Love Story Question
 

Has anyone shot a love story / storytelling piece with the couple answering the question together? I've seen -- and use -- the style where they are interviewed separately and then edited together. If anyone interviewed a couple together do you have a small portion of a clip we can see? And what sort of comparison do you have to the separate interviews? What is better to shoot but harder to edit or anything like that? Thanks for the advice.

-Michael

Hi Michael,

I do this sometimes and it can work very well. I would never do it as the sole interview portion, but i have done it at closer to a 50/50 ratio and it worked very well.

Advantages:
-a great dynamic between the two that you can't capture otherwise
-both seem more comfortable if you get a couple that isn't as natural in front of the camera
-cuts very well and adds diversity to the whole production, and often a lot comedy as well that is harder to get individually

Disadvantages:
-harder to handle audio when shooting and editing. It takes a lot longer to cut the interviews together when you also need to cut different mics in as well as multiple angles
-harder to light well. Even harder to light artistically

Other Comments:
-really need multiple angles to cut out comments that don't work, or parts that slow down. Normally you have the other person to cut to, but here you need to cut from wide to tight or vice versa to remove certain things

When it all balances out, I only interview people sparingly for special couples, special ideas etc.

I do have a sample but I don't think I have it online now, but I will double check.

Patrick

Michael:
I like seperate interviews but have done some together. Even then I will get them alone to get some other questions done. I have found too that couples tend to be a little more guarded when they are together.

John

I have seen one by a local company to me, where there was a magic moment that you can't really get when interviewing separately. The guy was talking about all the sweet things his fiance had done and how special she was, and she had tears rolling down her cheeks.
Also, they shared in-jokes which was nice and obviously personal and a nice touch to them.

That is pretty much the technique that was used for short segue clips in..I think it was "When Harry Met Sally". They interspersed short interview clips of older couples detailing the history of their relationships.

-Jon

I personally like doing their interview seperately because they can be alot more open...*atleast from my experience*.....and also because if the bride and the groom say something completely different from the actual fact then then you can put that in the "bloopers" section of your dvd product....just for humor purposes..know what i mean

I generally shoot the couple together. In my opinion it seems to relax and bring the groom out a little better, and also often adds some humor as others have noted. I shoot plentry of B-roll with the couple immediately before the interview to loosen them up and also so I have something to cut to when editing things out and to avoid just having a nonstop talking heads video when it's all done.