass is not necessary, a simple glass taken from a picture frame should be ok, especially if the camera is covered with a black fabric.

Just use a prompter, and feed it video instead of the script.

Oddly enough I had a client call that wanted to shoot with a teleprompter for a gig this week. It'll be a good opportunity to test out the rig and teleprompter on someone elses nickel before I use it on my personal project. I've though about using a prompter for an interrotron but didn't feel like buying one and wasn't sure if someone would let me rent their teleprompter without an operator. The project I want the interrotron for is a doc a colleague of mine are putting together and we don't have any money at this stage. I was hoping to find a solution that was cheap but effective-like buying a good piece of glass, borrowing a small flat screen and building a stand.

I'll impart any lessons I may learn about using a teleprompter with a Letus after my shoot tomorrow.

JC

You might want to take a look at these guys. Teleprompter
The most likely have a cheap solution for you.

I just got back from the shoot with my EX1/Letus and a teleprompter. I shot it with nikkor 105mm 2.8. Both lenses were WFO but it was just enough. I've attached an image incase anyone is curious. Over all I think I got good results. The person we hired for the teleprompter said the glass cuts light about 2 stops. The room we were in had glass all along one wall so were in pretty good shape. I think in a studio with limited lighting or in a room with less light we might have been fighting for a good exposure. Lit with an 8 bank kinoflo, muslin, bounce card and a couple of jokers. I talked to the teleprompter person about rigging an interrotron she could probably do it for $450 for two units with set up and breakdown. Might be worth while for my doc shoot later this month considering it's around what I've priced out for a DYI interrotron.

Thanks,
JC

I would be interested to hear how the subjects get on with the interrotron. Is it professional talent?

Errol Morris claims most people get used to it to speaking to an interrotron, but it can take a while. His wife, who came up with the name, coined the term after watching Errol "interrogate" a few subjects. An intimidating experience for some.

I'll report back here once we have the shoot. I'm going to use it for interviews with women combat veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan war. I felt like eye contact with the audience would really add a lot to the telling of their stories.

I've done exactly that and it worked fine with a small video camera feeding a teleprompter, and a P+S adapter on an HVX though the adapter part is irrelevant really.

See Link
 

I'm in pre-production for a doc. and will be doing something very similar. I ran across this version called the Eyeliner:
http://www.mceyeliner.com/
Sells for about $1400.

Considering the time to build, and the ease to use it may well be worth it.