If you’d like to watch the video version of this post, you can do so here: Youtube Video.

And if you want to improve your documentary interview setups for 2025, check out my newest course: THE 10 STEPS TO CINEMATIC INTERVIEWS.

One of the biggest mistakes I made for the first half of my career was ignoring a key aspect of documentary cinematography and it costs me JOBS – good paying, high profile J-O-B-S.

And so I want to make sure you don’t make that same mistake.

^{What Makes a Strong Career}

Think of your career as a chain link, where each link represents a skill you need in order to become a hirable and effective cinematographer or filmmaker.

Let’s pretend that this chain begins at one end, which is the vision or needs of a director or client, and then you attach your different skills to ultimately connect that chain to the opposite side of the gap, which is the finished product that reflects the original vision. 

In order to cross this gap between vision and finished product, you and your team (if you have one) will need a series of skillsets, each represented by a different link in the chain, to connect together in order to achieve the desired result.

Let’s use documentary cinematography as an example with five links, each representing a core part of the job of a documentary DP.

1. The first link is having the ability to capture great verité - meaning in-scene action.

2. The second link is capturing great b-roll for our voiceover moments – usually of PEOPLE.

3.  The third link is the ability to film interesting b-roll of a PLACE

4. The fourth link is the ability to move fast and be resourceful.

5.  And finally, the fifth link is setting up great looking cinematic interviews.

These are all core skills for MOST documentaries. There are other skills, of course, like being able to shoot recreations, or fly a drone, or shoot underwater or action, but for the vast majority of doc films, these original five will do.

The first two features I made with my wife, which we sold to Netflix, were 100% verité, observational in-scene action films, with a touch of b-roll for some very minor voiceover moments. I shot this way almost exclusively for the first 6 years of my career, so these two links (b-roll and vérité) were pretty darn strong. My work was also very tied to PLACE, as I started my filmmaking career traveling the world shooting a short documentary every week and then a lot of our work focused on Appalachia, so that link was strong as well.

And as a self-taught filmmaker who was used to working as a one-man-band or with just one other person as a two-person team, I had gained the ability to move quickly and get great results with the minimum amount of crew and gear.

So, for the first 8 years of my career, which included shooting films for Netflix, The NY Times, PBS Frontline, and a variety of big brands, the skillsets that made up these four links were all I needed to bridge the gap from vision > to finished product.

BOOM – gap bridged.

And due to this success, I started getting calls and emails from producers and directors who were interested in me shooting their doc features and series.

Of course, at this point, I was feeling pretty good about myself. “Oh, you love my verité and how well I bring places to life in the films I shoot – oh, how nice of you to say.” (so humble).

But then the dreaded line in EVERY. SINGLE. EMAIL:

“We are going to be doing quite a few interviews for this project. Can you send screenshots OF YOUR INTERVIEW SETUPS.” 

And that’s when the fifth link I mentioned above (CINEMATIC INTERVIEWS) had to be added to my skillset chain to cross this new gap. The problem was: I didn’t have this skillset.

So, the rest of the chain came crashing down. 

My ability to help a production cross the gap between their vision for the cinematography and the actual outcome, was missing a very key component.

At this point in my career, it should be noted, I was an Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning filmmaker. I had sold two films to Netflix and I was shooting and directing branded content pieces for some of the largest brands in the world.

And yet, I was losing jobs because I was missing this key LINK in the documentary skillset chain: CINEMATIC INTERVIEWS.

To be honest, I found interview setups to be intimidating – what lights should I use? Where do I put them? What makes interviews look great? What diffusion should I use? Where should the lights be placed in relation to the interviewer and interviewee – I found it all very confusing.

But I decided to beef up that link in my chain. How?

I did a deep dive on interviews and really studied how they were done, while also going out on my own to try a wide variety of different interview setups in a wide variety of locations. I watched films, I scoured Youtube, I bought different types of lights and tried them out in different locations. I started production designing the backgrounds and rooms of my interviews and really focused on making the consistent, high-level aesthetics that define great looking interviews. I spent years doing this, setting up hundreds of interviews and studying dozens of films.

The result is a framework I made for myself called: The 10 Steps To Cinematic interviews.

I take this list with me on every shoot. It is a framework and guide on how to make great looking interviews EVERY SINGLE TIME.

10 Steps to Cinematic Interviews

I have now put this framework into my first ever online course. It is a to-the-point course that will give you the information you need to make great looking interviews - and nothing more. No jabbering on for hours and hours, just direct instruction to get you back out shooting and making beautiful images.

Check out The 10 Steps To Cinematic Interviews today and use code: CURRENSUBSCRIBER30 at checkout to get 30% off!

The course will only be available until December 2 at 11:55pm EST, so make sure you enroll before then!

Use code: CURRENSUBSCRIBER30 at checkout to get 30%!

Let’s make some great looking work together,

• Curren

P.S.

If you know of anyone who you think would love to enhance their own skillset, especially in documentary cinematography, feel free to forward them this email.

And please let me know what you’re working on - would love to see some of my reader’s work!